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Review: Aragon 8008 BB Amplifier

Category: Amplifiers

I bought this used from a fellow audiogoner after he assured me I would be floored by the difference in quality I would soon experience. Let me just say that he was right, my movie watching (sadly) has gone way down. I just can't stop listening to music on my "new" system. I have never heard my speakers until now. The Aragons dual mono design and my Pre is dual mono as well, has given me outstanding imaging despite the limitations of my small listening area. Bass is now there! deep and powerful, no more listening fatigue or digititis! Blues, hard rock, classical, all sound great. I have been inspired to buy many remastered editions of my favorite albums because the better the recording, the more this baby shines. I thank the stars I bought this and now I'm looking at a BPT ac product to get my system the high quality current it now deserves.

Associated gear
Musical Fidelity Pre amp
Cal Audio Labs Alpha-Delta
Mirage M5si Bi Polar speakers

Similar products
None in this league, though I did upgrade from Adcom separates
zar
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
And here I was expecting you to compare it against much more expensive amps.

Welcome to the club. The Aragon has always been a great value. Although the BPT products are very good, you might want to reconsider a toroidal isolation transformer. You don't need a wideband, close coupled transformer to supply 50~60 Hz. Nice thing about toroids is that you can stick them in the living room without too much hum.
slv
87 posts
 
A lot of people here tout the virtues of this or that amp, and rightfully so (there are a lot of great amps out there). However, I keep plugging along with my Aragon 8008BB (as well as my 3 & 5 Channel 8008's for my HT), and I have yet to feel the need to upgrade. I keep working on the other areas of my system and the 8008's have yet to become the weak link.

I have found though, that the Aragons do benefit from good power conditioning, and for me that has been the Richard Gray product line. They've been expensive, but very effective, and I live in a very noisy area (electrically speaking). Another effective power consideration would be dedicated a circuit(s) with an isolated grounding system.
zar OP
185 posts
 
Since the purchase of the Aragon and Musical Fidelity, I have had a dedicted line installed, and upgraded all my cables except a power cord for the pre-amp and speaker cables. I noticed a slight but definite improvement with the line. After ordering the interconnects and power cords from Frank at Signal Cable, I was stunned to get even deeper bass and further imaging and clarity. The final tweek will be a power condioner along the lines of BPT or PS Audio. Considering Frank's speaker cables as well.
slv
87 posts
 
Zar

I just want to mention that when it comes to power conditioning I have found balanced power to be important, by reducing noise through common mode rejection. I mentioned the RGPC products I use in my earlier post, but what I didn't mention is that the key to the results I have received is that I use their 240VAC to 115VAC isolation transformer with a dedicated 240VAC line and isolated ground (please note that I have no interest in their product line other than the fact that I have tried their products, like them and use them). The BPT products and some of the PS Audio products, will give you this feature. Also, others on this forum have had excellent results using other types of isolation transformers - you can find the posts by doing a search in the forum archives. I hope this helps.

Scott
gammajo's avatar
gammajo
843 posts
 
I too love my 8008BB. Just upgraded to Von S VR4Sr's and they seem to love the amp, showing me how much more the 8008 can do well. The amp is also bullet proof. Twice in four years during installs live speaker cables touched and all that blew were the rail fuses. My area has much ambient lightening and surges - the amp has always come through these fine (I do use a surge protector but other equipment has failed because of the surges). And if you need information or service Steve at Aragon (866) 781-7284 is wonderful. Enjoy!
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