Which Adcom?

cstmar01

So I'm kicking around an idea of picking up an Adcom for my HT (and 2 channel for now) for the front L/R but don't know if really one of these is better than the other.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1270544711&/Adcom-GFA-5800-balanced-input-

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1271451933&/Adcom-5802-

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1271522949&/Adcom-585-limited-edition-in-g

So if you were using for HT and 2 channel 50/50 split which one would you recommend?

And the pre will be the Parasound 2100 probably (and my gf is good enough to be getting it for me woohoo!)

comfortablycurt

Great news on the 2100! I can't wait to hear what you think of it, since that may be the route I go when I put together an integrated 2 channel/HT rig.

With those three options, I'd definitely go for the 5802. It's the baddest of all the Adcom amps.

heiney9

5802

hearingimpared

heiney9 wrote: »

5802

Brock isn't the 585 just 565's in a single chasis?

comfortablycurt

hearingimpared wrote: »

Brock isn't the 585 just 565's in a single chasis?

From everything I've ever read/heard, that's basically the case.

I've also read many cases about 565's/585's having electrolytic fluid leak all over the board, due to a run of faulty capacitors(or something to that extent), which turns into a fairly extensive repair if not caught ahead of time. I've always heard people recommend the replacement of those caps to anyone who is buying one of those two amps. Definitely another point to consider before you make a purchase.

You'd have to do a search for more info on the subject though. There are several threads pertaining to it here.

cstmar01

I had heard of those problems with the 555 but didn't know if any of these were affect by the same thing. I think I might pick up with 5802 from the one guy if he still has it. Otherwise I might just pick up a Parasound 2250 next month if I can;t find an Adcom. I just had some money now to spend and was highly interested in them.

leroyjr1

Get the 5802

comfortablycurt

cstmar01 wrote: »

I had heard of those problems with the 555 but didn't know if any of these were affect by the same thing. I think I might pick up with 5802 from the one guy if he still has it. Otherwise I might just pick up a Parasound 2250 next month if I can;t find an Adcom. I just had some money now to spend and was highly interested in them.

One thing that I find very tempting about the 2250, is the A/B speaker function. It would be nice to be able to hook up two different pairs of front channels, and be able to switch between them without having to move speakers, swap wires etc.

In my case, it would come in very handy. I love my SDA's, but I've also become smitten with the LSi's. A pair of LSi9's will be joining my rig sometime this year. It'd be nice to be able to just push a button and switch from the LSi's to the SDA's depending on my mood.


All that aside, the 2250 is supposed to be very nice amp, but I've never heard one before, so I can't really comment on their SQ.

hearingimpared

comfortablycurt wrote: »

From everything I've ever read/heard, that's basically the case.

I've also read many cases about 565's/585's having electrolytic fluid leak all over the board, due to a run of faulty capacitors(or something to that extent), which turns into a fairly extensive repair if not caught ahead of time. I've always heard people recommend the replacement of those caps to anyone who is buying one of those two amps. Definitely another point to consider before you make a purchase.

You'd have to do a search for more info on the subject though. There are several threads pertaining to it here.

I was just asking because I thought they were basically the same. I had a pair of 565 mono's which had the highest Musical Concepts upgrades & mods done to them and was just thinking out loud that the OP might do well to get the 585s and check into the Musical Concepts mods as they really made my 565s sing.

To the OP if you can indeed get the Musical Concepts upgrades done to the 585s they do upgrade the faulty caps and I can tell you these amps have major balls.

Here's the link to the Musical Concepts mod page for Adcoms.

http://www.musicaldesign.com/MC_AdcomAmp_mods.html

EDIT; afterthought, both the 565s and the 585s can have their negative speaker terminals strapped together for SDA use. With the 565s, since they are mono blocks, Adcom recommends strapping the chasis's together too. I did this with great success using them to power my 1.2TLs.

heiney9

hearingimpared wrote: »

Brock isn't the 585 just 565's in a single chasis?

Yep, and the chassis really is not adequate enough.

The 5802 is the best, most musical amp Adcom ever made along with the GFP-750 being the best, most musical pre-amp. Both Nelson Pass designs.

H9

heiney9

cstmar01 wrote: »

I had heard of those problems with the 555 but didn't know if any of these were affect by the same thing. I think I might pick up with 5802 from the one guy if he still has it. Otherwise I might just pick up a Parasound 2250 next month if I can;t find an Adcom. I just had some money now to spend and was highly interested in them.

No problems with the 555 at all. You're thinking of the 585 and 565's which had a bad run of caps.

H9

cstmar01

heiney9 wrote: »

No problems with the 555 at all. You're thinking of the 585 and 565's which had a bad run of caps.

H9

ah ok. I was thinking it was the 555's. Thanks for the info!

Joe, Thank you for the info on the mods. I might have to look into those as I noticed you can also mod the 5802 which would be cool to see how it would sound after.

Curt.
I was tempted to get the Parasound at a dealer I went to because I could have gotten it for what I thought was a good deal, but also wanted to possibly try out the big adcom's first to see what I thought of them.

cstmar01

sooo after asking the guy still does have the amp for the 5802. He's asking 650.00 OBO. What do you guys think is a fair price for them? There is another listed for 750.00 but it is in better shape. This person has also had the amp listed for awhile so I didn't know if its possibly the price, or the lack of recent feedback as a seller that people may be hesitant about buying from him.

comfortablycurt

cstmar01 wrote: »

sooo after asking the guy still does have the amp for the 5802. He's asking 650.00 OBO. What do you guys think is a fair price for them? There is another listed for 750.00 but it is in better shape. This person has also had the amp listed for awhile so I didn't know if its possibly the price, or the lack of recent feedback as a seller that people may be hesitant about buying from him.

