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.
…
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…
Five or six years ago I wrote a breezy, introductory-type piece on mid-fi "knob-surfing," winding up with a reprise on the old line that the number of the knobs, lights, and tattoos on the faceplate is often inversely proportional to the quality behind them. A few weeks ago my store got in a knob-surfer's dream of a signal processor, and it reminded me, disturbingly, of that long-forgotten article. You see, after I'd listened to it carefully for a couple days, I began to question the no-knobs-is-good-knobs philosophy that underpins high-end audio---and what I have been calling audio…
Amounting to a stream of ones and zeroes, or on and off pulses, a digital signal can readily be manipulated without generating any untoward side effects---no blurring, distorting, skewing, smudging, corrupting, nothing. Apply a mathematical formula or algorithm to that bit stream and what you get is just a different stream of ones and zeroes; note carefully that in digital there is no such thing as a two or a three or anything else that could be considered an unintended byproduct. The new stream of ones and zeroes is converted into analog and the operation is complete. Surely, with digital…
Does high-end audio have a future? High-end audio most definitely does have a future. So do the Latin mass, chess, leather-bound books, and wooden boats. But the future will not be like the past, and I think we must face the fact that high-end audio's future, both for hardware and software, will be as a minority enthusiasm. We should plan and act accordingly. High-end audio has won the battle, but has become the first victim of its own victory. The sound quality of car stereos and of most of the components you can buy at retail stores is substantially better than it was 20 years ago.…
In the middle, independent record labels with high artistic and sonic goals are being squeezed to death. Chain retailers across the country are cutting back on CD rack space for independent labels, and they certainly don't want to hear about hi-rez audio on DVD or SACD. As the fate of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab shows, you can't support a label on the few hundred early adopters who have embraced SACD. On my own label, John Marks Records, the 20-bit DTS discrete surround CD of Nathaniel Rosen's Reverie is a perfect example. With the huge installed base of DTS-capable home theaters, you'd think…
John Atkinson, you were right the first time ("Letters," Stereophile, December 1997, p.17, footnote 1): Jeremy Bentham is, indeed, the famous English philosopher and legal theorist whose mummified remains are preserved at the University of London. Sitting in a large glass display case, Bentham has been holding court since his death in 1832. As you noted, Bentham looks deceptively like a waxwork. But this is because his head, in fact, is made of wax. The original, rumor has it, suffered through one very macabre rugby game played long ago by mischievous students.
Yet Bentham's head was…
Last month I wrote about lasers of various pedigrees, so useful in marking walls to the sides and behind the listening position to ensure that your loudspeakers are toed-in, level, and equidistant from the sweet spot for best soundstage, imaging and focus. Using small Avery stick-'em labels makes this a snap. I've converged the tweeter axes of my JMlab Utopias somewhere about a foot into the wall behind the rearmost of our two listening chairs, and use two Studio Traps and a single Argent RoomLens between the speakers to cancel and damp the near-rear-wall reflections. With just a jiggle of…
