Thanks for the kind words. I know that i come across as an "opinionated bastard" many times ( and i am ), but i'm glad to see that some folks understand that i'm doing what i can to help others. Hopefully, folks will realize that others may have similar or contrasting points of view / experiences and decide for themselves via their own ears and experience as to what will work best for them. Nobody can tell you what you like better than yourself.
Having said that and if it were my system and i was working on a budget, i would probably pick up another Adcom 535 and look for a more suitable preamp. I suggest this approach for several reasons.
First of all, the 535 is probably one of the two best sounding amps that Adcom has ever made. Not only will you get the benefits of bi-wiring, you'll get the benefits of bi-amping. This approach will double your power capacity, open up the top end, increase midrange liquidity and improve bottom end response and it will do all of this while maintaining the tonal qualities of the system that you are already familiar with. The best part about this is that it will do all of this for an investment of well under $200, which is hard to beat. Since you've already got speaker cables that are capable of bi-wiring, all you would need is another set of interconnects to feed to the second amp.
As far as my suggestion to invest the difference in a more suitable preamp, my experience has been that the Adcom Tuner / Pre's are pretty lacking in sonic performance. These were built as more a matter of convenience and marketing than out-right performance. Going to a better preamp would really let you see what a pair of the little 535's could do in terms of finesse and musicality.
As a side note, you could continue to make use of the tuner in the 500 Mk II or sell that and put those funds towards a good yet inexpensive tuner and possibly some improved cabling. Sean
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Having said that and if it were my system and i was working on a budget, i would probably pick up another Adcom 535 and look for a more suitable preamp. I suggest this approach for several reasons.
First of all, the 535 is probably one of the two best sounding amps that Adcom has ever made. Not only will you get the benefits of bi-wiring, you'll get the benefits of bi-amping. This approach will double your power capacity, open up the top end, increase midrange liquidity and improve bottom end response and it will do all of this while maintaining the tonal qualities of the system that you are already familiar with. The best part about this is that it will do all of this for an investment of well under $200, which is hard to beat. Since you've already got speaker cables that are capable of bi-wiring, all you would need is another set of interconnects to feed to the second amp.
As far as my suggestion to invest the difference in a more suitable preamp, my experience has been that the Adcom Tuner / Pre's are pretty lacking in sonic performance. These were built as more a matter of convenience and marketing than out-right performance. Going to a better preamp would really let you see what a pair of the little 535's could do in terms of finesse and musicality.
As a side note, you could continue to make use of the tuner in the 500 Mk II or sell that and put those funds towards a good yet inexpensive tuner and possibly some improved cabling. Sean
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