# Adcom GFA Power amps, home theater, reference listening etc.



## lust4sound (Apr 9, 2008)

I am into home theater. I currently own a host of Adcom power amps as well as an outdated Adcom Preamp as a hometheater Hub.

I have some ideas in the works in terms of serious upgrades/ budget minded.

Before I get into length and detail, anyone in here with knowledge of all the above mentioned?

Keywords: Harmon Kardon AVR, Tri-amping, Behringer electronic crossover network, Oscar Heil Air motion transducers, Peerless, Morel, Adcom


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## sanitys (Oct 23, 2008)

lust4sound said:


> I am into home theater. I currently own a host of Adcom power amps as well as an outdated Adcom Preamp as a hometheater Hub.
> 
> I have some ideas in the works in terms of serious upgrades/ budget minded.
> 
> ...


Im by no means an expert. I was going to buy some adcom gear when I did my house stereo. arcam makes some good stuff as well. I havnt heard any of the gear tho. Just seen the reviews. Im not on my desktop so i cant find you the links i have bookmarked. I ended up getting this...

Outlaw audio rr2150
http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2150.html
Boston Acoustics VR2
http://www.fadfusion.com/selection.php?product_item_number=20141401745

If I recall it came in around 1100ish. It seems the speakers are discontinued now. I also built a rack mount server PC and it connects to the reciever via USB. I was going to buy amps/pre-amp but then I would have had to spend a bunch on a sound card, thats why i chose what i did.


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## lust4sound (Apr 9, 2008)

sanitys said:


> Im by no means an expert. I was going to buy some adcom gear when I did my house stereo. arcam makes some good stuff as well. I havnt heard any of the gear tho. Just seen the reviews. Im not on my desktop so i cant find you the links i have bookmarked. I ended up getting this...
> 
> Outlaw audio rr2150
> http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2150.html
> ...


Thanks for the reply, 

What I was thinking of doing was adding a Harmon Kardon receiver to handle basic home theater duty, using it's built in amps to power my current lineup of Mirage home theater speakers, 

then for reference listening, I want to build a pair of tower speakers using high end drivers, including the *Oscar Heil air motion transformers that I own (*air motion transducers, I forget the name) 

then I would use all 6 channels of Adcom amplification that I have for the custom built speakers, 100 x 2 for air motion transducers, 100 x 2 for mid, 200 x 2 for subs, behringer active crossover to handle the processing. 

This would give me a basic stand alone home theater application via Harmon Kardon and mirage, as well as a reference listening setup using Harmon as a pre amp out to Adcom amps out to Reference Home built speakers.

My question is, are the Adcom amps worth going to all this trouble for Reference listening. Do they make for good Reference style amplifiers. Would the mid to high level Harmon Kardon receiver that I plan on purchasing make for a good Reference Preamp? Bear in mind, the choice for Harmon Kardon is based on the fact that I spotted a few mid level examples in local Pawnshops, I can get them real cheap.

As it stands, for home theater duty, the current setup is spectacular, even with the dated Adcom Preamp. However, I do recognize the Disparity between Home theater and Reference listening, which is why I pose the questions..


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## sanitys (Oct 23, 2008)

lust4sound said:


> Thanks for the reply,
> 
> What I was thinking of doing was adding a Harmon Kardon receiver to handle basic home theater duty, using it's built in amps to power my current lineup of Mirage home theater speakers,
> 
> ...


From everything Ive read regarding the adcom gear It performs well. Even though the amps are older they still fetch a good deal of cash on ebay, or atleast they did when i was searching about a year ago for gear. 

Do you have a link for the harmon kardon reciever you want to pick up? And the other gear you have? I can try to dig up some info. There was about 5-6 different brands thats i was researching and waiting for a nice ebay deal before i decided to go with a intergrated reciever. Whats your budget? Like i said im not a expert but i can help ya look around.

you can also check this site out

*http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/*


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## seagrasser (Feb 6, 2007)

Adcom's made/make great mid-fi amps. Much better than receivers, but not high end, class A monsters.

