Is the Hegel H-20 better than the Parasound A-21?

Audiooracle...is their a new MKII of the 8008? I read reviews on the 8008 ten years ago. That version was not considered warm, but neutral and analytical according to the reviews. I'll check it out. Bent Holter at Hegel appears to be taking Europe by storm in recent years. The word around Europe is that Hegel is the poor man's FM Acoustics. Regarding Demian Martin, co-founder of Spectral.
I have been pissed off for twenty years when Keith Johnson took over as chief designer at Spectral, starting with the DMC-12 Pre and after. He's no Demian Martin. The Spectral DMC-10 that Demian designed in the late eighties was the best sounding Spectral Pre ever made. Warm, rich, lush, relaxed organic sound with excellent detail and dynamics. Smooth as silk. Keith Johnson changed the Spectral sound forever, for the worst.

Figured it out. Went to the Aragon website. The original 8008 was part of their Palladium series. This new one is a beast. 64 pounds. I'll explore further...

Damn you Audiooracle!! You got me frozen like a deer in the headlights over the Aragon 8008. Checked out many internal pic's and went into forums with over fifty opinions by many owners.
What a piece of work for $4400.00. Four high quality 35K microfarad Cornell Dubilier capacitors made in the U.S.A. and two large toroidal transformers. Phew!! I have never seen an amp in twenty years with what this has to offer for the price. Would be interesting to hook up the Halo JC-2 Pre-amp to the Aragon.
What Pre did you use at the show?

It appears that Aragon as well as Acurus are owned by Indy Audio Labs who bought them out in recent years and the Aragon website looks pretty crappy. I'll stick with Parasound and Hegel. Since 1990, I have owned three Parasound Pre-amps and two of their amps.
Never owned Hegel but have friends that have purchased Hegel and take their opinion seriously. Over thirty years later Parasound is still owned by Richard Schram and holding strong. That says a lot.
And Bent Holter is still the original owner of Hegel
which has been in business for twenty five years.

Closer examination of the Aragon 8008 MKII interior shows that the parts placement and layout looks like somebody stuffed the trunk of a '56 Buick blindfolded. Sloppy work the way things are stacked on each other. If Aragon would get rid of that ugly "V" metal cut on the faceplate and heat sink would make for a better cavity interior for more layout room. Never did like that 1930's retro Sci-Fi look. The layout in the Parasound and Hegel is very nice.

Isanchez..thanks for the very informative historical background on Aragon and Acurus. I remember when they were part of Mondial and I assume their amps have improved sonically since then. The reviews back in the 90's were a mixed bag. The main criticism at the time was their amps had a cold, hard upper treble that was overbearing and the amps lacked warmth.

Audiooracle..the interior pictures of the 8008 were taken within the past year on Google images. You can tell they are current since the faceplate is current compared to the previous fronts which have gone through some changes and also they have changed out the binding posts which look like good quality WBT's. The previous posts were not that impressive. Have you compared the current 8008 to models from 10 years ago, and does the current 8008 have a more refined, smoother sound, and has Aragon corrected the treble region that was constantly criticized years ago? I'm curious why Aragon makes only two products which are amps and will they go back to making Pre-amps?

Audiooracle..Had a long conversation today with Rick, co-owner of Indy Audio Labs, who provided further history on the new Aragon 8008 amp that was released last August. He is aware of the earlier amps that did not sound that good that were designed by Mike Kusiak, head designer who took over in the 90's. The first Aragon Pre-Amp and the their first amp, the 4004 was designed by Dan D'agostino. Mike designed the 4004 MKII. The current 8008 is designed by Indy engineers and Kusiak was not involved in the design and is not employed by Indy. The very high quality Cornell Dubilier capacitors are only made for Aragon. Indy Audio Labs purchased Aragon in 2009. It appears that the new 8008 can be added to the great performance value list such as Parasound, Hegel and others.

My last post was not on the subject of sensitivity. Rick did point out the new 8008 will drive 4 or 3 ohm speakers. I was just relaying info from my conversation with him. Your added info is appreciated. So what you are saying is that the earlier Aragon amps were built on the Krell platform. Early Krell amps were cold and shrill and were mocked by Audiophiles and Dan was kicked out of Krell. Makes sense that the early Aragon amps were cold and shrill as well.Thank God Aragon/Indy has better Engineers that have turned things around. D'agostino is way overrated but is very good at marketing himself and Engineers such as Demian Martin, Nelson Pass, Eric Lauchli and John Curl blow Dan out of the water.