What is my weak est link...? Suggestions please.

I second Schubert's reco.

I remember back when Adcom first came out. I had Adcom's top of the line 555 amps running in mono with their top of the line preamp. The speakers were Definitive Technology BP-20's, their top of the line at that time.

I bought a Krell KRC-3 preamp and KSA-50S amp along with Dunlavy speakers to replace the system.

For grins, before swapping out the Definitive Techs with the Dunlavys, I hooked up the BP-20s to the Krells. I never heard the BP-20s sound as good as they did then!

If you want to upgrade, leave the speakers alone for now.

Chuck

The Adcom 5800 compares pale vs a pair of 565 mono blocks if you want to stay loyal to Adcom as a brand; staying loyal to Nelson Pass is certainly a good choice going Pass Labs. Cables and good power conditioning and cheap tweaking (read the zillon comments about footers) should help to improve the sound a lot.

Viridian, Harshly stated but on point I think. :-)

Abp, Were I in your place I would focus all my attention on getting a full range speaker I had listened to and could build my system around. Speakers first, amp second, sources/pre amp, and lastly everything else, especially tweaks that result in only minor differences. Cables both IC's and speaker cables should come dead last. You can get by on some excellent and inexpense ones til you are really flush. If you have done your work in component selection in the first place you won't need the high-priced frequency response benders, and IMHO that is all most of them are.

But, by all means, get out and start listening to systems in others homes or in B&M stores and see what is possible. Even if you have to put down that book for a while. I think you will be shocked! You might even find an audio friend in your area willing to help if you were to ask.

Good luck.......