All great suggestions, and mostly unfamiliar territory.
The Butler sounds particularly intriguing to me high current plus valves who knew? This is what I was unconsciously hoping for, and it's how I came to look at the ARC products
In between my posting any your responses I made an offer on a nicely upgraded (tubes, caps etc.) ARC VS115 right here on the 'gon and it was accepted. I guess I was also hoping to upgrade when the amp stopped working.
While parting with the Aragon will be bittersweet (it's served me very well) here in NYC maintaining such a beast is not only terribly expensive, but the number of shops is few and far between (and with Aragon changing hands and now belonging to Klipsch, support is virtually non-existent). Last time it was taken in, the final bill was easily the cost of purchasing another NM replacement.
Once the ARC is in place (following a cross-country trip) I will post impressions. Given my familiarity with it, my expectations are high.
The Butler sounds particularly intriguing to me high current plus valves who knew? This is what I was unconsciously hoping for, and it's how I came to look at the ARC products
In between my posting any your responses I made an offer on a nicely upgraded (tubes, caps etc.) ARC VS115 right here on the 'gon and it was accepted. I guess I was also hoping to upgrade when the amp stopped working.
While parting with the Aragon will be bittersweet (it's served me very well) here in NYC maintaining such a beast is not only terribly expensive, but the number of shops is few and far between (and with Aragon changing hands and now belonging to Klipsch, support is virtually non-existent). Last time it was taken in, the final bill was easily the cost of purchasing another NM replacement.
Once the ARC is in place (following a cross-country trip) I will post impressions. Given my familiarity with it, my expectations are high.