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Audiophiles have been emailing me their experiences with Adcom gear. For many, Adcom was the ticket out of mid-fi, and into high-end audio. And so it was for me.
I'll never forget my first day of college, when I moved into the Crown College dorms at UC Santa Cruz, in September 1989. My dad was also named John (we have different middle names). So when my roommate Josh arrived, he thought that my dad was going to be his roommate. In fact, Josh was kind of disappointed that he wasn't getting my dad. Josh felt that the middle-aged guy would have been the life of the party, the leader of the dorm.
Instead, Josh got me. But he thought it was cool, that I had an interest in audio. On account of the ads in Audio, Stereo Review, Stereophile, and TAS magazines, I was interested in Adcom. In particular, the affordable GCD-575 CD player, GTP-500 tuner/preamp, and GFA-535 power amp piqued my attention.
During Spring Break 1990, for my 18th birthday, I got an Adcom GFA-535. Like the audiophiles at the top of the page, I felt that the GFA-535 was my entrance into high-end audio. And once you sample high-end audio's goods, you never go back to mid-fi.
The last time Adcom placed an ad for the GCD-575 in Stereophile was the May 1992 issue. At the same time, Rob Halford left Judas Priest.
When I moved into the Crown-Merrill apartments in September 1992, I had an Adcom GTP-400 to pair with my GFA-535. On the first or second day after move-in, my wannabe hippie neighbor, Heather, and I made the short walk to the campus radio station, KZSC. KZSC really only played alt-rock and world beat. Thus, they had no use for other genres of music. So, when the school year started, KZSC sold all the promo CDs record labels had sent them.
Oh ho ho; on that day, I purchased this promo CD single of Rob Halford's "Light Comes Out Of Black," which was from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer soundtrack. And who was Halford's backing band on this song? Pantera!
My Taiwanese friend Trina occasionally came over to my apartment. Man, her photo from her bottom bunk reminds me of the holes in the platform. My roommates almost always had the bottom bunk, so those holes are not part of my permanent memory. Anyway, while Adcom was based in New Jersey, the GTP-500II had a State of California sticker indicating that it had been received and inspected from its manufacture in Taiwan. Yeah, yeah, Trina looked at the Adcom's display, and teased, "Light comes out of black!"
Unlike the GTP-400, the GTP-500II has two gold-plated variable RCA outputs. One is labeled "Lab," the other "Norm." My friends and I have no idea about "protection circuits," so...
...we'll just let the manual speak. With our amps from Adcom, AudioPrism, Classe', Conrad-Johnson, Decware, Krell, Meridian, Muse, Rotel, Sonographe, and Wright Sound, the "lab" output has never given us any trouble.
Excluding the protrusions, but including its feet, the GTP-500II measures 17"W x 3.25"H x 11.375"D. It should fit into a wide variety of racks, including those 1980s "entertainment centers." However, if the sensor is blocked, or the unit is out of line of sight, you could have purchased an outboard Adcom remote sensor, which connected via 5-pin DIN.
An 8-pin DIN allowed you to use the GTP-500II's remote to control basic functions of an Adcom CD player, such as the GCD-575.
I do not have much experience with that GCD-575, which came out in the late-80s. In the mid-to-late 90s, we did pick up an Adcom GCD-700 CD changer.
Rob Halford would form his own band, called Fight. Versus Fight and Pantera, "Light Comes Out of Dark" is not as focused, produced, and stable. It's kind of raw and jiggly. But the fun and heartfelt energy come through. There's an analogy here. More expensive preamps are like the professionally-produced Fight and Pantera albums. When you go down to the GTP-500II's line-level inputs, you don't get the expansive soudstaging, see-across-campus transparency, and freedom from grain and distortion.
The GTP-500II is more like Heather's Birkenstocks stepping on the wooden planks leading to KZSC. It is more like the giddy sense of discovery, as you shuffled through KZSC's promo CDs. It is more like giggling and talking story with Trina on the bunk bed. If it's not my then-middle-aged dad, there exists a sort of late-teen/early-20s fun and charm, to the GTP-500II.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
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