Adcom Amp with & without JW Mod
Apr 11, 2023 14:35:31 GMT -6
via mobile
Johnkenn, kcatthedog, and 2 more like this
Post by Tbone81 on Apr 11, 2023 14:35:31 GMT -6
Just thought I’d share my experience with my new Adcom 555 with JW mod.
I’m planning a new monitor purchase soon so I upgraded from a stock Adcom 545 to an Adcom 555 with the Jim Williams mod. (Found a good deal on eBay).
The amp is currently powering my humble NHT SuperOnes. When hooking it up I was going yo do my best to A/B between the two, but the day was running late, I was tired and thought ‘screw it’ and just pulled the old amp and replaced it with the modded one. I was expecting to hear a significant difference but without listening to the old one for reference I thought it was going to be on the more subtle side. The type of thing where the differences really stand out over time.
Well…I was wrong. The difference was huge and immediately apparent. The speakers went from dark sounding and having a rolled off low and high end, to sounding HiFi AF! The high end is amazing, the detail is incredible and low end is extended as well, which is amazing for such small woofers. The phantom center is so much more pronounced too. It’s really incredible.
I really can’t believe how much better these speakers sound. The funny thing is they almost sound too good. The NHT’s were my “dirt boxes”. They were my aurotones. They sounded a little muddy and bandwidth limited and they were hard to make mixes sound good. But when you did get them to sound good the mixes translated great. Now they sound too good! Lol
Anyway, I’m super happy. I bought the JW modded Adcom so I could audition some Amphions and ATC’s. So in that usage I think it’ll shine. But I’m not getting ride of my stock 545. I think there’s still a place for it , especially for powering some small auratones or other grot boxes.
I’m planning a new monitor purchase soon so I upgraded from a stock Adcom 545 to an Adcom 555 with the Jim Williams mod. (Found a good deal on eBay).
The amp is currently powering my humble NHT SuperOnes. When hooking it up I was going yo do my best to A/B between the two, but the day was running late, I was tired and thought ‘screw it’ and just pulled the old amp and replaced it with the modded one. I was expecting to hear a significant difference but without listening to the old one for reference I thought it was going to be on the more subtle side. The type of thing where the differences really stand out over time.
Well…I was wrong. The difference was huge and immediately apparent. The speakers went from dark sounding and having a rolled off low and high end, to sounding HiFi AF! The high end is amazing, the detail is incredible and low end is extended as well, which is amazing for such small woofers. The phantom center is so much more pronounced too. It’s really incredible.
I really can’t believe how much better these speakers sound. The funny thing is they almost sound too good. The NHT’s were my “dirt boxes”. They were my aurotones. They sounded a little muddy and bandwidth limited and they were hard to make mixes sound good. But when you did get them to sound good the mixes translated great. Now they sound too good! Lol
Anyway, I’m super happy. I bought the JW modded Adcom so I could audition some Amphions and ATC’s. So in that usage I think it’ll shine. But I’m not getting ride of my stock 545. I think there’s still a place for it , especially for powering some small auratones or other grot boxes.
