Acurus A200 vs Adcom 5800

Without any budget limitation, there are hundred of other amps that are definitely better than the A200 and as good as - if not better than - any being mentioned here. I have no experience w/ Adcom 5800 but I do have Acurus A200 and RL-11 driving the Magenepan 1.6 and I am quite happy w/ the setup. Of course, I would rather have the Aragon 8008xx or Bryston 4Bxx but each of them is more than twice the price of an A200. I am sure the Adcom 5800 would be the same as well. BTW, the A200 has been discontinued but you still can find them on used market for about $500. An used 8088 or 4B is at least twice that much so take your pick.

Spud.

No crazy way. The Acurus sounds good to only those of limited hearing or listening experience. I visited a friend that was powering his Martin Logans with an Acurus. He was playing, "Your Not the Man." I recognized the words of the song but not the singer. It sounded a little like Donald Duck it was so grainy, veiled and pinched. I blurted out, "Is that Sade singing?" I was embarassed, but my friend assured me it was and the crummy sound was the fault of his amp. We plugged in my amp and there whe was, Sade. I know I'm going to get flack, but its a true story. That Acurus owner went right out and bought a Sonic Frontiers. Adcom has a much better, though not great, sound than Acurus.

sonic frontiers......acurus......hmmmmmmmm.... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. I hate to inform you but some will say ML's are borderline unlistenable too. doens't mean the person have limited hearing or listening experience, depends on taste. there is no way an adcom anything sounds that much better than an acurus. Acurus can sound bright and I imagine combining an electrostat and the acurus could be a sharp combo but the potentially bright acurus sound is no secret, what was your friend thinking combining the 2. sounds like he has the limited experience. I would bet if you didi a double blind test between the 2, most peopel wouldn't be able to tell the difference. One thing that is a 100% fact is that the Acurus has better bass control and dynamic power, possibly all else being equal to the 5800. both have their limitations but are vry good for this price range.

Any planar or ribbon speaker will out perform any dynamic driver when it comes to revealing true downstream character. I ran a series of solid state amps on my Boston acoustics towers, without hearing any significant differences in sonics except for, yes, bass control. As soon as I bought Apogee Stage speakers it was a different story, and the only amp I could find at the time that didn't offend and was within my budget was a used Jolida 1000a. This amp converted several audio friends into going to tubes one way or another. I now own Apogee Duetta Signatures and am using a Pass Labs X150 solid state mated with a Sonic Frontiers Line pre. This combo, even used, is way out of budget for those looking at Acurus of Adcom. I'm just mentioning it because money is need to get a ss amp that rivals tubes. Tubes will still do the job better in the under $2000 range. I just sold my Jolida to a fellow running inefficient Norwegian mini monitors, with titanium tweeters. After trying Adcom unsuccessfully, he is a happy camper now.

I have not heard the Adcom 5800. I own an Acurus A250 (which is basically the same as the A200), powering Totem Model 1 biwires via an Audio Research hybrid preamp. This combination gives a wonderfully musical sound, with great accuracy. Many non-audiophiles and professional musicians have wondered (from around the corner) if the music was live. I use a Rega Planet and Planar 3 as sources, along with an NAD tuner, an HK CD changer with HDCD, and Yamaha KX-500 and cheap JVC double cassette decks. I also use a genesis servo 10 subwooofer with 300 watt amp (the monitors run full range). I have stopped the continual upgrade process for the forseable future. So, in response to the Acurus bashing, my ears tell me otherwise. I suggest you audition the amps at home and trust your ears. Rather than constant A/B switching, try long listening periods (including background listening) and be on the lookout for ear fatigue (I have found that many initially impressive sounds reveal themselves to be harsh, over-etched, whatever your preferred term is, over time).