As a midrange amp or with the proper speakers the Adcom is both a powerful and detailed amplifier.

With the wrong set of speakers the Adcom can be absolutely intolerable. It gets rather hot.

You either have to love or hate this product. When I first bought this thing I hated it. Using this thing to power full range speakers ,with the exception of Energy and possibly Martin Logan Speakers, can be an exercise in frustration. Highs are as clear as steel and become quite grating and annoying after 5 or ten minutes. However this thing is perfect for use in a biamplified setup with a set of midranges, alone. After a while I took that system apart and sent the Adcom to my home theater system were it was banished to surround sound duty. Although the Adcom proved to be acceptable in this role the grating highs proved to be quite annoying. However fate came calling one day when the Adcom was asked to join the parasound in HCA 2200 II in stereo system. At last the Adcom has found its place "under the sun". Instead of being the unwanted step child ,that was about to be traded for something else, the Adcom and the Parasound operate together to in create "beautiful music. As a stand alone midrange amplifier the Adcom is powerful and detailed. Norah Jones is conveyed in all her detail and grace. It's not just a matter of listening to music I can truly experience it, that's how well the Adcom does it's job as a midrange amp. Note only is the detail incredible the dynamic power is unreal. Compared to the Citation 7.1 that it replaced the Adcom and the Parasound can produce high volume music with a minimum of fuss or distortion.

Similar Products Used:

Citation 7.1

Wide, deep and detailed soundstage. Super quiet

None found

I just got the GFA-5800 and hooked it up yesterday. The first thing I noticed was how it opened up all of my favorite albums (yes, vinyl), CD's, SACD's, and DVD-A's. The soundstage was wider, more precise and more coherent. This amp gave a new sense of pace, snap and rhythm to my music as well as presenting a deeper soundstage with well-recorded music (such as Reference Recordings Pomp and Pipes). Probably has to do with this amp running in Class A all the way up to 10 watts. I don't get any fan noise and this thing runs pretty cool. I think I am going to buy another one so that I can bi-amp my speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Other Adcom amps, Yamaha, Parasound

Plenty of power and reserve. Will drive a 2 ohm load without shutting down.

Fan noise

I just picked this amp up from a friend of mine a couple of months ago and have been very impressed with the sound quality. It's a very clean and detailed sound with a great low end and nice airy transparent mids and highs.I do most of my listening late at night at low volumes and the sound is great, you don't loose a thing. This is where the problem comes in, after playing for about an half hour the fans kick in and although the noise is not pervasive it is still annoying for an amp in its price range...... I hope someone from Adcom is reading this review.....Distortion whether electronic or audible noise from an internal fan is still distortion and not acceptable in so called high end amplifier. Bottom line is I bought the amp dirt cheap and it does make music. Aside from the fan noise this amp does give a good accounting of itself.

Drives low impedance loads

noisy fans......Adcom should be ashamed not to have stopped production and made modifications to correct this problem.

Decent sounding amp......not the last word in resolution.....everything else is nit picking. On the second hand market its a steal.

Power, detail, dynamics, price, ability to drive <2 ohm loads, accoustic palpability, reliability, MUSICALITY.

Speaker Lugs could be a bit wider apart. Balanced/Unbalanced switches seem a bit lightweight.

I really like this amp. For the $, I couldn't find better overall sound and oomph. Drives my very difficult Martin Logan CLS's quite well and I've never tripped it yet. Not at all harsh or silibant with good source equipment. Supremely detailed and even 'woody' with accoustic music for it's price. Fantastic dynamics and speed. Definitely cable sensitive as are most high power amps. My Accoustic Zen Satori's continue to amaze me... I've recently noticed it has become increasingly chic to bash on Adcom amps (this may be a knee-jerk reaction because they have been compaired against the $$$$ amps so many times). Many of these critic's are the same ones that were the early praisers of Adcom's performace/price breakthroughs. There were absolute raving reviews from the audiomags for this amp when it first came out - amps haven't gone through many technological improvements since then for me to believe that what these reviewers found about the 5800 isn't still true today...

