Carver Versus Adcom

snow

Has anyone ever compared the carver TFM-35X with the adcom GFA-555 or similar carver/adcom combos and if so how did they sound?. I have recently done this but I dont want to infuence or color anyones oppinion with my thoughts until after I hear a few responses. REGARDS SNOW

heiney9

snow wrote:

Has anyone ever compared the carver TFM-35X with the adcom GFA-555 or similar carver/adcom combos and if so how did they sound?. I have recently done this but I dont want to infuence or color anyones oppinion with my thoughts until after I hear a few responses. REGARDS SNOW

LOL , I doubt anyone around here can change/sway another's opinion. We all seem to have pretty strong and entrenched views about many different things audio.

I already disagree with you if you say the Carver is less bright, yada, yada, yada .

Have fun, tell us what you think, if we (I) don't agree you will be pummeled into the ground until you do <JK>.

There should be differences, both Carver and Adcom approach amplifiers with very different designs in mind.

H9

jdhdiggs

Well, if you are interested I can give you a comparison of the carver A500x and the Adcom 565's...

The adcoms are a bit more authorative and bright/detailed. On lesser speakers they are easily superior to the carver. However on very revealing speakers I like the smoothing the carver does on the highs as it corrects for bad source/recordings.

These are my conclusions after having both amps on: LSi7, LSi9, ADS-550, and 3.3R's

davidk0512

I have heard my SDA 1Bs powered by both, the TFM 35x and GFA 555. I like the Adcom better. My speakers are 100% original, so they're already a little bright with the SL2000 tweeters, Carver seemed to intensify the brightness and I think the Adcom seems to hit deeper bass. A friend of mine drives his AR9s with the Carver and it sounds great with those speakers.

cfrizz

Oh, oh. Look out JD, Heiney disagrees with you about the brightness!:eek:

jdhdiggs wrote:

Well, if you are interested I can give you a comparison of the carver A500x and the Adcom 565's...

The adcoms are a bit more authorative and bright/detailed. On lesser speakers they are easily superior to the carver. However on very revealing speakers I like the smoothing the carver does on the highs as it corrects for bad source/recordings.

These are my conclusions after having both amps on: LSi7, LSi9, ADS-550, and 3.3R's

snow

Well here are my findings. The carver was better in every respect. bass was much more vibrant, defined. the midrange was clear, articulate. the highs were lifelike. the soundstage wider deeper more pronounced.

When I hooked up the adcom to my pre and a tuner I noticed an instant change, it seemed as the soundstage fell apart and wasnt real clear. so i thought to be fair perhaps the reception isnt as good today on the tuner, so I put on a music video that I have listened to countless times.

I know every note of every song by memory. and definitley something was amiss. on this one track there is drums followed by a thunderstrike. I was listening and thought wow i must have missed it somehow, so I put it in reverse and started over sure enough when it came to that point it was like the drums and thunder was combined rather than 2 distinct sounds.

And as i listened further I could tell that it sounded like the music was muffled and not alive on several places. Things that normally stood out didndt and sometimes sounded like they were missing. The carver is a newer amp and perhaps it isnt fair to compare to the adcom.

The single biggest reason i posted here on this was to try to find out whether or not something was wrong with the adcom or whether the carver was actually that much better. I have always loved the adcom products myself and have owned several diffrent components over the years and was actually hoping something was wrong with the GFA-555 that I could fix. REGARDS SNOW

heiney9

snow wrote:

The single biggest reason i posted here on this was to try to find out whether or not something was wrong with the adcom or whether the carver was actually that much better. I have always loved the adcom products myself and have owned several diffrent components over the years and was actually hoping something was wrong with the GFA-555 that I could fix. REGARDS SNOW

That is very possible and probably likely. There should obviously be some differences, but what you describe seems pretty drastic. Is your Adcom a 555 or a 555 II ?. Do you know the history of your 555? I'd definetly try to get it checked out if you feel it may have some issues.

I have a very used and, now what appears to be, abused Adcom integrated that upon listening just sounds off. It doesn't sound terrible but it's just off. It's more obvious when 1 of the channels start to cut out, etc. Someone got into this thing and didn't know what they were doing and 'effd it up.

Good luck

H9

snow

It is a GFA-555 not the ll model. And no im not sure of the history. REGARDS SNOW

heiney9

snow wrote:

It is a GFA-555 not the ll model. And no im not sure of the history. REGARDS SNOW

The reason I ask which series is because the series II amps are capacitor coupled and over time the caps loose/gain value (because of age) and can cause some of the things you describe. Replacing the coupling caps usually brings it fully back to life.

H9

jdhdiggs

cfrizz wrote:

Oh, oh. Look out JD, Heiney disagrees with you about the brightness!:eek:

Completely different models compared. If you think the 555 sounds like the 565, well, can't help you that much.

And H9: I think you are the only person I've ever heard refer to any carver amp as bright.

avguytx

I have owned both and sold Adcom years ago in retail when the GFA555's first came out. It might have been around 1987 or so. We had a pair of (IIRC) GFA-555's bridged and each was running a pair of JBL Project Everest speakers ($10,000 in 1987). It was massive to say the least. Now, across town, my buddies were selling Carver and Polk Audio (along with H/K) and I would always have to go hear the Carver amps on those SDA's...it was suh-weet!

