Anyone love/hate ADCOM here?

[harley .guy07]

A little anecdote...I went over to a craigslist seller's house to audition his speakers and he let me bring my own amp. When I got there I saw he had a Rotel amp...don't know which model...it was what he had been using to run the speakers I was considering. He hooked up my Adcom and we listened to various CDs of his and mine and guess what...he seemed to like my Adcom better than his Rotel.

I ran into that all the time with these two brands when I sold them. Most often it would go Adcoms way and The owner and I also agreed with most of our customers on this.

[manlystanley]

I think you will be glad you lucked onto separates when all is set. You should try to add a center speaker next.

You are so correct. I'll also make sure not to get a cheap one. I bought a Jamo off of E-bay for $50. It was really a good deal. But, I was robbed. It's sitting in my storage area collecting dust. If anyone wants it, come on by.

Best Regards,
Stan

[manlystanley]

Do you think you could hop on this?

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....ulti-channel-p

I did. It's marked as still for sale, but it's sold. Three people I've contacted at audiogon said that there equipment was already sold, but forgot to take the ad down. I'll keep looking.

Best Regards,
Stan

[manlystanley]

That's a bummer. You might want to consider looking at www.emotiva.com I'm not sure what their processor sells for but they are known for providing decent quality gear for a decent price. Several of the guys here have their power amps and say they are beasts.

Thanks! I'll check it out!

Best Regards,
Stan

[frenchmon]

That's a bummer. You might want to consider looking at www.emotiva.com I'm not sure what their processor sells for but they are known for providing decent quality gear for a decent price. Several of the guys here have their power amps and say they are beasts. One guy whose opinion I respect prefers the Emotiva stereo amp to either of his Adcom or Rotel. I hate to give them a sell job without any experience first hand with it but I also hate to see some one done dirty like that too. Emo gives a 30 day trial and it may be a way to get into separates without a 2nd mortgage.

I definitely thought my 5400 had a bass hump but that's why I bought it for use in my 2nd system where I'd be playing mostly Rock & Pop for working out. The hump just gave it a full sound though it wasn't bloated or lacking definition. My 5500 is better balanced but still has a much stronger bottom end than I've ever heard from Rotel. To me Rotel is too laid back but if you don't notice that yourself the sound is pleasant. I think for home theater the more powerful sound of Adcom may be better. As Frenchmon says though, it's all subjective. Sometimes we are willing to overlook some weakness in one area to allow us to enjoy something we prefer in another area.

Perhaps that is why I like the Rotel better. I hardly ever blast loud music anymore and my taste is mostly Jazz and some classical. While I do Run my Rotel with bookshelf speakers (Canton) in two channel I find they have a very good bottom end....but every once in a while I do power on a sub. For what I listen too I don't need a lot of bass. The Adcom is no way a bad amp. I just fid the Rotel more attractive for my needs in two channel. The Adcom is in my hometheater where its doing a wonderful job.

[harley .guy07]

Perhaps that is why I like the Rotel better. I hardly ever blast loud music anymore and my taste is mostly Jazz and some classical. While I do Run my Rotel with bookshelf speakers (Canton) in two channel I find they have a very good bottom end....but every once in a while I do power on a sub. For what I listen too I don't need a lot of bass. The Adcom is no way a bad amp. I just fid the Rotel more attractive for my needs in two channel. The Adcom is in my hometheater where its doing a wonderful job.

Rotel is a very good product and we never had problems with them when I sold them. Most of the time when we auditioned amps we ran bigger floorstanding speakers and the Rotel and Adcom both sounded wonderful doing this duty. And my opinion is just that, a opinion on what I heard when we auditioned these brands. With different setups and speakers the Rotel Amps might edge out in some ways but I think there are too many facters other than the amps themselves that can give one an edge over the other. And since everyones ears are different that is also a consideration when listening to systems. I guess thats one reason there are so many different types of components out there.