Similar Products Used:

Hafler, B&K, Adcom 555, Rotel

When used in biamplification the GFA 5800 can coax quite a bit of detail and bass out of a mid/woofer.

Unfortunately when used by itself the Adcom can be harsh and exhibit a pronounced emphasis in the high frequency region.

At first I was disappointed by the initial performance of my GFA 5800 the highs were too steely for my liking. For a moment I actually thought I had spent good money on a lackluster product. Then as a lark, or perhaps it was sheer desperation, I hooked up the GFA 5800 to a set of two way 5-1/4" speakers and decided to biamp these speakers with the GFA 5800 serving as the mid/woofer amp and a Parasound HCA 855 serving as the tweeter amplifier. At first I had expected the sound of the midranges to completely overpower the tweeters, the Adcom is rated for 250 watts per channel and the parasound is only rated for 85 watts per channel, yet surprisingly this odd couple was able to create some truly fantastic music. CD's came to life in a fantastic way the midrange the highs were clear,yet unfatiguing. In fact in some cases the GFA 5800 had the power to produce some decent bass from my little 5-1/4' drivers. Unfortunately with so much amplification the speakers hide absolutely nothing good music is clear and very compelling, poorly produced music on the other hand sounds truly awful. Now I know what people mean when they say that high resolution systems hide nothing. Overall at least for me the Adcom has turned out to be a true Diamond in the rough. A truly outstanding amplifier for biamplification.

A very detailed amplifier that produce beautiful music with the proper set of speakers.

A very detailed amplifier that can sound extremely sibliant with the wrong set of speakers.

I just purchased an Adcom GFA 5800. At first I was absolutely overjoyed ecstatic as I ripped through the packing material. Plugging it I was at first absolutely astounded by the detail, versus the Parasound HCA 855 that I had been using at my desk. Background material was as clear as the light of day. As I continued listening however I began to detect a distinct and at first slight annoying emphasis in the upper midrange. After listening for 30 minutes my ears are ringing, although I did have this problem initially with my parasound. Although the amplifier hasn't quite matched my speakers I have heard the Adcom produce some truly beautiful music with a set of Energy bipolar speakers. Overall the Adcom is a very detailed amplifier and should be matched carefully with your speakers. Note that Energy makes speakers that are an excellent match for the GFA 5800. I only had only paid $575 for this amplifier so in terms of value it receives a solid 5. Since the amplifier is capable of producing beautiful,just not with my speakers, I am giving it a 4 for it's overall rating.

Similar Products Used:

RB 1090, Hafler 9500

Nelson Pass designed amp at cheap price.

Left channel problem.

Thus amp has blown too many of my speaker for me to give it much of a rating. The left channel has blow a Snell Type D and a Snell Q four years ago. Fixed under warrenty but when returned on fan was loud enough to be heard three rooms away. So returned it again for fan fix. This time everything ok till this week when after changing speaker and wires the left channel blew all the drivers in a Polk SDA 1 speaker. But it did work great for 4 years and sounded great.

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Adcom 555mkII amp Adcom 2535 amp

I purchased the Adcom GFA 5800 after my Marantz model 510 power amp. calledit a day after 20 years of faithful service. I am presently using the 5800
with Bose 901 series VI speakers, which can handle lots of power. The adcom
can really rock the Bose's to incredible sound levels with narry a complaint
or feeling of harshness. Bass is well defined and the highs sizzle. I like
to listen to complex vocal harmonies ( Beach Boys ) for instance, and it seems you can hear every nuance of the different vocal sections and how they were constructed. The amp is very solidly built and definately a bargain at its price..










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I have used the Adcom 5800 for over one year and think its one great amp. Its currentlydriving PSB STATUS GOLD and the speakers love them. Im using them wiith a Conrad Johnson PV10a
tube preamp and they sound incredible. The amp has excellent midrange and well extended
bottom end. The highs are well detailed and it is extremly warm and smooth.
It was designed by Nelson Pass and in comparision to Amps four times its price has fared very well
Highly recommended if you can get it i hear its being discontinued for the 5804.