Adcom GIA-275 Stereo Integrated Amp/DAC Discussions | Drop

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Adcom GIA-275 Stereo Integrated Amp/DAC

Audiophile

FULL DISCUSSION

kbear

Mar 11, 2016

The google translation of the Whathifi review linked earlier got me totally confused so I got my Thai wife to try to give me a brief translation of the conclusion. Although she is highly educated, her technical knowledge of audio components or anything electronic for that matter is zero. Literally. She really struggled to understand what the reviewer was saying so take the following FWIW. I added my own notations in [brackets].
/start/==========================
Conclusion
The first time the importer told me about the Adcom I was expecting it to be large in size, heavy -- 20 kg or more, and over 100W per channel.
However the actual unit is much smaller than expected -- about 2 hands x 2 hands x half a hand [LxWxH]. The weight is as light as a CD player. Other surprises were that it is made more for PC users than audiophiles and that it has a wireless antenna. All this made me wonder if it was worth reviewing because there are many integrated amps like this in the market, both cheaper and more expensive, but they sound like sound coming from a computer.
However after the test I felt it was very good, much better than expected. I cannot say it is super high end but it is enough to turn the heads of discerned listeners. The detail of the sound is at the level of a pure class A amp. This kind of level fulfills your emotion with both the vocals and the music. The dimension of the sound can be a weakness for high end listeners. However it is more than enough for casual listeners.
Note 1 Listening with Sony XBA 20 headphones plugged into the Adcom, [...] the sound was fresh and focused. [...]
(Plugging or unplugging the headphone jack requires that you minimise the volume otherwise you will hear very loud static noise.)
Note 2 After listening through speakers and headphones I can say the gain transfer graph is not linear. The low vol is not as low as it should be while the high vol is not really high because the sound becomes compressed. Therefore high end listeners may not be 100% satisfied. This curve is easy to understand because it is normally done when the power amp is not 100W [...] [huh?]
Note 3 I was shocked to find out that the price is 36,000 baht (US 1,300) [USD 1022 using current rates]. This price and quality can shake up the high end market.
Consider that a good DAC is 25,000 baht and up.
A good headphone amp is 10,000 baht and up.
Just these two things are already 35,000 baht, but this has a variety of connections. The amp has high end sound quality. So you get more than you pay for.
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Mar 11, 2016