[nightflier]

If I could add another + to the Adcom camp, I've purchased and resold many Adcom amps and preamps and shipping/packing isn't on every seller's list of priorities. So I've had to have several repaired. What I can say about Adcom is that their service department and the local service centers that I've used, have all been excellent. Parts quality inside the amps has also been impressive and fairly standard fare so that servicing them has been relatively painless. In contrast, while NAD's service reps are great, they have some horrible service centers and don't seem to take as much interest in keeping track of this. Don't know about Rotel, but I have heard that they don't have as many authorized service centers as Adcom or NAD.

As someone who also considers himself a bargain hunter, I would also recommend looking at some of the smaller manufacturers and those that sell strictly online. Someone mentioned Emotiva, but there's also SVS, Benchmark, Axiom, Magnepan, PS Audio, Hsu, Outlaw, Channel Islands, Nohr, Odyssey Audio, Oppo, and a whole list of others who typically offer much more bang for the buck and great service to boot, than the big guys. I've recently been struggling with a pre/pro from Outlaw, but I think my situation is rather unique, because most of the reviews online have been excellent on service and quality. They are currently blowing out their flagship 970 because there's a new model coming soon, but that is an excellently reviewed and popular alternative to the Adcom you were considering. Their amps are also pretty good - they have several models to choose from - and they also offer b-stock with the same warranty and their new models.

Another two companies I think you should take a good look at are Anthem and Bryston. The latter offers a 20 year transferable warranty on their highly-regarded amps and will typically support their products well beyond that too. Anthem makes some of the best reviewed pre/pros on the market, and I just saw an AVM-20 sell for a hair over $400 on eBay. Their used prices tend to be comparable to what you're looking for and would certainly be on par, or even superior to Adcom, Rotel, or NAD.

[Mr Peabody]

Anthem is an excellent processor but when looking at the AVM20 it is not up to date with the latest technology. This will be a real consideration when buying a processor what video and audio connections do you want. If one is happy with Component video for HD and switching, and can get a Blu-ray player with built in decoding, it's pretty much a buyer's market and dirt cheap. If wanting the latest technology, it will cost. For example the AVM-20 was a $3k processor.

Although Adcom is good, it isn't Bryston, you just raised the bar, quite a bit in my opinion. Bryston is in another league from what we've been discussing. As far as that goes there have been some very good prices I've seen on older Krell 5-channel amps and some Conrad Johnson 5-channel. But even used these class of quality amps are quite a bit more than what you'd pay for an Adcom or Rotel.

[manlystanley]

You guys are great!! I really like the idea of getting an Anthem AVM20. My DVD player (Denon 3930ci) has really good component video, but since my projector does not support component I just run the HDMI directly to it. The player itself support lip synch (audio delay).

Some of the reviews said that the AVM20 was great at movies but not so good for 2-channel listening. What do you guys think?

I looked around and the AVM20's are going for $500 - $900. I'll continue to sniff around. Also, I looked into Bryston and look great to. I've got a low ball bid ($76) in on a Anthem TLP-1 with 5 days to go. Minimal odds of getting it, but who knows.

[nightflier]

Outlaw was running a special of $299 for their Model 970 pre/pro. It has DVI instead of HDMI, but an adapter can be used. At that price-point I think it's the least expensive pre/pro available. You might want to give them a call and see if you can still get that deal - they are very welcoming to new customers.

As Mr. P said, the Anthem AVM-20 maxes out a component video, but I certainly would not say that sound processing is its weak point. On the contrary, Anthem tends to shine in that area. If you can score one of these for under $500, that would be an incredible bargain. The TLP-1 at $76 would be another great bargain - they're still selling for around $300 on eBay.

My reason for bringing up Bryston is because of their excellent longevity. You can literally buy a 15-year old amp and still have 5 years of warranty (more than most new amps) left on it. And a 10-15 year old Bryston would certainly be in your price range. And yes, they are a notch above Adcom and NAD.

