Rediscovery, Adcom GFA 555 MKII

Was digging around in the attic for something and ran into an old friend, my Adcom GFA 555 MK 2 power amp, a 200 WPC hulk of an offering of theirs that folks either loved or hated back in the day it seems.

I ending up going the bi-amp route with their newer 5800 years back and the 555 II ended up a lone forgotten soul.

Pulled it out, cleaned it up, pulled the cover and checked/tightened everything up and replaced my nice budget Yamaha R-S700 receiver in my man cave system with that and a Pioneer Elite C91 pre amp.

Wow, one thing became obvious right away, I don't need the Canton powered sub anymore, the bass authority this thing has is quite amazing.

The Yamaha although nice is so far outclassed by this combo it's not even funny. The clarity and air surrounding the upper mids and highs at realistic levels is an order of magnitude better. Some folks felt this amp a bit harsh, the Elite C91 preamp seems to tame that into some wonderful air and top end clarity.

Only problem now is I have to find a new home for my receiver.

The guts of the 555 II (not my pic):

 

It's one of those fussy amps that when it works well within a system it can sound great, but when it's does not pair up well, yeah it can be a dud. Probably why there was so much love/hate for it.

There seems to be a really good synergy in this system. I've moved it around in several systems over the years just because of that.

 

It takes some work to get a pic of the guts of those Adcoms. They use rivets to keep them shut. My theory is to keep people away from the fuses that can blow and they read: "No user serviceable parts inside!" I liked my little Adcom GFA-535. It lasted forever and sounded good. It was still working when I trashed it because it had become so ugly.

 

Not this one, several screws, and fuses are all in the back.

 

That's lucky. I think the 545 I had used the rivets. I had to drill everyone out. What a nightmare. Where the heck is that amp? I must have a closet lurker like you. My friend drove big maggies with a 555.

 

Some folks like to bridge the 555 and run monster subs, probably their best use.

 

Are you sure they were rivets and not some very small square drive screws? My Adcom GFP 565 pre amp cover uses those.

 

No, there were rivets. Another person recounts his tale of woe:

As if to drive home the point that Adcom does not want you to open their amp, the GFA series is sealed shut with rivets instead of screws. Adcom wants you to send your broken amp to a service contractor. According to the research I did on Google, fixing a broken channel on a GFA amp will cost between $80 and $180, depending on shipping and the price quoted by the service shop or Adcom itself.

But I had a feeling there were more fuses inside the amp (I describe the fuses i found in the list above), so I went to Home Depot with my friend K.V. and purchased a titanium bit for my drill, so I could drill out the rivets on my two Adcom GFA amps. We also got a rivet gun and some 1/8" rivets.

 

I think Adcom went back to making these, and stopped with the MOSFET ones (like your 5800 and my 5500). No idea if the quality is the same, worse, better...

 

Still have my 535 packed away. Need to dust it off and fire it back up. Nice little amp for the price at the time.

 

Sam Tellig loved it.

 

Old, raving review, hard to believe it's been almost 20 years, wow.

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/678/

 

That baby Adcom is still a wonderful sounding amp.

 

OMG, LOL, I didn't even know Adcom still existed, they have revived the 555!

http://www.adcom-usa.com/gfa-555se

 

Hell the more this system warms up the better it's sounding!

Electric Ladyland on blu spec 2 disc now spinning, the opening bass on And The Gods Made Love sounded wonderful, Voodoo Chile is now spinning, & it sounds great, the immediacy of the sound is pretty stunning.

I'm starting to remember why quite a few folks raved about and loved this amp back when it came out.

I'm glad I recently installed a dedicated 20 amp line with hospital grade outlets direct from my 200 amp service to this systems power outlets. The 555 likes power, the house lights dim a bit when it's turned on. When unplugged it likes to play for a while on its own.


I think tomorrow I'll pull my turntable down to this system and spin some vinyl on it. The table will kick the CD player's **** for sure.

The C91 pre amp has a pretty nice sounding phono stage, not as good as my Adcom GFP 565 pre amp, but still it has a rather lush, clean sound with a startlingly dead quiet background that can't be faulted overall.

What fun this is.

 

You meant to say almost 30 years.

I enjoyed the read though. Never owned the big Adcoms but did enjoy the 535II as well as the 545II a few years ago. Also don't remember having any trouble removing the lids.

 

Relocated my Empire table to this system down in the mancave. I was going to swap in my Shure Ultra 500 when I stumbled upon a box with a brand new original stylus for my Shure VST-V!

I've been wanting to use that VST-V for some time, now I can.

Now I just have to mount it and set things up. Going to be a long night of vinyl down in the cave. It will be nice to have the turntable stand located on a concrete floor.

 

I owned a white GFA 555 MK II I purchased new from Harvey's Electronics in Manhattan in 1991. I remember that thing was quite the beast, and I was happy with it until I jumped over to Proceed amps.

 

Flashback time, I remember seeing a full Adcom white set up, amp, preamp, tuner, CD player. Must have been hard to keep clean.

 

Picked one of these up several weeks ago to audition with my recently-acquired Magnepan 1.6's and, many, this was not a good pairing for my tastes. Pretty etched and forward, even with a tubed Mcintosh pres,[. Had a few beverages on the weekend and blasted it some, which blew the Maggie's fuses. Next up in the quest to feed these glorious beasts: a Moscode 600.

I have little doubt that many people, who have different setups/tastes, love the Adcom. Sure isn't expensive to hear for yourself.

 

I've been looking occasionally on ebay for a white Adcom set for my daughter. I bet she'd like the looks.

 

I remember seeing those in the window of that store...

 

It really is a fussy amp, in the right system it sounds 3 dimensional & the bass can be amazingly fast and tight, yet in other systems it can be harsh and forward and just loud.

It did not work well with my Pioneer Elite DSS E 10 speakers, seems it does not pair well with ribbon tweeters.

It can also be a very revealing amp, it will not cover up a brittle sounding program source with false sonic honey and warmth.

 

IIRC, the white only was on the components' faces.