B&K vs Adcom – opinions please

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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My post was based on my own personal tastes and experience. My ST140 is one of the first few "iron core" transformer amps that put out 70 WPC hence the moniker ST140. Shortly after, B&K went to a toroid and upped the WPC to 105. The original 535 was rated at 60 WPC but well exceeded that rating. The two amps were very similar in output, but each one did some things dfferently. The little 535 was an amazing product in it's finesse. It made my Magnepan SMGa's really bloom in a small room. With a new retail of 395.00 in early 1988 when I bought it, it was a best buy IMO. My only beef with it were the cheesy speaker connectors. The B&K at 495.00 was also a hell of a deal, very well built but a little more forward sounding, for me, as I stated. I still have 2 of them: the original 70 WPC in my son's system, and the later generation 105 WPC in my second system. I wish to hell I had kept BOTH the 535 and those sweet little SMGa's.

I have the original ST-202 and had it modified shortly after buying it.The sound is totally different than the stock version whereas the forward biasing cleared out the grain or glazed sound that I could really live without.

I had listento the Adcom GFA-555's,I believe they were,and the thing that they exceled at was bass impact,but the mids and high's were to dry for my liking.

I also have an AV-2500II that I am using for 3 channels ,but am not as impressed with it's performance.That being said I will also have it modified and might try a vertical amp setup using modified B&K's.

Here is a better way to go, pick up a Classe CA-100 amp for around $650 and Classe CP-35 for $400At about a $1000 this would be more musical than any Adcom or B&K could ever be! and for a few hundred more you could get a Classe CA200! check it outGood Luck

Do not know how it goes against a modified B&K.Adcom I would only buy if I needed a cheap amp for Bass driver's.

Was considering Classe,but I would rather get a Monarchy ClassA amp that is close in performance to Pass Labs amps.

JMO