Quote Originally Posted by 02audionoob
I bought an Adcom GFA-555II amp in an online auction from a seller with a perfect feedback history. His auction said the amp works flawlessly. I received it and it doesn't work. Given the seller's history, I trust that it worked last time he tried it.

But it doesn't work, now. The red light doesn't come on. No sound is produced. After turning off the power switch, there's a bit of a sputter played through the speakers. This seems somewhat normal. My Adcom GFA-535 used to do that and it worked fine the whole time I had it. The GFA-545II in my present system does not do this, though. There are 5 fuses accessible from the back and they all check out good. The amp was well-packed and the box did not suffer any damage in transit.

Any ideas about what may be the problem?

First I owned a GFA-555II for a while and find it a very nice sounding and, of course, quite powerful. Were yours working I'm quite sure you'd enjoy it.

You should immediately contact the seller to see if he will take the amp back. However this will depend on the terms of sale: if the amp was sold as-is, or explicitly with no waranty, then you might be out of luck. Atlhough if you paid using PayPal you might have some additional recourse -- check that out: you might have a claim on the basis that the item was "not as described".

Sometimes shipping a component seems to do it in. I sold an Adcom GFP-750 preamp that was working fine when I packed it. When my buyer got it, it wasn't working apparently because the power supply had failed. I had sold the unit under the terms that there was no warranty and the buyer assumed the shipping risk, so I won't likely have payed in any case. However the buyer didn't immediately mention that the thing wasn't working and ask to return it. Instead he had it repaired at a cost of over $300. Then he was ask me to pay the cost of the repair or a portion of it. Neither I nor any other seller will pay such a claim, so don't try this approach.