Adcom GFP-750 vs Parasound P/LD-2000 Preamps?

Rcrump: You affiliated with Parasound in any way?I just picked up my 3rd HCA3500 as a mod project. Maybe you can shoot me an email on some of the mods/parts needed to upgrade the SQ of the HCA3500. I heard Jcurl did some mods to an HCA3500 significantly improving its voicing and top end that eventually let to the JC-1's.

Hi Ritteri........Just a bit affiliated as Curl, Thompson and Crump, CTC Builders, designed the JC-1 monos for Parasound after we spent a couple years on the CTC BBQ, a highly modified HCA-3500.....I chose the parts, voiced the amp and was project manager of the JC-1 project, Curl did the changes to the circuit and Thompson designed the boards......We, CTC, also build a very expensive preamp known as the CTC Blowtorch and I own TG Audio that builds accessory wires......Lots of work to clean up the HCA-3500 as deleted about 200 parts, replaced them with about 80 and had to have new metalwork made for the top and front......The amp served me well for about three years and recently was replaced by the JC-1s which are just in a different league from the modified HCA-3500 due to Thompson's layouts.......Smoother, much faster and cleaner are the differences I hear here with the JC-1s over the CTC BBQ.......If you are still interested in modding the HCA-3500s then contact me, but think you will be better off saving for the JC-1s.......

Well guys,
Out of sheer curiousity, what the current opinion on a sonic comparison between the top dog Adcom and the top dog Parasound?

I, personally, don't want to comment on this comparison.
After owning 2 Parasound P/LD-2000's and atleast 4 Adcom GFP-750's, I still can't figure out which is sonically superior! They both have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Nuff said!

Running a preamp and power amp from the same designer / manufacturer tends to colour the sound in one particular fashion too heavily in my experience. That's because all of the same design goals / circuit implimentation / sonic traits of the preamp are implimented all over again in the amp. Better to mix and match, unless one likes that specific sonic flavouring that "matched components" tend to generate.

With the above in mind, i've always thought that Curl's preamp designs had a lot more potential built into them and Pass's amps were nicer sounding. That's just my opinion based on the exposure that i have to both engineers previously available designs.

Bare in mind that unless the engineer / designer is the one that is actually manufacturing the product, what they design / engineer and how the manufacturer actually produces that product may be two different things. As such, the designer / engineer shouldn't necessarily be judged by another manufacturers product. In this specific case, Adcom and Parasound had the final say, not Curl or Pass. Sean
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