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"WTF is wrong with these losers?!" writes an audiophile named Gilbert, now in southern Washington state. "Rocky Road is awesome. Attacking the guy who makes it so just proves what losers these guys are."
"Now where was I? Oh yeah. Back to Adcom. I had an Adcom GFA-555II. Sometime in the early-90s, I sent it somewhere, to have it modded. It came back with upgraded wiring, parts, and Cardas jacks. When it finally came back to me, I thought it made [Extreme's] 'More Than Words' much more believable."
"I never did get an Adcom preamp. So with you reviewing the [GTP] 400, 500II, and now 450, I pay attention. What, if anything, did I miss? Oh well, those losers are missing out on all the fun and music on Rocky Road."
On September 1, 1992, I bought an Adcom GTP-400 tuner/preamp. I would then bring it down to UC Santa Cuz, for my senior year. While I was returning to on-campus apartments, all of my friends Kim, Ngoc, Pauline, Quyen, and Tuyet were now living off-campus. They had already moved-in, during the summer, though they did not necessarily spend all that time in Santa Cruz.
I was bummed, because with all of them living off-campus, the chances of seeing them were greatly reduced. However, Kim recognized that my on-campus apartment would be a pit stop, between classes. She also knew she'd be able to sleep overnight, if need be, especially if she had an early-morning class the next day.
Kim took the lead, and had everyone come over to my apartment, where they were stoked about the Sony CDP-520ESII CD player; Adcom GTP-400 tuner/preamp and GFA-535 power amp; and Pinnacle PN-5+ minimonitors. Unlike the few bad apples, whom Gilbert called "losers," my friends were eager to hear not just old favorites, but new-to-them popular music.
Kim organized a Saturday afternoon get-together, where the girls made pho, Vietnamese rice noodle soup. Yep, some radio station played Extreme's "More Than Words."
Which brings us to the GTP-400's successor, the GTP-450. The GTP-450 has a clip, to hold a rectangular loop AM antenna (which we have lost). There are two provisions for FM: a 75-ohm F-type connector, or 300-ohm 2-screw. AM antenna also has its own 2-screw.
My housemate Tron was criticizing which ingredients the girls used to make pho. Yet, he ate the whole bowl he dished out for himself!
The GTP-450 sports four single-ended (RCA) line-level analog inputs: (1) CD, (2) Video/Aux, (3) Tape 1 and (4) Tape 2. In a nod to mid-1990s home theater, the GTP-450 also has an external processor loop.
The "Main Out" is via a pair of female RCA jacks. None of these RCAs is gold-plated.
At first, Tron was annoyed, at all of the girls coming over. I guess he wanted me to bring guys over, so we could be all buddy-buddy, and do sports things. But he did warm up to the girls, who, in general, did not make a mess. Moreover, Tron was always curious, about which dishes girls would bring over or cook. Hands-down, Quyen was the best cook.
Just like the GTP-400, the GTP-450 has two 2-prong polarized AC outlets. When we had the GTP-400, we initially didn't have powerline conditioners. Heck, we didn't even have a hardware store powerstrip. Thus, we were limited to the number of electrical outlets, in that college apartment. We plugged a Terk FM-9500 powered antenna into the GTP-400's "switched" outlet. And then a table lamp was plugged into the "unswitched" outlet.
During that Fall 1992 quarter, some of the girls were over, when we saw the video for Roy Orbison's "I Drove All Night." While the girls did not blow a fuse, they were all agog about Jason Priestly, then a star on Beverly Hills 90210. My friends did not know that the young woman in the music video was Jennifer Connelly. "I didn't either," writes Gilbert.
Of interest to modern-day audiophiles, the Adcom GTP-450 uses a large, fast-blow, 1A fuse.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
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Topic - Adcom GTP-450, Part 3 - Luminator 22:17:11 02/20/23 (2)
- RE: Adcom GTP-450, Part 3 - Ozzy 09:34:00 02/22/23 (1)
- +1... N/T - musetap 11:50:56 02/22/23 (0)
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