Price Paid:  $400.00 from ebay

Summary:
My neighbors hate them. My cat fears them. My girlfriend doesn't understand them. My roommates love them. For pure go-screw-yourself power, they can't be beat and yet they manage to pull it off without compromising quality, musicality or transparency. You can always buy a better sounding amp, but that little extra is going to cost you more and more. The adcom 565's just about maximize the return-to-cost ratio. By the way that's $400 each or $800 a pair. Recently they've been running about $1000 a pair on Ebay.

Strengths:
Looks like the monolith from 2001
Stable at ONE OHM!!!
cheap and musical

Weaknesses:
Weighs roughly 2 metric tons
eats up rack space

Similar Products Used:
Bryston b&K dennon

Price Paid:  $899.00 from e-Bay

Summary:
I'm afraid that I can't do one of those reviews where I compare these amplifiers to ones costing two and three times as much, just because I haven't heard those, yet. But, I certainly can favorably comment on these amplifiers.
These were a huge improvement over the amplifer they replaced, a Yamaha B-2X. That's a pretty old amplifier, and some of you may not be familiar with, but it put out 175 watts of Class A power. The output on the Adcoms is 300 watts, and they switch over to class AB somewhere around the middle of that. Don't know where. But although the power is there and it is important, the story is not the power, but the sound. So sweet. The biggest improvements are in things like clarity, transparency, and detail.
There is a old window pane theory. Each component in a system is like a window pane. If you stack a bunch of dirty panes together, it becomes very difficulty to see through them. If you have a bunch of clean panes, it is very easy to see through a stack of them.
The Adcom is a very clean window pane. It allows detail to come throught superbly. There are nuances of sound that I have just not heard before. For example, about two minutes into Gustav Holst's "Uranus", from The Planets, I was briefly mystified by a slight noise I heard during a relatively quick passage. It was a number of musicians in the orchestra turning pages! Never heard that before. And I have listened to this work countless times, on LP, on CD, and on SACD. Well, that's not even a great example; that's just noise. As I was listening to Erik Brann's guitar work on The Iron Butterfly's "In-a-gadda-da-vida", the realization leaped out that he was using a plastic pick. I mean, you could hear that. Listening to Diana Krall's voice on "The Look of Love", I could hear the little blonde hairs on her upper lip. I think. There is just an incredible amount of detail to be heard. The Adcoms don't mask any of it; they let it all through.
If you can find a pair of these on the used market, you should grab them at once.
My system:
Sony SCD-1 SACD Player
Pro-Ject Perspective Turntable
Sumiko Blue Point Special Phono Cartridge
Adcom GFP 565 Pre Amplifier
B&W Nautilus 804 Speakers
Adcom ACE 515 Line Enhancer
Monster Cable M1000i interconnects

Strengths:
Awesome power. These things have the ability to really play. They seem to be in absolute total control. Bass is very clean and sharp. They have the ability to quickly punch out a very powerful sound.
I'm not enough of an engineer to really describe this, but I think this is what is called transient response. They are super fast, and clean.

Weaknesses:
One definite weakness, and I really hate to say this about a product that I like, but these things are really butt ugly. I really like Adcom stuff, at least sonically, but they are just beastly looking black boxes. One reviewer called them black beauties. Yeah, well they are black.
Another possible perceived weakness might be the lack of balanced inputs. If you really feel that you need this feature, however, the Adcoms can be retrofitted. They will have to go back to Adcom in New Jersey, but if you really want balanced inputs, you can have them.
Neither of these factors entered in my buying decisions, nor do I include these factors in my rating.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha A1020 Integrated Amplifier
Yamaha B-2X Power Amplifier
Adcom GFA 535 Power Amplifier

Price Paid:  $0.00 from ebay

Summary:
This is a review of the 585 limtied edition.Basically the equal to a pair of 565 monoblocks.My first experience with some Adcom 5000 series weren't that great.They were grainy and sounded harsh.But the 500 series Adcoms have changed the way I look at these amps.These are true jems when mated to the right pair of speakers.Because of the high current I do not recommend using these with sensitive speakers.They do better with medium to low impedance speakers. I'am using it with a pair of Maggies and a Dared SL-2000a tube preamp. This amp runs at idle with these speakers.It never gets any warmer whether I'am playing music or not.My first impressions are smooth ,detailed and grain free.The 585 has so much control and freq bandwith it lets every nuances come thru.

