Need help choosing a stereo reciever

[Aja]

I have two decent sound-cards, actually - an M-Audio 2496, and an external Edirol UA-25. Both sound great, and the Edirol includes two decent mic preamps.

The Adcom has a built-in phono preamp, though - can anyone vouch for its quality? If it sounds good enough, I could probably exchange my ProJect preamp for a used CD player.

 

[Sherwood]

I used an included phono preamp for a long time, and the quality wasn't up to what I wanted. However, the Adcom is surely decent. The best thing would be to listen to it, of course, and sell your pro-ject only if you don't notice the difference.

 

[Aja]

Do you know what a good price for a GTP500 is? I'm sitting with a few hours left in the auction and I don't want to get outbid because I don't know what the thing is actually worth...

 

[SysteX]

I bought a used GTP-500II for $210 shipped in 7/10 condition on the Audiogon scale. I probably wouldn't go over $220 shipped for the original GTP-500, and I would only do that if it was in pristine condition.

 

[Aja]

Well, I maybe payed a bit more than I should've, but the seller seems trustworthy and it should arrive well-packaged. I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

 

[artizen65]

Aja,

If it is the one I was looking at $152 and change is not a bad price.

As far as the on board phono pre I don't think it will stack up to your ProJect phono pre. But give it a shot.

Glad you picked up a good addition to your system.

 

[Aja]

Yeah it was $152, plus $38 to ship to Canada. Overall I'm in slightly over 200 CDN. It'll be double-boxed at least, and unlike some ebay-sellers, this one actually contacted me to let me know.

Looking forward to finally being able to use my turntable!

 

[Aja]

It finally arrived!

First impressions are good. It sounds punchier and seems to have greater definition than than what I'm used to. The high-end is a little bright, but that could very easily be a combination of the speakers and room. At anything but very high volumes, it sounds great. The headphone amp is not particularly good, but I don't really need it - I'll plug directly into the CD or MP3 player if I ever want to use headphones.

I don't know about the on board phono pre. To be honest, my turntable's not that great, and I like the Pro-Ject, so I'm not going to bother with any comparision tests at the moment.

So, barring any massive explosions or meltdowns, I think this Adcom is going to work quite well.

Cheers for the recommendations, everyone.

 

[donor]

Out of curiosity how did you have your speakers directly hooked up to your computer?

I didn't know that was possible. I had similar speakers but sold them because I thought I needed an amp or receiver, so I ended up selling the speakers because I couldn't afford it.

 

[Aja]

I have an Maudio sound card with RCA inputs, I just plugged the speakers directly into it. The speakers have built-in power amps, but I never had any preamp hooked up. It could get fairly loud (the speakers themselves are not able to handle super-high volumes), but I'm finding that it sounds a lot better with the new preamp, even at lower volumes.

 

[islewind]

You made a wonderful choice. As long as someone didn't rip out the insides or soak it in swampwater, you will be thrilled with that Adcom. Good work.

 

[Aja]

Apart from a scratch or two, it's in great shape. Incidentally, it was very-well packaged. The seller ("dualparts" on Ebay) shipped it in bubble wrap, boxed, styrofoamed, and boxed again. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him.

 

[Aja]

Okay I take it back: the headphone amp IS good, I'm just used to my MP3 and CD players. Yikes...

 

[tbonner1]

Good choice for a well made unit. Resale will be easy if you want to upgrade.