Customer Reviews

Adcom GFP-715 Stereo Pre Amplifier

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Im a moderate technophile who long ago brought into the audiophile audio component philosophy - dedicated electronics for each essential function in the audio delivery stream. And although my audio budget has not been of the caliber to purchase a system that would impress a very serious audio purist, I've always plunked down enough cash to be considered a periphery player in the audio purist game. Performance for the dollar spent has always been my philosophy, hand in hand with my audo purist tendencies. The result has been my present "old school" audio system that has remained with me for a awhile, the guts consisting of a pair of dennon poa4400 mono amps, genesis 210 speakers, and a carver c2 preamp. The audio sources arent as significant because they have come and gone over the years - various cd players, tape decks, and other audio source starts and fits over the years (remember dat players), and even some of the new school formats such as mp3 and successors. Despite these various audio sources, the guts of my audio system remained with the aforementioned dual mono amps, speakers, preamp, and even a yamaha tuner that have been the heart of my audio system over the years.

That said, I've always considered my pre-amp to be sonically adequate but with many feature shortcomings. The biggist shortcoming being the Carver has only a single source input. Yes, there are dedicated phono and tape inputs, but there is an input for only one other source. Probably adequate for the the average audiophile demands a couple of decades ago. But not of contemporary times. I overcame this shortcoming with a Niles source switcher. This was very elemental but effective in allowing several source inputs through the Carver preamp. This worked with good results for awhile. But recently I figured it was time to update my audio system and I was going to start with my pre-amp.

I came across the Adcom 715. It seemed to fit my requirements. Good brand name, all the basic features that I needed (several source inputs, bypass and main output,external processor capability), and at a price at less than a grand. but not a cheap pre-amp. I thought this was the way to go. Especially since my Carver preamp was more than twenty five years older than this Adcom. I reasoned that technology has certainly advanced such that the Adcom 715 had to be a least sonically on par with my Carver - conceived over 30 years ago. In fact the Adcom surely had to be even better than my old Carver. WRONG!! The Adcom sounded bland and even tinny as compared with my old Carver. Somehow the musical spectrum generated from the speakers was not as expansive with the Adcom 715 as compared with my old Carver. And vocals were not as life like. I dont know what the deal is with the Adcom. But Im returning it forthwith and going back to my old Carver for now. I cannot recommend this preamp.

The Adcom GFP-715 sounds good to me. I have an Adcom GFA-545 amplifier and Martin Logan Clarity speakers. When my right channel stopped working on my Adcom GTP-400, I sent it to a place for repair. After spending $150 the repair only lasted a month. I decided to go without a tuner and buy the GFP-715.

I am happy with the listening to the stereo reproduction of musical performances. Although I have found audio cables can make a big difference(kind of off the subject). I put together some mu metal audio cables and they make a definite difference in listening to a piece of music.

So from someone who would spend the extra effort to make his own audio cables, but obviously cannot afford the high end stuff, the GFP-715 is a good preamp.