That news would come as a shock to the casual audiophile of only 20 years ago: Imagine going back in time and telling him that the LP will remain viable for decades to come. You might as well tell the car enthusiast of 1984 that Motor Trend will name the Morgan 4/4 Car of the Year for 2004, and…
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Our December 2004 issue honored 56 contemporary audio products that stood out from the pack during the course of the year. Of those 56, fully nine were phonograph components (footnote 1), including one—the Linn Sondek LP12 turntable—that's been on the market for something like a hundred years.
Apart from that, the Loricraft PRC-3 hews solidly to the Percy Wilson model: a fast-spinning platter on which records are washed, and a quiet and apparently powerful vacuum device for drying them off a little at a time. But the Loricraft PRC-4, which is relatively new to these shores, has two noteworthy refinements: a cabinet with an attractive veneer of English ash, and a vacuum pump that's 40% more powerful than the one in the PRC-3, and that exhibits even greater immunity to overheating. The importer says the new pump makes the PRC-4 even more suitable for constant use, as by archivists…
I am reluctant to call any given transistor power amplifier a "best buy" or "breakthrough." From my talks with designers and other audiophiles, it is clear that the state of the art in power amplifiers is about to change. From where I stand, the Adcom GFA-555 is the first sample of this new wave. It is so clearly superior to past amplifiers in the low- to mid-priced range—not to mention most amplifiers two to three times its pric—that I can unhesitatingly recommend it for even the most demanding high end system.
The GFA-555 does everything well, and most things exceptionally…
J. Gordon Holt compared the Adcom GFA-55 with the the Electron Kinetics Eagle 2 in November 1985 (Vol.8 No.7):
After reading AHC's very positive review of the Adcom amplifier (Vol.8 No.5), I just had to audition it. Not just any old GFA-55, but the GFA-55 reviewed by AHC.
I was initially impressed, but not terribly. A half hour's listening, however, revealed a significantly better sound (by now I should know better than to listen to any amp during the first half hour), so I left it to cook overnight. (The Eagle 2 cooked too, just to make things fair; since then, I've found this…
Guy Lemcoe reviewed the Adcom GFA-555 in December 1989 (Vol.12 No.12):
My editor felt it was time to survey a handful of what might be called "entry-level" high-end amplifiers. These five amps, offering a glimpse of what high-end sound is all about, range in price from just under $400 to slightly less than $1200. Each, in its way, can serve as a vital link in a system which, with carefully chosen associated equipment, will reward the listener with a highly detailed, focused, emotionally involving musical experience. These amplifiers have proven popular with consumers and have received…
Sidebar: Lemcoe's System
The only variable in these listening tests was the particular amplifier under evaluation. All other system components remained constant, with the exception of the loudspeaker: I wanted to listen to each of the amps on both electrostatic and dynamic speakers. My Acoustat Twos satisfied the former need; a pair of Spica TC-50s took care of the latter. My front-end consists of the VPI Mk.II with an ET-2 arm/Talisman S combination. Tracking force is set at 1.8 grams, and loading at the preamp is 100 ohms. Straight Wire Maestro interconnect links TT and preamp. My…
John Atkinson wrote about the Adcom GFA-555 Mk.II in October 1990 (Vol.13 No.10):
Introduced in 1985, the original GFA-555 was the subject of a rave review in Vol.8 No.4 from the patrician Anthony H. Cordesman, who felt that its natural presentation of upper-octave detail and its "extraordinarily holographic" imaging might well make it a "legitimate rival" to the Krells and Audio Researches of this world. Three issues later, in Vol.8 No.7, the venerable JGH pretty much agreed that the '555 was something special, rivaling his then reference, the Electron Kinetics Eagle 2.
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Sidebar: 1989 Measurements
The Adcom GFA-555 was a powerhouse. Output at clipping was 231.7W into 8 ohms (23.6dBW), increasing to 331.9W into 4 ohms (22.2dBW). Like the PS Audio 200C, however, the GFA-555 blew output fuses when asked to drive a 2 ohm load to high levels. Again, the power supply seems much more robust than the output stages. Incidentally, I have owned a GFA-555 for about three years and never had a fuse blow during normal (music-listening) use.
Frequency response was very flat over the band (fig.1), with a slight (0.2dB) rolloff at 20Hz and 20kHz. There was about…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Output Power: 200W into 8 ohms (23dBW); 325W into 4 ohms (22.1dBW), all continuous power, 20Hz-20kHz, with 0.09% THD. Input impedance: 22k ohms. Sensitivity: 130mV.
Dimensions: 17" W by 7" H by 11.5" D. Weight: 34 lbs.
Price: No longer available; $599.95 (1985); $750 (1989); $800 (1990). Approximate number of dealers: 400.
Manufacturer: Adcom, a division of Klein Technology Group, LLC, 8551 E. Anderson Drive, Suite 105, Scottsdale, AZ 85255. Tel: (480) 607-2277. Web: www.adcom.com
Nicholas Negroponte, Professor of Media Technology at MIT's Media Lab, is somewhat of a hero of mine, not the least because in his 1995 book Being Digital (Alfred A. Knopf), he mentioned specialty magazines as being a paradigm (of a sort) for the information-rich future. The role of a magazine such as Stereophile is to act as an intelligent (we hope) filter applied to the breadth and depth of human activity. Those who define themselves by their interest in the publication's specialty can therefore go to just one source to find everything of relevance.
I'm not suggesting that Negroponte…