For example while listening to Eric Claptons unplugged cd.I can hear the depth of the hall and the echoes off the walls as people shout and scream.I 've had more expensive amps that were all great in one way or another.The 585LE is no exception.The price these amps go for on the used market are a steal.I can't think of any amp under $2000.00 used that has the control and current of one of these.

But because of the Adcom name some audiophiles over look these amplifiers.Not knowing just how high quality they really are.I've figured to replace this amps performance with another amp it would cost me multi thousands of dollars.And I'am not about to pay that for a name!

Bass is tight and well balanced.Thanks to the tube preamp on the front .I can get the air on the cymbals and the bloom of the midrange without giving up control in other areas!If you see one snatch it up..I guarantee you want find a better high current amplifier for the money!

Strengths:
Highs are smooth and life like
Bass is as tight as it's going to get
Midrange is open and airy with the proper preamp.Highs are no fatiguing and clean.

Weaknesses:
Because of the high current the 585 is an open door to ac noise in the house.So a power conditioner is a must to really hear how well these amps are designed.

Similar Products Used:
Adcom 5500,5503,Mcintosh 7106,Music Reference RM9 mk2,Monarchy,Dynaco,Berning

Price Paid:  $225.00 from ebay

Summary:
I've been using a single 565 as my subwoofer amplifier now for almost a year.

I'm running an Alón sw1 passive subwoofer--plays as deep as Bag End, as fast as REL.

With those qualities stemming from its twin isobaric-mount 12" bass drivers, it's a bear to drive; it shows the amp a 2 ohm load, and requires massive amounts of power to reach its true potential. I'd been using my old RBH SAM-200 as my sub amplifier. It puts out almost 300 watts to 2 ohms, and is suitable for all but the most demanding high-volume, bass-intensive passages.

Very hard to clip it listening to movies at normal, wake-up-the-neighbors volume levels. But I wanted heart-attack levels, so I went looking for a monoblock that could be a cool customer driving a 2-ohm speaker to high levels.

I looked at products from Aragon, Krell, etc. and found that you have to spend yourself into the poor house to get 700 watts at 2 ohms. That's when I found this single Adcom for sale on ebay.

$225 later, I was in bass heaven. If you've been contemplating a passive sub, I can tell you this: amp upgradability is one of the most pleasing aspects of passive subs. I've used three different amps with this subwoofer, and have noticed a quantum leap in performance with each upgrade--and haven't had to replace the sub.

If you get the best passive subwoofer you can find, then you can upgrade your amplification as you can afford it and not have to worry about replacing the speaker.

I'm now driving my sub to its full capacity with clean, clear power. When you've got a more capable speaker than 99% of all the subs out there, and upgrade to a more capable amp than 99% of all the subs out there have, well...

I'd say I won't be upgrading this amp. I'm happy. If it breaks, I'll go on the prowl for another Adcom 565. For the price of a single in the used market, I simply cannot find anything better.

By the way, I paid $480 for the speaker, so the combined price of this subwoofer combination is a hair over $700, plus the price of having no independent gain, phase and crossover adjustment. I find that the sub out on my theater processor works just fine as a preamp, with plenty of volume control from the remote.

Strengths:
Tremendous current capacity and power reserve. Even near its limit, sounds like there's lots left.

Weaknesses:
Very large.

Similar Products Used:
RBH SAM-200

Price Paid:  $1600.00 from Electronic Creations

Summary:
Have been using these amps for twelve years plus driving a pair of Mirage M3-Si's, through Adcom GFP-565 preamp and Audio Quest Sapphire interconnects and clear Hyperlitz speaker cable. Had a failure of the woofer in one cabinet the other day and the amp just continued to burn the winding out of the speaker,till it caught fire. Amp got very warm and had noticed some popping and hissing through speakers,prior to his episode. Returned the amps to Affiliated in Jersey for service.

Strengths:
Excellent amp for the money, clean 300 watts plus of power into 8 ohms.

Weaknesses:
SIZE, even after twelve years, my wife still wants to know why they have to be so grand placed in the living room, of course the Mirage's don't help either!

Similar Products Used:
Phase Linear 400
Phase Linear 700