stereo junky summer - v.ii

The summer I went a little crazy with stereo equipment.

It was a roller coaster ride,

that's returned almost full circle.

It started with these huge 300 watt amps,

mono-block Adcom gfa-565's.

They're were a steal,

but there was a catch.

This series was known to have a bad run of leaky capacitors,

and they needed attention.

What looks like a 4 step process online,

is much more daunting under the knife.

I ended up trading them for a working amp,

a 200 wpc Adcom gfa-555,

and a sweet Sansui CA-2000 preamp.

This setup delving into the budget high-end realm.

The Sansui preamp was trick 

in that it could control two separate amos,

basically a front and rear.

The sound was better than the theater we watched Star Wars 7 in!

After some studying,

I found Adcom started by making these little-huge amps,

GFA-1's that were actually 200 wpc.

The reviews online were sketchy,

which resulted in scoring these for $50/75!

I liked the sound better than the gfa-555,

and the full time fans didn't bother me.

Bye 555!

By luck a clean Sansui TU-719 tuner was found,

sadly short lived as it didn't match the pre.

Although it worked perfectly,

the vanity of not matching won out.

The TU-9900 is 5X the price and most likely the same.

I'd regret this decision.

Meanwhile these huge Klipsch Chorus speakers

were on ebay for a steal.

That's what happens with local pickup only.

The wood was a little rough,

and I'm not a fan of oak,

so we tried to darken them with stain.

Yeah I'm picky...

but what about the sound?

These babies are flat out awesome.

I really liked the forte series with 12" woofers.

Remember them on the van?

They thumped in the open air.

The choruses are louder,

deeper and almost cleaner with the same power.

I'm hooked.

Online their reviews are love/hate,

stemming from the use of ports 

vs a passive radiator in the second series,

and an overly simple crossover.

Some people like technology more than sound!

I knew they were keepers 

when Jaxon set up the stool time listening seat.

They're hooked up as garage speakers for now.

Even Jaxon got into it,

we found some RSL 3300's for their room.

A JBL 4311 knock off that sounds darned good.

Jaxon also practiced the de-oxit cleaning,

enough to do on his own.

Definitely a great help!

Ultimately we downsized to a Sansui AU-717,

supposedly an 85 wpc monster that sounds twice that,

even powering the front Klipsch cornwalls

and rear La Scalas.

See how I should have kept the matching tuner!

To keep the cream I offed a ton of good chit, 

basically breaking even while upgrading.

The altec 811b's and 416 project...

Bye...

The sansui 9090 havin issues,

the qrx-8001 sitting too long,

the ca-2000 too scratchy even after 3 cleanings...

Bye...

other unused receivers were ditched,

and it feels good.

Sounds even better!

TP