General opinion about ADCOM amplifiers


I was just curious to get everyone's take on ADCOM

I want to upgrade from a reciever to an amp/pre-amp for HT.

I have been looking into Nohr's Le Amp and Le amp 2, i see stuff on the web that says these can go toe to toe with $2000+ Bryston amps, however, im a firm believer that you get what you pay for.

So ive also been looking at ADCOM, there are alot of inexpencive ADCOM amplifiers in the classified.
Ive seen 150w per ch for under $1000, which is kinda the area im aiming for. unfortunatly, money is a limitation.

I know alot of people here have had Adcom and i am curious to see what he general opinion of these amplifiers is. Ive seen them at high mid-end / low high-end retailers but never heard them.

My reciever can double as a pre-amp for 5 channels, which is what i will be using untill i get a good pre-amp with 7.1, then i want to run a couple real good solid powerful monoblocks to the fronts and use the 5ch amp for the rest.
Eventually, those front speakers and the monoblocks will get slowly released from the HT and converted to a 2chan setup.

opinions on adcom? Good value for the money? Over rated? reliable? do they break down?

i got some good stuff, but this reciever part is killing me. It sounds GREAT until you apply any heavy volume, then the amplifier in the reciever loses control and things start to distort. Ugh. Yuck
audiophanatik

Showing 1 response by foobagger

Adcom 5802 is my best value purchase to date. < $900 on ebay, in pristine shape. I have no experience with modern high-end stuff, so can't debate inaudible subtleties with anyone, but comparing to the Denon AVR-3803 receiver I had been using with my Maggies: piano used to clank, now piano sings. Sweet, natural, open, refined all come to mind. A great match for Maggies. I have a sub, so amp only boosts frequencies above 60Hz, but from what I've read, it excels in deep bass.
Runs hot and no trigger on/off are two most significant issues to consider. Also size and weight.

This amp is really a great bargain. It makes a big difference in my system.