Denon Electronics (USA) LLC, 100 Corporate Drive, Mahwah, NJ 07430-2041. Tel: (201) 762-6500. Fax: (201) 762-6670. Web: www.usa.denon.com.
Peachtree Audio, Signal Path International, Bellevue, WA. Tel: (704) 391-9337. Web: signalpathint.com.
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Sidebar: Contacts
I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems scary and weird. It'll happen to you.—Abraham Simpson
Unsurprisingly for such an insecure lot, we audiophiles can't help filtering our joys through the perceptions of others: Will our wives tolerate the looks of those speakers, or the tangle of wires behind them? Do our children risk being burned or electrocuted by our creepy-looking amplifiers? Why don't our younger friends share our passions? Why are there so many ugly people in this neighborhood?
The bad thing—or…
But I wondered about the gear in my main system: Audio Note AN-E SPe/HE loudspeakers, Shindo Corton-Charlemagne mono amplifiers, Shindo Masseto preamplifier, and a tricked-out Thorens TD-124 turntable with EMT 997 tonearm. That system uses long speaker cables, too: a 6m (19.5') pair of Auditorium 23 copper. Granted, the Auditorium 23 cable, with its more pliant conductors and attractive green-fabric sheath, is easier to install and to live with than Naim's NACA5. On the other hand, at $2350 for that 6m pair, the Auditorium 23 speaker cable is considerably more expensive—though still far…
Many audiophiles who have only recently subscribed to Stereophile will be surprised to find that those clunky, heat-producing, short-lived tubes that reigned up through the mid-'60s are still Executive Monarchs in the mid-'80s. Why, for Heaven's sake? Because, despite everything, people like them.
\That "everything" includes the aforementioned liabilities, very high product cost (because of the massive output transformers and high-voltage B+ storage capacitors required), and gut-busting weight in high-powered versions.
Then there's the terrible emotional price one must…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: All-tubed mono power amplifier. Rated power: 200W inot 8 ohms (23dBW). Power bandwidth: 20Hz–15kHz. THD: 1% at rated power.
Weight: 81 lbs.
Price: $6000/pair (1985); no longer available (2009).
Manufacturer: Conrad Johnson Design, 2800R Dorr Ave., Fairfax VA 22031. (703)-528-8650.
Description: All-tubed mono power amplifier. Rated power: 200W inot 8 ohms (23dBW). Power bandwidth: 20Hz–15kHz. THD: 1% at rated power.
Weight: 81 lbs.
Price: $6000/pair (1985); no longer available (2009).
Manufacturer: Conrad Johnson Design, 2800R Dorr Ave., Fairfax VA 22031. (703)-528-8650.
Sometimes products are too cheap for their own good, and people don't take them seriously: the Superphon Revelation Basic Dual Mono preamp, Rega RB300 arm, AR ES-1 turntable, Shure V15-V MR cartridge, and the B&K ST-140 power amp. They can't be any good because they cost so little, right?
Wrong, of course.
Adcom appears to be having the same problem with their $299.95 GFA-535 amp. Credibility.
Now if this amplifier were imported from England and sold for $599.95, then maybe it would be taken seriously. And highly praised, no doubt.
For the baby Adcom…
Corey Greenberg wrote about the Adcom GFA-535 II in Ocotber 1993 (Vol.16 No.10):
Okay, here you are: You're a Real World music lover trying to sling together a Real World hi-fi rig. You gotcha budget-king NAD/Rotel/JVC/Pioneer CD player, your SOTA Comet/Sumiko Blue Point analog rig, and your cool-man NHT/PSB/Definitive Technology entry-level speakers. Hell, you've even gone out and bought a few pairs of Kimber PBJ interconnects to hook it all up. This ain't no dog and pony show—you want that High-End High, not just some cheap'n'cheerful, low-rez rig to stick in the rumpus room so the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel, solid-state amplifier. Output power: 60W into 8 ohms (17.8dBW). Input sensitivity: 970mV RMS. Input impedance: 100k ohms. Frequency response: 10Hz–20kHz, –0.25dB. S/N ratio: 110dB. Power consumption: 300W.
Dimensions: 3" H by 17" W by 11.25" D. Weight: 19.5 lbs.
Price: $299.95 (1987); $350 (1993); no longer available (2009). Approximate number of dealers: 320.
Manufacturer: Adcom, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 (1987); Adcom, LLC, PO Box 2668, Sedona, AZ 86339. Tel: (602) 773-1909. Fax: (928) 239-9378. Web: www.adcom.com (2009).
Sidebar 2: CG's Systems
As with all the Real World gear I review, I listened to both amps in my Real World system, which is affordable, and my He-Man rig, which is not. The He-Man rig tells me exactly what the gear under review is doing, while the Real World system tells me how much of that info is transportable to a system that's more like the one the gear is likely to be mated with.
My Real World system featured, at one time or another: Sumiko Project One turntable and Oyster cartridge (reviews comin' up); JVC XL-Z1050 CD player; Rotel RCD-955AX CD player; NAD 502 CD player (…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Following its one-hour preconditioning at 1/3 power, the Adcom was hot to the touch. Its input impedance measured a comfortably high 93k ohms, and its voltage gain inot 8 ohms measured 27.2dB. The output impedance was under 0.04 ohm from 20Hz to 1kHz, and under 0.06 ohm at 20kHz. DC offset measured 0mV in the left channel, 3mV in the right. Wide-band signal/noise (ref. 1W into 8 ohms) measured 88.2dB, unweighted. The GFA-535 II was noninverting from input to output.
Fig.1 shows the GFA-535 II's frequency response—essentially flat across most of the…