Check out some of the other smaller manufacturers and online dealers as well. They are very competitive with the big guys. I'm a big fan of SVS, Odyssey, Magnepan, and PS Audio, but there are many others.

[Mr Peabody]

I heard the AVM20 with a matching Anthem amp through Paradigm Studio something. Movies were impressive. The little music I heard was very good, my only criticism was I thought the bass could be stronger. But that could be from a number of things, I'm not sure how punchy Anthem's amps are and it was a large room. And who knows they may have even have a setting wrong to where the crossover was still on or the sub not engaged. If the features work for you the AVM20 would out perform the Adcom preamp in my opinion.

[manlystanley]

Mr P. frenchmon, harley, Nightfier and many others,
Great suggestions. You have given me plenty of information and so
I'm going starting to look for some good deals. As you suggested, I'm
looking for an: Anthem, Bryston, SVS, Odyssey, Magnepan, and PS Audio.

I'm particularly looking hard for a Anthem AVM20, as that does sound
like a great idea. I'll make sure to check back and tell you what I
find.

I've owned my H/K PM655 for about 3 months and while it's 20+ years
old, it sounds increasable! It only cost $35 but I had to do a lot of
work on it. It did have a new problem of a collapsing sound stage and
this new problem was what started my search for something new. But,
for the past few weeks it's worked like a champ, so I'm not in a big
rush now.

Thanks again for your expert help! I'll try to return the favor on
this forum.

Best Regards,
Stan

[manlystanley]

I wanted to pass off to you guys (for what it's worth) what I've found out so far in my quest for musical nirvana (via a cheap budget).

1.) Ebay is great: I am constantly one of the low ball bidders who get pushed out. But, hey it's kind of fun being in the lead for the first 3 days.

2.) What I've bid on and what they have sold for (minus shipping):
- Anthem TLP-1: Sold for $315.00
- Adcom GTP-600 (without a remote): $64
- Adcom GTP-870HD $680

I've got my chips in a few other deals and we'll see how they work out. Anyways, it's kind of fun trying to do this on the cheap.

Best Regards,
Stan

[Mr Peabody]

Have you browsed www.audiogon.com for good deals? No bidding, on classifieds, if you see a good deal just contact the seller to see if a deal can be put together.

A word of caution on older processors, not all may be compatible with HD even though they have component video. Component has been around a long time because it is the better video connection, aside from HDMI, but it was later when HDTV became big that the processors began to include the bandwidth to accomodate HD video. So maybe try to stay within the last 3 or so generations or find some info on your perspective purchase to see if the video circuitry is addressed.

[manlystanley]

Have you browsed www.audiogon.com for good deals? No bidding, on classifieds, if you see a good deal just contact the seller to see if a deal can be put together.

A word of caution on older processors, not all may be compatible with HD even though they have component video. Component has been around a long time because it is the better video connection, aside from HDMI, but it was later when HDTV became big that the processors began to include the bandwidth to accomodate HD video. So maybe try to stay within the last 3 or so generations or find some info on your perspective purchase to see if the video circuitry is addressed.

Hello Mr. P,
Again, some great advice. I'm in a mode of: "what I have is good enough for now", but if something great came along I'd jump at it". So, I'm learning from more experienced people like yourself and testing the waters at both ebay, and audiogon. Nothing has come up yet, but I'm not in a huge rush....but if my H/K PM 655 finally gives up the ghost, then I'll need to do something.

... Long delay........

....Ekk.. My basement tenant just came and told me that "her ceiling is raining". It turned out that my youngest (almost 6 years old) was washing dishes in the kitchen and pouring water all over everything. This is the same daughter who took off all her cloths and covered herself head to foot with petroleum jelly......then climbed on top of my B&W 684's and was jumping off of them....etc....... Maybe I'll hold off on new stereo stuff for a while....


Best Regards,
Stan

[Mr Peabody]

Whooo, has the young one been watching too many super heroes.