Recommendation needed related to Adcom gear

[Lex vs Kingpin]

Hello,
First post in the forums!

I was googling an adcom amp and found this forum. It seems like a really active forum and hopefully I will hang around

After a welcome message, let me get back to business! I am planning to buy some Adcom gear from a local seller, but have no idea of quality, reliability, sound, and pricing of these parts.

Even tough I checked several ebay prices, if you can give me some advice I will greatly appreciate the help.

Related gear is:

Adcom GCD-700 5-disc cd changer
Adcom GFP-555 preamp
Adcom GFA-5800 ss power amp

First of all, I believe the fair market value of all parts would be around $800 (give or take 10%) - am I way off? This is really important for me.

And secondly, do you think I can find better products for $800 (including a cd player, preamp, and an amp) - can be used or new?

I have (please don't laugh) sound dynamics RTS3 speakers and perhaps in a year or so I can invest some $$ to upgrade them.

Thanks in advance,
Onur


PS: experienced adcom users, if you can give me some hints what to check, it would be great (i.e., what to look for - like cd tray, hiss sound, etc.)

[Nelson Pass]

Personally, I think the 5800 is the best power amp Adcom made.

[Stefano]

Originally posted by Nelson Pass
Personally, I think the 5800 is the best power amp Adcom made.

Even taking account of the 5802?

[K-amps]

I have not heard good things about the GFP-555. The GFP-565 and the GFP-555ii were better.

I have heard the 5800 and I agree it is among the best Adcoms (I have heard) along with the GFA-545ii/535ii. I have also owned a 5802, and thought it smeared the HF a little.

[monologuist]

Originally posted by Nelson Pass
Personally, I think the 5800 is the best power amp Adcom made.

Mr.Pass,
It's interesting to hear that you still hold this amp in high regard. Adcoms have unfairly been met with contempt by audiophiles, it seems, perhaps out of ignorance of the disparity in designs from one model to another. For instance, I often read people claiming that adcoms in general are "harsh or bright", which might be the case with some models, but definitely not the 5800 for instance.

I have been enjoying my GFA-5800 for the better part of 10 years. I have a pair of PMC LB-1 monitors, speakers that have a very liquid top end, are 4 ohm, and power handling rated at 60-250W, which is obviously a huge range, but they are most often found in recording studios and mastering labs, so they are used at many different levels of volume. I am using these speakers as near-field monitors for engineering purposes, and I'm wondering if you think the 5800 would be a suitable match with such a speaker for such an application. My concern is that the liquid, "tube-like" quality of the 5800 would perhaps not be a good mate with a speaker also known for such qualities. Also since I am aiming for the highest possible level of accuracy, neutrality, I wonder if the 5800 would be "too smooth" to this end.

Additionally, do you think an amp such as the old Aleph 0s would be up to the task of powering these PMC's....I know it is only rated at around 40 wpc, but how much real-world difference in clean output will there betwen an Aleph 0s and the 5800? Are the Alephs a good choice for studio monitoring?

Finally, I'd love to hear you opinion on the 5800 and how it stands compared to the amps you've designed that you hold in the highest regard overall, and how it stands compared to the most modern offerings available today generally at a similar price point to where the 5800 was (say 1-2k$).

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[RobertHaze]

The 5802 uses a quasi-complementary output stage with lean bias so it runs cool with smaller heatsinks.
The 5800 is fully complementary and the output devices are biased hot enough to require large fan cooled heatsinks. I have heard that it runs in Class-A bias for the first watt of output but this has never been confirmed.