Thread: Stereophile Forums: adcom gfa-555 vs parasound hca-1200

I've owned the Adcom 555 Series II for many years and can account to it's ability to play on both sides of the fence. One side being great SQ for the money and the other side being able to handle long term abuse for many hours on end with no sweat. I had mine hooked up to a pair of Klipsch Chorus II's that played at near 120db for 6 hour stright jam sessions almost every weekend for many years. It still worked like new when I...

which is the better sounding of the two and why? anyone have an opinion? best regards, sam

I've only heard the Adcom GFA-555 and agree with much of what various people have said about it here: http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/678/index.html I have heard the Parasound HCA-1500A and thought it a little mushy compared to the detail apparent in the Adcoms I've listened to. Could have been the different terminal output devices though (loudspeakers). That said if you can you should listen to both because it is unlikely...

You are not saying what price range you are considering, but since those are not cheap speakers, I assume that $10,000 or so is not unreasonable. I think that the preamp that I have is hard to beat, and also the amplifier. I have been listening and improving my system for 30 years, and am extremely happy with the superb sound of this equipment. They are the Audio Research LS-26($6000) and the Bryston 3BSST2 $3500). If you want even more...

http://www.lebenhifi.com/products/rs28cx.html id go with this and http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1263834597 the above.. . my top 3 would be krell, plinius, and pass labs.

Think hard about staying with integrated, but moving up in power and quality. The Rowland Continuum 500 will give you all the power you're likely need, combined with a SOTA pre-amp section. There are several other choices, like the Conrad Johnson CA200, Krell units, PS Audio, etc. Separates open up a world of issues with extra interconnects, power cords and isolation devices. Take a quality intergrated, add a top end PC and use high...

+1 for Dave's recommendation of a quality integrated. I haven't heard the Rowland myself but I would strongly recommend the Boulder 865 of which I have a great deal of experience. It sounds SUPERB, costs $12,000, and as WP put it "It's simple, and it's darn near perfect." Amen.

Do you mean a mechcanical humming from the amplifier, or a humming sound from the speakers? First thing to do is to call Leonard at Audio-Research. They have the best customer service bar-none!

Hi folks, I am considering the purchase of an Exposure 2010s amp and was wondering about appropriate cables. The Stereophile review by Art Dudley states: Quote: Interestingly, a key change from the 2010 to the 2010S involved replacing the older model's 50k-ohm volume pot with a 20k-ohm unit: a seemingly insignificant change, but one that served to linearize the product's upper-range frequency response, because this is an integrated...

I've owned the Exposure 2010S for about a year, and have used it with several different brands of cables (Analysis Plus, Furutech, QED, Alpha-Core, Exposure's own) without any problems. The only thing I'd really be concerned about is making sure the cables are terminated with banana plugs. See Jim Austin's Follow-Up .