need to upgrade my system

I'm kinda cash-strapped because I have three bipedal monophonic mobile units running around the house, ages six, four, and one year old in December. The two youngest love music and the oldest thinks straight pipes out of any engine is music.

We live in a small town with no good thrift shops within 50 miles. Ebay seems to be my only real hope. I don't want a receiver because I'd only be able to pull-in staticy stations I don't want to listen to. So, I'm looking at integrated amps or pre/power amp. Brands are adcom, nad, or carver. Those because they seem to provide most bang-for-buck at this time in history. If I come across a low priced "popular" brand and it looks good, I'd buy it.

I guess my question is are there any adcom/nad/carver units to avoid or any that are better than average. I'd like at least 50wrms but if it had a lot of head room I'd consider going lower.
:scratch2:
It's been a few decades since I was into stereo. Now I want my daughters to see what music sounds like out of good equipment.

Welcome here, good luck with the search. Patience is my advice.
I also live in a small town, fundraiser garage sales, and a local Facebook selling site have been good to me.

I've got both Adcom & NAD preamp & amps.

My BR system is a Adcom GTP-450 preamp/tuner & GFA-535 (mkI) amp,and for a 60wpc amp it's definitely got some "grunt" to it (ie: overhead),from what I've heard/read these GFA-535's typically measure closer to 80+ wpc as SOP in real world testing,BTW they also make a mkII version of the GFA-535 with different speaker outputs (binding posts) and a few other changes.

Also do not to forget the GFA-545 (mkI / mkII) 100wpc amps as they too can often be had for reasonable $$$ too.

I have a GFA-545 (mkI) amp in my rack enclosure system along with a GFA-555 (mkI) and a GTP-502 preamp/tuner,but have'nt quite got that one ready to go just yet.

They (Adcom) also have the GFA-5200 (50wpc) the GFA-5300 (80 wpc) and the GFA-5400 (125wpc) line of MOSFET amps as well.

I just so happen to have a GFA-5200 and a GTP-500 preamp/tuner in the LR here,and it too gets the job done.

I also have a NAD 3140 integrated for a "test" unit and that's 40wpc and it is much the same story as the Adcom GTP-450/GFA-535 combo I mentioned above,as it too punches way above it's wpc class as well (very good overhead).

And I recently picked up a NAD 1300 preamp to pair up with a nice clean Onkyo M-5100 amp (110wpc) that I picked up,both those units were very reasonably priced otherwise I likely would'nt have bought them,as I am very budget constrained like many others.

So yeah,I think you could do a lot worse than getting one of those two Brands (Adcom/NAD).

Carver & NAD sometimes have reports of iffy reliability records,but that did'nt scare me too much,and for the price the NAD's often go for,it's hard for a guy like me to walk away just because a few units still in use outta the umpteen thousands made had issues.

There are bargains to be had for just about any brand too,but it does take a bit of time & effort to bring them home,and sometimes you hafta walk away from a deal or two in the process (for whatever reasons),which is really hard to do.

Example: I've been eye'ing up some of the lower models of the Sansui AU/TU line,and have seen/bid on a few and almost got them,but those auctions went just a little higher $$$$ than I was willing to go @ that time because I really did'nt need them,but those too would be some great integrated amps to look into (Sansui AU-217/317/417).

Good luck on your hunt!

Bret P.

Consider joining Barter Town.

davidb1 said:

Consider joining Barter Town.

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^^^^ This is good advice, lots of great sellers and equipment. ^^^^

Thanks for your detailed reply xero-D-hero. Sonically, how would you differentiate the Adcom and NAD?