My advice would be to put more wattage into your subwoofer and investigate phase issues with crossovers. I am attempting the same thing and it gets a little more complex than just assembling a menagerie of items.

Do some serious reading in the loudspeaker section of diyaudio.


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## lust4sound (Apr 9, 2008)

seagrasser said:


> Adcom's made/make great mid-fi amps. Much better than receivers, but not high end, class A monsters.
> 
> My advice would be to put more wattage into your subwoofer and investigate phase issues with crossovers. I am attempting the same thing and it gets a little more complex than just assembling a menagerie of items.
> 
> Do some serious reading in the loudspeaker section of diyaudio.


I did a little bit of reading, it is my understanding that only a serious audio engineer or DIY guru can design a passive XO network with any degree of success. It has to be done to driver parameters, enclosure design etc etc. Even then, the resulting sound can vary greatly from XO to XO.

This is why I am choosing an active XO that will allow me to tailor xo points as well as types, phase etc.

I am about to pick up some literature on the subject before I do anything.

If I end up with a sound that pleases me, then I guess it'll be worth the endeavor. If someone comes over and is blown away by the sound, I can say "I did that"

Class A Monsters, could you name some examples and prices on the low end?


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## ItalynStylion (May 3, 2008)

I run a Harmon Kardon AVR147 and I love it. It's plenty powerful for music or movies but a little more power wouldn't hurt. It's easy to use and it sounds fantastic. The EZ EQ setup mic is a fanstastic little device. It sets time alignment and crossover frequencies on it's own. I'm a freak and I like to go back and tweak what it's done but most of the time it's dead on. I even busted out the tape measure to find out if it measured the speaker distances right...it was dead on every time.

Plus....it's a downright sexy unit to look at.

Are you planning on running a sub?


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## Silver Supra (Feb 15, 2008)

Save your money until you can afford a better amp than the Adcom - just my opinion. To my ear they are grainy and thin.


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## lust4sound (Apr 9, 2008)

Silver Supra said:


> Save your money until you can afford a better amp than the Adcom - just my opinion. To my ear they are grainy and thin.


 What are your recommendations?


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## lust4sound (Apr 9, 2008)

ItalynStylion said:


> I run a Harmon Kardon AVR147 and I love it. It's plenty powerful for music or movies but a little more power wouldn't hurt. It's easy to use and it sounds fantastic. The EZ EQ setup mic is a fanstastic little device. It sets time alignment and crossover frequencies on it's own. I'm a freak and I like to go back and tweak what it's done but most of the time it's dead on. I even busted out the tape measure to find out if it measured the speaker distances right...it was dead on every time.
> 
> Plus....it's a downright sexy unit to look at.
> 
> Are you planning on running a sub?


Yes plenty sexy but not near enough power for my liking. Excellent for home theater (to a point) My question is, would it make a good SQ Preamp for my external amps, triamplification of tower speakers is my goal.

I do run a sub, it's a 200 watt Mirage 12" from back in the day. Does the job for home theater, but it's a sludge monster for music. Plenty loud but muddy, slow, peaky, boomy. Not my idea of a good Reference sub. Want to update, 2 12" subs, with plate amps, about 500 watts each. This way I could dedicate 200 x 2 to midbass, then 100 x 2 for mids 100 x 2 for highs. The towers I plan on building will have 8" midbass 4" mids and the air motion transducers (which is overkill, the air motions came in a 2 way speaker set that I bought, which was a 12" sub and the HF driver (air motion) The HF transducer is designed to play well into the low octaves without effort. But everything has it's limits, if it sounds as good as it does covering such a broad range of the audio spectrum, I can't imagine how clean it will get if I add some good amplification, active XO and limit some of the low end by adding a mid driver...


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## Benihana (Nov 30, 2008)

adcoms aren't bad, but there are better. You'd have a hard time telling a diff between amps though. In the home environment, your room makes much more of an impact on your sound, more than your equipment. Rotel has some good older amps as well. But both will be better than a receivers.


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