Which Amp????

[keithwit1]

I'm currently looking to purchase and Adcom power amp. Which One do you guy's recomend? 200 wpc with .09 THD or one with 125 wpc and .018 THD? please help. Keith

[Florian]

It is impossible to judge any amp based on those specs. There is no "defined" way of measuring and those results have almost no impact on the sonics. Have a listen for yourself and see how you like it.

Good luck

Flo

[keithwit1]

The amps I had in mind were Adcom. GFA 555 or the GFA 5400. I hope this will help. Keith

[pelly3s]

What speakers do you have

[dean_martin]

check out the reviews here at AR. I think there are over 30 reviews for each amp. The 555 seems to be a well-respected amp thanks in part to Stereophile magazine ranking it as one of the top 100 components over the last 40 years or so. I think this was mainly due to its loads of power eventhough some of the lower rated amps in the the series like the 545 and 535 may sound cleaner.

If you have power hungry speakers and a smooth front end (like a tube preamp or really nice cdp) then the 555 may be just right. If you have easy to drive speakers and neutral to "bright" frontend then the 5400 may be the best match.

If you're looking to add the amp to a system that's mostly for movies I'm not sure it would matter that much unless you need the extra power of the 555.

[keithwit1]

Speakers are Polk RT i8 and a energy 10 sub.

[keithwit1]

Reciever is Yamaha RX v-2500

[pelly3s]

I would go with the GFA-555 a little extra power in that case is always nice.

[Mr Peabody]

I bought an Adcom 450 preamp and 5400 power amp (125wpc) a few years back. I actually had the 5400 and 5500 in my home and listened to them drive a pair of Dynaudio 60's using the gfp450. The 5500 (220 wpc) did sound better and had more output devices, it was a better amp. OK, you are wondering if the 5500 was better why did he buy the 5400, well the Adcom was for a second system in a workout room where I'd be listening to mostly hard rock or pop and the 5400 had enough power at 125 wpc and it has a slight bass hump in it's response that helped those poor rock recordings. So essentually I bought the 5400 because it wasn't as accurate. The 5500 had better bass control which yielded improved detail in that area. If I was buying for serious listening the 5500 would have been my choice.

[Newfiestang50]

I used to own the Adcom GFA 555ii and used it to drive a pair of PSB Stratus Gold i's (4 ohm) which are pretty power hungry. I sold the adcom for that reason, it just couldn't power them, i then purchased the NAD C372 conservitively rated at 150 watts per ch and found a major difference in performance. The C372 and the matching C272 are very underrated as far as i am concerned, if you already have a pre amp i would suggest having a listen to the C272, you wont be dissappointed. Just my 2 cents.