• Very high power
• Great sound
• Low noise
• Protection circuitry
• Standby mode
$2,999
The Adcom GFA-555se power amplifier that is the subject of this review is an evolution of an amplifier that, shortly after it was released in March 1985, became not only Adcom's best-selling and most famous model but also one of the most famous amps of the last century. Reviewer Anthony Cordesman, who reviewed it at the time for Stereophile magazine, said: “It is so clearly superior to past amplifiers in the low-to-mid-priced range - not to mention most amplifiers costing two to three times its price - that I can unhesitatingly recommend it for even the most demanding high-end system.”
That the Adcom GFA-555 should have been successful was no surprise to anyone working in audio electronics back in the ‘80s, because the then-owner of Adcom, Alec Chenin, who had taken over the reins when his father Newt (also Adcom's founder) retired, had dispensed with the services of the designers his father had used (Morris Kessler and Ed Miller) and instead hired those of the-then young (34-years-old) wunderkind designer Nelson Pass. Pass had made his name at Threshold and in 1991 would go on to found Pass Labs, which he continues to front to this day.
Despite the success of the GFA-555 (the initials stand for ‘Great F**cking Amplifier’, by the way), Adcom was taking a hit on warranty returns for it, because
