new Adcom 555SE

[harley .guy07]

I went to Adcoms website the other day and was looking around at the newer products they offered plus I downloaded a owners manual for my amp since it seemed to have disapeared and noticed that they have came out with a new version of the 555 II that was out in the early 90's. the website says that they have made modifications and have improved on this amp quite a bit. I liked the origional series 2 555 amp and worked with it quite a bit back when I worked in the audio world but when I first found out that they had came back out with this amp I wondered two things. Is this a legit improvement over the origional that is worth what they are charging for it compaired to a good used 555 II or this Adcoms attempt at selling alot of amps seeing that their current products arent selling like their previous stuff. What do you guys think, have you heard one and can tell this amp apart from the origional or is this just a reissue with the same sound.

[Feanor]

I went to Adcoms website the other day and was looking around at the newer products they offered plus I downloaded a owners manual for my amp since it seemed to have disapeared and noticed that they have came out with a new version of the 555 II that was out in the early 90's. the website says that they have made modifications and have improved on this amp quite a bit. I liked the origional series 2 555 amp and worked with it quite a bit back when I worked in the audio world but when I first found out that they had came back out with this amp I wondered two things. Is this a legit improvement over the origional that is worth what they are charging for it compaired to a good used 555 II or this Adcoms attempt at selling alot of amps seeing that their current products arent selling like their previous stuff. What do you guys think, have you heard one and can tell this amp apart from the origional or is this just a reissue with the same sound.

I owned GFA 555II myself for a brief time and found it a find sounding amp, slightly warm, a tad "dark", no top end glare. Not really high-end in resolution but not bad. It certainly clobbered the NAD C270 I owned before it.

A lot of people really liked the 555II which is why Adcom revived it I'd guess. That is, I think the new 555SE is a legit produce and might well have some improvements over the original, though they aren't necessarily huge. On the other hand you can buy an original 555II for around US$400 at which price it's defnitely a bargain.

[harley .guy07]

Yeah I think they are wanting something like 1300 bucks for a new 555 se so In my opinion the upgrades better be substantial for that kind of money compared to finding the origional series 2 amp in great condition for under half that price. I love Adcom stuff because for the given price point there is not much out there that performs as well in my opinion. But I don't think that they are what they once were, But I heard that they are under new management so maybe they will surprise me.