Now, 20 years later, I run some Carver stuff (C-1, M-1.0t's (x2), tuner, CD, etc) but have never had the ability to A/B both companies. They each have their following and make some great gear.

FWIW...my dad still owns (again, IIRC) a GFP-1, GFA-1 and GFP-1 set up. It's been gone thru and still works like a champ. I used that rig on a pair of A/D/S L810's while in college back in Colorado years ago. Nice...

heiney9

jdhdiggs wrote:

Completely different models compared. If you think the 555 sounds like the 565, well, can't help you that much.

And H9: I think you are the only person I've ever heard refer to any carver amp as bright.

I never said or posted Carver was bright . I made a joke with Snow about the Carver being less bright..........meaning many people describe Adcom as being bright.

H9

jdhdiggs

heiney9 wrote:

I never said or posted Carver was bright . I made a joke with Snow about the Carver being less bright..........meaning many people describe Adcom as being bright.

H9

I read the original as you agreeing that the adcoms were bright then Cathy posted and I re-read it with her spin and saw it the other way. whoops, that'll teach me to listen to her....

Ron Temple

I was looking to pick up a 555 or 555 II, originally, and would love to compare them with my 35 on stock 1Cs. I did compare a Marantz 7200 integrated which was very bright. It threw a nice soundstage with great punch and definition, but the SL2000s were a bit out of control, sibulant(sp?) and harsh. The Carver on the other hand, is smooth as silk on top, detailed and warm. I was going to go out and immediately upgrade the tweeters, but after getting the amp repaired, it sounds so good that I'm not in any hurry. I'll do the crossovers and tweets at the same time somewhere in the near future.

If someone in the Bay Area wants to do an A/B Carver/Adcom or others, I'm up for it. Send me a PM .

avguytx

Speaking of 1C's...I'm watching a pair of those that are actually in Texas! I would really like to finally get a pair of them soon. I'm getting impatient! lol. I haven't had a pair in about 15 years!

davidk0512

avguytx wrote:

Speaking of 1C's...I'm watching a pair of those that are actually in Texas! I would really like to finally get a pair of them soon. I'm getting impatient! lol. I haven't had a pair in about 15 years!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Polk-SDA-1C-Speakers_W0QQitemZ140101227716QQcategoryZ71571QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Kip, this must be the pair that has your name all over 'em. They look real good, and with delivery for the cost of gas! Good Luck

cfrizz

And I was joking with you JD! It's all good, since we know by now everyone hears things differently.:)

jdhdiggs wrote:

I read the original as you agreeing that the adcoms were bright then Cathy posted and I re-read it with her spin and saw it the other way. whoops, that'll teach me to listen to her....

ben62670

avguytx wrote:

Speaking of 1C's...I'm watching a pair of those that are actually in Texas! I would really like to finally get a pair of them soon. I'm getting impatient! lol. I haven't had a pair in about 15 years!

I think those speakers would go very nicely with an ADCOM AMP

snow

Well I think the adcom has some issues. I am going to take it to a friend that has the GFA-555-ll model and compare these 2 amps and see if there is a dramatic difference between the 2. if there is then im sure the problem lies in the this particular amp not the model itself.

I knew there would be a difference but not so dramatic between the carver/adcom. I listened again tonight and there is no doubt that the music seems lifeless even though it seems to have plenty of power. Also thanks to all of you guys/girls for not turning this thread into a carver/adcom bashing oppurtunity. This is truly a great forum.

REGARDS SNOW

Deadof_knight

I wont bash either I have tfm-35 s not the x models the adcom-555 I had is hard to compare to being that I dont have it to run my sda 1.2s I still have a 535 to run som rears .
I think the carvers are smoother and sound warmer than the adcoms in general
I think that the adcoms are little less smooth and on the edge of bright. Im running tfm-35s on my 1.2s that have been modded to new tweets and upgraded crossovers and I love them.....

avguytx

ben62670 wrote:

I think those speakers would go very nicely with an ADCOM AMP

Nope. They'll go BETTER with the 2) M-1.0T's I already have! lol

candyliquor35m

avguytx wrote:

Nope. They'll go BETTER with the 2) M-1.0T's I already have! lol

I'm thinking about trying them with a TFM-45 but could easily be persuaded not to since I already have a pair of 2b's that I'm 99.9% satisfied with. PM me if you're going to bid on these so I don't bid against you. I've already pm'd Kip and we're both watching them to see how high they go before we make any decisions.

ben62670

Anyone ever compare Sunfire to the Carver MT series?
Ben

davidk0512

candyliquor35m wrote:

I'm thinking about trying them with a TFM-45 but could easily be persuaded not to since I already have a pair of 2b's that I'm 99.9% satisfied with. PM me if you're going to bid on these so I don't bid against you. I've already pm'd Kip and we're both watching them to see how high they go before we make any decisions.

Congratulations, I saw that you won

candyliquor35m

davidk0512 wrote:

Congratulations, I saw that you won

Thanks. avguytx (kip) and I were cohorts on this one and he's going to be the proud owner. woohoo go kip. his first sda's I think.

davidk0512

candyliquor35m wrote:

Thanks. avguytx (kip) and I were cohorts on this one and he's going to be the proud owner. woohoo go kip. his first sda's I think.

Well congrats to Kip, I was wondering what happened to him on this one. I think $400 looks like a great price.

candyliquor35m

Thanks H9, esnipe worked perfect. Kip can I get first dibs if you ever decide to sell them?