gris1969

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1100.00 from Alma Hi-Fi

Summary:
Has lots of power but has let me down twice. The first time was right when I first powered it up. A small mushroom clowd of smoke rolled off the unit as it fried because of a bad cap. Adcom fixed it and about 5 years later 2 channels stopped working and I getting pretty upset. It cost me $450 to have fixed. I have a SAE MK2200 that is 30 years old and I beat the crap out of that still works like a charm. I used the SAE for parties up at school all the time and it never let me down. I don't think I will ever buy another Adcom again.

Strengths:
Power

Weaknesses:
Reliability

Price Paid:  $1300.00 from Local Audio Store

Summary:
Solid unit. Sound quality approaches the highest end of multi-channel amps.

Strengths:
Sound quality. Reliability. THX certification.

Weaknesses:
Plain black.

Similar Products Used:
Sunfire, Rotel, B&K, Classe'

Price Paid:  $600.00 from private sale

Summary:
First I would like to say that this amp is givven alot of bad press from other reviewers here. It is a true pain in the arse to change fuses if you happend to short the posts by accident. Now for the good side. Any amp will sound crappy if you dont put it with the right system. This is the system that I use to demo amps. Pre/Pro EAD Encore Source Upsampled cd's to 24 bit/192khz with a dac Vonschweikert Audio VR-2100 speakers For reference I pinned it against the Musical Fidelity A3-cr (obsurdly unfair) It held it's own very nicely. Excelent dynamics and detail, with pinpoint imaging and soundstage. Overall tonal quality left only a microscopic amount to be desired. No it isn't as smooth as spectral monoblocks but it is also 14k cheaper. For home theater it is the best I have ever heard. I also drug out a Krell KAV-250 from a local dealer. It spanked the krell up one side and down the other. The krell sounded electric, like a pro audio amp. The krell also couldn't image nearly as well. There are better amps out there that are better for audiophile 2ch stuff, but for a home theater system who cares. Then again I have two dedicated systems. Outstanding value!!!!!

Strengths:
Excelent cynamic presentation with excelent imaging and texture.

Weaknesses:
Not quite as smooth as some 5 figure priced amps that I have heard.

Similar Products Used:
everything

Price Paid:  $800.00

Summary:
Bought mine soon after they were introduced. I put purchase price as $800, but I really can't remember what I paid for it. The amp was purchased to start my home theatre setup (which got sidetracked somewhere along the way). It ended up first powering some DIY Dynaudio speakers (Madisound MDY-4's), and sounded wonderful. The Dynaudio's had first been powered by a vintage KA-5500 60wpc Kenwood, but old 'Kenny' just didn't have the 'oomph' to push the ineffecient Dynaudio's. The Dynaudio's are very natural sounding, and the Adcom was a nice match for them, even though I was only using two channels at the time. Not long after that I finished my Heil AMT / Dynaudio 20w75 bi-amp setup. Using two channels of the Adcom to drive the Heil's and two channels to drive the Dynaudio's, I discovered the flaws of the Adcom. The Heil's tend to reveal flaws nicely (or not, depending on your point of view) in the upper frequency areas. The Heil's, driven by the Adcom, displayed a 'brittleness' in the upper regions that was not there when the Heil's were being driven by the Kenwood (or an old Dynaco 120 I tried as a test). Odd, since the Heil's are almost a pure resistive load. I can only say that this must be attributed to the bipolar output devices, and whether or not the brittleness reveals itself may well depend on your speakers. I am now still using the Adcom to drive the low end of the Dynaudio/Heil combo, and hacked my Kenwood to give it preout/main-in connections, and am using the Kenwood amplifier to drive the Heil's. NOW we're cookin' (literally...this amp runs HOT!) Thought I should mention that the Adcom is now driving the MDY-4's as surround speaks, a Vifa MTM as a center channel, and the low end of the Dynaudio/Heil biamp combo. I hear no brittleness from the center or surrounds driven by the Adcom, so maybe some setups are touchy. Should note that I lost one channel earlier this summer (output transistor bit the dust). Local place fixed it no problem, for $90. Amp has been pushed for years, so I should not be suprised, but still, none of my old 70's gear has EVER failed, so I was a bit disappointed to see my most expensve piece bite the dust.

Strengths:
Excellent sound with the right speaker combinations. Is capable of full output on all channels simultaneously.

Weaknesses:
Funky upper end with the wrong speakers. Runs really, really hot.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz, Sansui, Denon

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Bought this amp with Adcom GTP-830 upgrading from Denon AVR-2700. After first month i am very pleased with this unit. sound quality is a major step up from my Denon, Plenty of dynamic range for movies. have found this amp sounds great for music. am very satisfied.

Strengths:
Sound, power, dynamic headroom.

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Denon, Marantz, Nad