Is Adcom a "bright" sounding amp? (1 Viewer)

Especially after enough hours of proper "break in" or "run in" time? I thought when I first heard them at the store that they were a least a little bright. It was a new demo model that they had just put out without many hours on it. I bought one used, but it didn't seem as "bright" to me once I had it set up at home as the newer store demo model. Other opinions?

Which one? Adcom makes some great stuff, a lot of decent gear at a fair price, and some crap.

IMHO, the MOSFET amps (most if not all 5xxx two and three channel amps) are decidedly neutral or even a bit laid back.

I've lived with their bipolar amps (5xx models and all >= 3 channel amps) for 6 or 7 years and would say they're revealing, but could be either neutral or a bit forward.

This could also be placebo effect - power amps never proved interesting enough for me to perform blind comparisons.

The speakers and room will make a bigger difference. Unless both were identical in your comparisons, they weren't valid.

Break-in with solid state components doesn't occur, although listener break-in does: given enough exposure to a given sound, your sense of hearing will adapt to filter your perceptions to be "right".

Perhaps the possibility that your speakers and room are different from where you initially heard then?

Although it depends upon which Adcom you listened to, in general Adcom is on the warm side of neutral.