2. amps-preamps
  3. 1352603751

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

So here it is: I have a budget of $4000 to upgrade one of the following:

Speakers: Hales Concept 2 (one tweeter - one 7" driver)
Pre: Adcom GFP-750 (Nelson Pass design)
Amp: Adcom 5800

My Thoughts:

Speakers are built like tanks - solid walnut & concrete. Although they lack bottom end.

Bought the Pre years ago; A/B'd them to a Krell Pre ("lower line") which I was prepared to buy. Based on my audition at that time, I picked the Adcom.

Originally, I was thinking about a McIntosh 300 watt amp to replace the Adcom. However, does anyone have any experience with the Adcom GFP-750 as compared to other pre-amps? Also, do you think $$$ would be better spent replacing the Hales with a pair of BW801? I could add a subwoofer, but I kinda like the simplicity of the two speaker set-up.

Thanks for any positive feedback! It is great to have a support community out here in iPod world...

ABP
abp689
schubert
7,386 posts
 
You'd have to nuts not to keep da Hales and not lose the Adcom stuff ASAP.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I second Schubert's reco.
krell_man
827 posts
 

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
polyglot
77 posts
 
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.
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