Power for the price, dteaild hights and upper mids.

Unatural sound, you have to open the volume to get a good bass, and then highs and upper mids will fatigue your ears. Adcom was doing better before Mosfet.

Well, when I did the review before this I was still trying the 5802, now I have to say I returned it with the GTP-750 and get Audio Research. The Adcom5802 will give you a sound with a true live hights and upper mids, so hi that you will have lack of bass. This amp get your ears very tired after a couple of hour of listen, even in low volume. If you like a balanced sound forget this amp, but if you love dtaild highs it can be nice for you. I just hated it. I had other adcom amps, the 5802 the first with the mosfet devices. Lots of power with too much live hights. Get you a used tube amp or a Bryston with you prefer solid state! Adcom went to Mosfet to get power without increasing price, well sound dynamics went down as a result.

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Adcom before Mosfets, Audio Research.

Power, price, balanced inputs.

Gets too hot, fuses are inside, no 12v tigger, flat sound, no turn on protection for speakers(see below).

The worse problem I get is not a real problem of the 5802, but a problem when you use it with the GFP-750. When you home gets without power, when the power cames back, ande the two are on, the GFP750 sends a blow noise to GFA 5802 that can damage your speakers. If they put a time circuit protect in the 5802 to delay the speakers to came in it would solve the problem.

About the sound, you will get for what you paid. Many amps will sound better, but none with this power and price. Someone said about a krell, hey! it has half the power, you should compare it with a Krell 300w/ch!

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ADCOM GFA 545II

overall value
very liquid and warm sounding,tons of power

quality contro

This is definitely a breakthrough for adcom. Working in the audio business for over six years I've seen a lot of very good "value oriented" amps from adcom, but this amp is truly a high end design with Nelson Pass(Pass Labs) being the main designer. One of the main differences on this one is that he put two power transformers in;one for the input stage and one for the output stage so that the signal coming in after a dynamic peak is not affected if the main capacitors are drained. The soundstage is 3d with plenty of power to control the most demanding speakers. Overall, I would describe it as a very warm and liquid sounding amp. Any negative feedback from previous reviews could be becuase the amp was listened to cold. It definitely sounds a little hard and brittle for the first 45 minutes or so.Also, the heat should be thought of as a benefit.The fact that you cant touch the heatsinks means that the heat sinks are doing a good job. They're taking all the heat away from the amp and dissipating it to the outside of the chassis. Why are you fondling your equipment anyway? Sit back and enjoy; this is one of the best amps for under 2k ever! If you dont believe me look in Steriophiles recommended components list. Or audition one thats been on for an hour, but dont forget your gloves it may burn you-hello!!??

Price performance

Gets Warm with normal operation

I have had this amp for about three weeks now so it's not fully broken in yet. However right out of the box this thing is amazing. It replaced an older Denon POA-2400 that I thought was a pretty good mid-fi amp. Right away I had more BASS, air and inner detail than I have ever herd before. The separation between intruments is trully breath taking. Gone was the harsh upper trebble I was accustom to and it was replaced with a very smooth, detailed yet extended upper end. I love this amp. I really wanted the PASS X350 but at $6k? no way. I still have a Nelson Pass designed product and could not be happier.

My System:

GCD-750
GFP-750
GFA-5802
Nak RX-505
Aerial Model 8s
Silver Audio Hyacinth Balanced Interconnects
PolyCrystal Reference Rack

Very rich "tube like" midrange. Exceptionally sweet highs and very deep bass. This amp also has a lot of power.

The amp is biased class a/ab and accordingly puts out a lot of heat. Put this baby in a well vented stereo cabinet.

This is clearly a great power amp. I no longer use tube power amps but this amp has many of the qualities I am used to from tubes. The the mids and highs are delicate and sweet sounding with a broad spectral spread that sounds lush and realistic. Low level detail really does approach Krell territory. I am listening with Martin Logan's which are very transparent and I front-ended this amp with a tube Conrad Johnson preamp and a B&K. In both cases, the amp was smooth, dynamic and never bright or harsh. Imaging and detail transparency was superb. I think spending more money on a power amp is unnecessary. There really are points of diminshing returns and I would rather have more records and CD's to play on this fine amp than a Krell, Rowland, etc. P.S. I have done some comparisons to B&K and Anthem, both fine products. THe 5802 is smoother and more transparent in my opinion.