Either $650 of $750 is a fair price IMO. I've seen nice conditions 5802's sell for $850-900 on many occasions.

As far as how long the second ones been listed, it could be due to any number of things. The 5802's aren't particularly hard to come by, so it's not unusual for one to be listed for a fairly long time with no bites.

heiney9

cstmar01 wrote: »

sooo after asking the guy still does have the amp for the 5802. He's asking 650.00 OBO. What do you guys think is a fair price for them? There is another listed for 750.00 but it is in better shape. This person has also had the amp listed for awhile so I didn't know if its possibly the price, or the lack of recent feedback as a seller that people may be hesitant about buying from him.

It's a great deal @ $650 just do your due diligence on the seller.

H9

leroyjr1

cstmar01 wrote: »

sooo after asking the guy still does have the amp for the 5802. He's asking 650.00 OBO. What do you guys think is a fair price for them? There is another listed for 750.00 but it is in better shape. This person has also had the amp listed for awhile so I didn't know if its possibly the price, or the lack of recent feedback as a seller that people may be hesitant about buying from him.

$650 is a great deal. I paid $800 for mine and it was worth every penny. He's in Indy, see if a polkie can look at it for you.

cnh

leroyjr1 wrote: »

$650 is a great deal. I paid $800 for mine and it was worth every penny. He's in Indy, see if a polkie can look at it for you.

That's a good idea....most audiogon sellers worth their salt will let you, or in this case, your proxy, audition their equipment. I've done this a couple of times...people have been great about it!

cnh

unc2701

I'd avoid the 585. It's too much amp in too small of a chassis, nevermind the cap issues. I had one of those very costly repairs and ended up with way more money in it than it was worth.

That said, the sonics are excellent and I actually like the sound better than the 58XX amps.

cstmar01

leroyjr1 wrote: »

$650 is a great deal. I paid $800 for mine and it was worth every penny. He's in Indy, see if a polkie can look at it for you.

I'll try and see. He's going to contact me more about it today, so I'm still waiting.

Otherwise that parasound is calling my name over at Hi Fi Heaven lol.

concealer404

I'm willing to go look at it if we can match a time in schedules, i'm pretty tight during this week, though.

rcrook317

i almost bought the 1st one....my pick would be either of the 1st 2 .
58** series has always gotten great reviews
*edit*
hell,if the seller wants to hook it up ill go listen to it!lol

cstmar01

Thanks for the offer guys. I emailed him last night and he said he would get in touch with me today and so far haven't heard anything back as of yet. So we'll see. I think this would be a fun amp to try out and see how much I like it. I'll let you guys know whats going on with the whole thing too.

leroyjr1

cstmar01 wrote: »

Thanks for the offer guys. I emailed him last night and he said he would get in touch with me today and so far haven't heard anything back as of yet. So we'll see. I think this would be a fun amp to try out and see how much I like it. I'll let you guys know whats going on with the whole thing too.

I contacted him about the amp when he first listed it asking the actual condition in detail and if he had any problems with it. No response so I moved on. I'd definitely have someone look at it before you buy it. Just doesn't seem right why it's still available at that price and other $200 more have been sold alot sooner.

leroyjr1

cstmar01 wrote: »

I'll try and see. He's going to contact me more about it today, so I'm still waiting.

Otherwise that parasound is calling my name over at Hi Fi Heaven lol.

Which Parasound is that?

cstmar01

Yeah it just struck me that it was odd that the adcom was sitting out there for so long with no buyers at that price, so who knows. I hope he gets back to me at least on it.

The parasound I was looking at was the 2250 which was in the middle room on your right side when you walk in. They were moving it to another room though so IDK where it is now. They said it would normally be 1350.00 but would give it to me for like 1000 or so. I didn't think that was all that bad for a new one seeing used go for 750.00.

cstmar01

So this guy is not answering at all. Kinda makes me a little annoyed with it due to why post something for sale and then not bother to get back to someone wanting to buy.
Anyways.

If you guys have other suggestions too besides the Adcom's and the parasound I mentioned for a HT/2 channel amp let me know, I'm all ears.

Otherwise I might see about picking up that other 5802 on the gon, he's asking 750.00 but it looks to be in near mint shape.

cstmar01

So today I got an email with a phone number and called the guy. Nice guy to talk to, very knowledgeable and he stated he knows Nelson Pass and used to be the National Sales Manager for Adcom and worked for Polk and Def Tech also. SO it looks like I'll be getting the amp after all. Wooohoo!
I'm excited!

hearingimpared

Cool congrats!

ben62670

You will be happy for sure.
Congrats.
Ben

concealer404

I got your email man, just let me know how you want to work it all, i can pick it up for you.

carvcom

New guy who's a little curious.
What's wrong with the 5800, I have one & I love it.
It's the same as the 5802, it just has fans, & no fancy gold plate on the front.
They even go for a couple hundred less.
Honestly, I have never heard the fans run.
My 2 cents.