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ADA power amp - B500B

MikeyB

MikeyB

Aug 16, 2006
645
5
Sykesville, MD
#1
I have an ADA power amp, model B500B. I believe it was designed with biamp systems in mind as the power attenuators on the front are labelled as "Channel A LOW" and "Channel B HIGH". I believe the low end is more powerful than the high end, but not sure on the specs.

On back of amp:
675 Watts, 7amp
385 watts - 4 ohms
225 Watts - 8 ohms
127 Watts - 16 ohms

I've never seen any others, nor read about them here. Anybody have any more info on who uses/used these, and what it might be worth?

Thanks!

-Mike
 
#3
MikeyB said:
anyone? anyone? ... is this on?....
Click to expand...

I have two of these, Very clean power amps, last years Vintage Guitar Price guide had these priced out at $475 USD in high condition although EBay says different, they seem to have been left out of this years book. Pretty heavy at 28 pounds they are designed for Biamp applications where you can adjust the crossover on your preamp or BBE to keep your signal seperation as clean as you like. This works well with the ADA MB-1 preamp and many others. The higher powered channel goes to the low end. You can't bridge these amps.

Built like tanks I've never had any trouble with mine.
 
#4
MikeyB said:
I have an ADA power amp, model B500B. I believe it was designed with biamp systems in mind as the power attenuators on the front are labelled as "Channel A LOW" and "Channel B HIGH". I believe the low end is more powerful than the high end, but not sure on the specs.

On back of amp:
675 Watts, 7amp
385 watts - 4 ohms
225 Watts - 8 ohms
127 Watts - 16 ohms

I've never seen any others, nor read about them here. Anybody have any more info on who uses/used these, and what it might be worth?

Thanks!

-Mike
Click to expand...

Victor Bailey, Vic Wooten, Les Claypool were all onboard with ADA, back in it's heyday.
 
#5
Thanks Guys!

Yea, I remember hearing that Wooten and Bailey were using these at the time I bought it. (I don't think I had heard of Claypool then!)

But bi-amping is not my thing these days, and I just recently acquired a Crest CA-9 for my solid-state power amp gas. :smug:

I'll either have to pony up and become a supporting member to offer it for sale here.. or put it on the 'Bay.

Thanks again for the info...

-M
 
#7
Crabby said:
Put is up for sale at adadepot.com . There is a lot of love on this sight for all ADA gear and you should have no trouble selling it at a good price.
Click to expand...

adadepot.com has a lot of restrictions regarding sellers, you do not have to be a supporting member but you have to have posted a certain number of relevant posts before you can sell anything! It is the end of the line and a great source of info for any and all of the equipment formerly known as ADA! I was going to sell my ADA rig but couldn't think of enough things to say about my stuff that had not been done already!

I picked up both of my B500B power amps on Ebay for a hundred bucks each! Worth every penny! I run my two cabs in series creating a 4ohm load and use the low channel to send 355 watts to each cab. When you use just one output on the B500B it automatically defeats the second channel.
 
#8
MikeyB said:
I have an ADA power amp, model B500B. I believe it was designed with biamp systems in mind as the power attenuators on the front are labelled as "Channel A LOW" and "Channel B HIGH". I believe the low end is more powerful than the high end, but not sure on the specs.

On back of amp:
675 Watts, 7amp
385 watts - 4 ohms
225 Watts - 8 ohms
127 Watts - 16 ohms

I've never seen any others, nor read about them here. Anybody have any more info on who uses/used these, and what it might be worth?

Thanks!

-Mike
Click to expand...
I have one also. I love it and still use it. To me its priceless because the 2 channels allow me to run to lines one clean one dirty if I want. Yes more power comes from channel A but both can be used for full signal not just bi amping. I used to have the MB1 should have kept that for posterity because it was old when I sold.
 
#9
great199 said:
I have one also. I love it and still use it. To me its priceless because the 2 channels allow me to run 2 lines through my Sansamp RBI, one clean one dirty if I want. Yes more power comes from channel A but both can be used for full signal not just bi amping. 4 ohm load for max power. I used to have the MB1 should have kept that for posterity because it was old when I sold.
Click to expand...
Who knows what its worth. I think its a matter of someone really knowing about it and wanting it. At which point its worth a lot because its rare.
 

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