high current,soundstage,extemely quick and detailed,have 2
bridged as monoblocks @ 600 watts minimum,awesome power

maybe too inexpensive

i have 2 of these amps bridged as monoblocks, very detailed and very fast, just awesome bass, very clear and unmuddied,
they are absolutely dead quiet during detailed musical
passages. bought these thru reliable ebayers as mint in box
items at 475 per amp,as close to the tube i have found with 10 times the power. a steal if you can find a near mint one.
heavy dutym high current with gobs of headroom, no substitute for high power, and does anyone need more than 600 per channel??? go get 2 today you will be impressed!!!

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carver, yamaha, phase linear, theshold, aucoustic research

Power,

not incredibly "sweet"

While it's true this isn't an especialy sweet amp, there is an old saying-power breads clarity. With this amp you get lots of high current power. Notice that the amp almost doubles in power at 4 ohms..this is a sign of ultra high current.

I think the amp is about perfect for its price point. If you think its "hard" etc-your equipment most probably merits a MUCH better amp-Audio Research, Krell, Mark Levinson, etc. Also this amp will reveal a bad preamp and or source components. I wonder how many people read in a review that this amp has a hard treblr, and now think they hear this when they hear their own digital front end? This amp has kept up with my system (gfp555II preamp, Cal Audio deltra drvie transport, PS AUDIO superlink DAC, Ariston Icon II turntablw w/sumiko blue pt, Martin Logan Aerius i, M&K v-100 sub, and Esoteric Audio cables, and STILL is not the weak link.

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many-I used to sell audio equpiment

Brawny construction. Reputable brand.

Annoying clicks & pops when powering on/off. Not the level of detail I would expect from all of the rave reviews. Wimpy warranty. Prone to humming

Totally disappointed. I sold it after three years of use.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom 5400, NAD 218THX, GFA 6000, Carver TFM 35X

Awesome power with good transparency, able to drive the most difficult speakers.

May be not as detailed as those really expensive types; but what the hell!

Have these babies for 8 yrs now and it still is going strong and steady, I find it to have a clear and straight-forward sound that suits most types of music. With 200W, you can be sure that there is enough "bottom" to drive those large classical overtures! Get them while you can; really good value for the money!

A decent solid state amp from 8 years ago. Dry, white sound, somewhat forward with little depth. No serious gross distortion an may be better than some stereophile class c amps of today. Cymbals were a bit "tishy" and emphasized sibilants on some vocals. Alive and forward sound though. Wagnerian brass choirs very impressive and piano good too. I used with the Adcom gfp565 preamp so some of the "nasties" may have been from that. All in all worth $400-500 in decent condition if you like it loud with great bass.

COOL LOOKING PIECE....SOUNDS GREAT.I USE GFA-555mkII WITH MY YAMAHA RX-V890 (AS THE PRE-AMP.)......AND USE THE MARANTZ CD-67SE, & B&W DM604 SPEAKERS.......REALLY COOL.......

tons of power, tight punchy low end

harsh highs, not as transparent

I have 2 of these amps and I love one and the other is for sale. One of them I use to drive 2 home built subs with the NHT 1259 driver I bought from Madisound. I love this amp. It drives my subs awesome. the problem is the other amp which until recently I drove my mains, NHT Supertwos. While using a friends new Integra reciever as a preamp, we compared the Adcom with my Rotel RB 956 AX, which is a 6 channel 40 watt amp. I had this amp in a 3 x 100 watt bridged mode and compared the two. The Rotel blew away the adcom in the high end and mid range, both were smooth, even at high volumes. Then we used my McIntosh integrated amp, MA 5100 from 1972 as another reference. Clearly the Rotel sounded the closest to the McIntosh and I am very pleased with it. If you need power or are driving subs, buy the Adcom, if you are looking for the details, go somewhere else.

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Adcom 545, Adcom 535, Rotel amps

Dynamic range in bridged mode

slight hum

I just purchased a used second unit and I now have one bridged amp for each channel. It makes a big difference in overall dynamics of the music. There is much more punch and impact with percussion in particular. Individual instruments leap from the speakers. Everything sounds less strained. The only weakness is a slight hum in the system when it is real quiet, a byproduct of the tremendous amount of power available I think (600W/ch). This is not recommended if you have small children in the house that could crank the volume by mistake.
Used GFA-555IIs can be found in the marketplace for around 400. Highly recommended, just be very careful with the volume control in bridged mode or you will send your speaker drivers into orbit.

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Yamaha

If you can get one cheap on the used market.....it's a worthy upgrade from mid-fi....but not such a big leap forward. May i suggest the following tweaks.....which has raised this from an "ok" amp to a "wow" amp in my system.........solder all the internal "clip on" type connections......get rid of those rubber feet, replace with cones, dampen the top with something (eg: sandbag)....the top is very resonant (tap on it)..........finally, upgrade that shitty power cord........get a shielded hospital grade......and yes, ac plug orientation does affect the sound...........find the right one.....results: better resolution, depper bass..........

This is a repair technician's viewpoint. I just wanted to mentionthat I've worked on a few of these and they're pretty nicely-made
and not hard to repair. They don't seem as prone to catastrophic
output stage failure as many other basic solid state power amps. I
like the semi-modular mechanical layout of the power amp and driver
sections which make them very easy to repair. The distortion spec on
the units I've tested has been quite respectable. This amp turns up
on the second-hand market pretty often... It's a good deal.