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Extensive comparison to Adcom 565 monoblocks. In store comparisons to Krell and B&K. Lots of history with Dynaco mark III's, McIntosh MC240 and Audio Prism tube amp. I am a reformed tube power amp "freak"

Ample power; extremely smooth and musical

A little disappointed by soundstage

This amp has a great store of available power, which it applies instantly to replicate any and all musical sources very accurately. Coupled with its Adcom 750 sister pre-amp, it is dead quiet during still passages, then attacks back to life when the music signal returns. This exceptional damping ability makes the 5802 sound like a $10,000 amp, which, thankfully, it isn't.

The amp performs beautifully even at very low volume levels. It is sweetly musical at "background music" levels and produces no listening fatigue at all even when cranked up for hours on end.

I've used it for two months now, with Infinity Kappa 8 speakers, and have been a little disappointed by the soundstage. Not sure if I should really blame the amp -- it may be my speakers. But after moving the big Kappas several times, I'm still getting a rather two-dimensional soundstage. My opinion here may be premature, as I'm still doing some tweaking.

Even with the soundstage issue, for sheer clarity and the power to light up your speakers, this is one great amp.

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Luxman, Yamaha high-power receivers

More than enough power for home use, excellent sound.

Reliability.

I purchased my first 5802 in April 1998. After 5 months it malfunctioned and was sent to Adcom for repair. The first time I used it after that repair it malfunctioned again. Adcom replaced it with a new amp in October 1998. The new amp malfunctioned (dead right channel) in September 2000. Adcom repaired the amp, which included complete replacement of both left and right channel parts. The amp has worked fine since then. As frustrating as the above sequence of events was, in the end, Adcom's service was outstanding, as was that of Audio Den, who allowed me to use an Adcom 5200 on loan until my amp was repaired. Since my original purchase in April 1998, Adcom has moved its manufacture and repair from California to their New Jersey headquarters, which appears to have resulted in better quality control and a more reliable product. Please note: price paid includes trade in of GFA-5800.

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ARC LS2

Very high current and wattage output. Sweet and detailed sound.

High biased design cranks out a lot of heat.

This amp is the most senible high powered amp I have seen in a great while. Rated Class B by Stereophile, the amp delivers very good detail with smooth highs and very deep bass. The amp is great with Martin Logan and B&W speakers and gets real close to much more costly (yes Krell country) amps without you dropping mega dollars. Krell egos will not like this and will disagree.

As this amp is mosfet and not bipolar, it will not have the slam of the Krells, but will be very powerful and musical.

Finally, the amp will drive almost anything with it's 32 hi current output transistors.

Enjoy the amp.

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Conrad Johnson 2300, McIntosh

PRICE

AMP GETS TOO HOT AND SHUTS OFF WITH A 4 OHM LOAD AT HIGHER VOLUMES FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME

I PURCHASED THE 5802 TO POWER A PAIR OF THIEL 3.6 SPEAKERS AND THE AMP PERFORMED WELL AT LOW VOLUMES,BUT AS SOON AS THE DEMAND GOT GREATER,THE AMP FELL APART.IT WOULD PLAY FOR 45 MIN.AND THEN EITHER THE RIGHT, OR LEFT CHANNEL WOULD SHUT OFF.I THINK IF IT WERE DRIVING AN 8 OHM LOAD IF WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE.IN GENERAL IT SOUNDED FINE WHILE IT WORKED.TRADED IT FOR A MACINTOSH MC500,ALOT MORE MONEY,BUT A MUCH,MUCH,BETER AMPLIFIER!!THE MAC PERFORMS SO WELL IT DOESN'T EVEN BREATH HARD.NO COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO.

sound

quality control

a very nice sounding amp makes music come alive like your there i never thought an amp would make such a big difference highs mids and lows very precise and controled i was especially impressed by the control of the bass unless you are impossibly nit picky or a millionaire this will be the last amp youll probably ever buy but make sure you get a warranty mine developed a very loud hiss in the right channel when turned on its in the shop for the second time now for the same problem(im glad i got the extended warranty)but im willing to look past that for now in short phenominal amp!

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crown power base