should I upgrade my amp

agree the preamp should be upgraded first - pre is the most important component. Its quality, or compromise thereof, determines a great deal of the overall systems' performance. Perhaps it's time to consider a quality intergated amp & put the Adcoms' out to pasture.

I have an adcom 450 pre-amp and 2 adcom 555II amps bridged mono. I like the sound of the two 555's bridged a lot better than just the one. The 555 is 200w times two. Bridged they put out 600w per. I know this is not the most liked amp on the site, but for the 1k i paid for the pair i don't think i did that bad. And if you don't like them i'm sure you could sell them on ebay for the same price you bought them for. They seem to sound alot smoother than just the one. But then again i'm really just starting out so what do i know.

good luck
tommy

I used to have a pair of the Spicas with matching Hercules stands...and an older Class A MF intergrated...and this was the best combination I came up with...huge soundstage,and ofcourse...legendary 3-d imaging which the Spicas are famous for...dont know if this helps...a tube pre would be a nice addition as well...

What ICs, power cords and speaker wire are you using? These may make a bigger change in your system than the amp or preamp depending on what you are usig now. I compared 12 amps over the past four months and there wasn't that big of an improvement over better cables.