Aragon 8008 bb vs. Krell KSA-150

You're on the right track. Just keep reading. Something that will help more than an amp, preamp or dac is room treatment. This can be fairly inexpensive and reward you with big dividends. Your system will not perform as well as it could without room treatment. When you improve your room acoustics you'll be able to easily hear it. Realtraps.com has good articles and there's an acoustics forum at audiocircle.com that Ethan from Realtraps frequents.

Most of us learned many years into this hobby how important a good acoustical environment is. I'd consider it early in the game. By all rights the room should be the first thing considered, not the last. Best of luck to you. Audio is a great hobby if you love music.

Tim, you have already started down the rabbit hole. The best advice I can give is to buy things that are definate improvements. DO NOT make lateral moves.

While the Aragon 8008st (or even better the 8008BB) is a good amp, it will not compare to Krell of only a few years ago. My FPB 200 (not the cx version) was far and away a better, more musical sounding amp.

If you can, get an amp around which you can continue to build a system. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a system should be built around the amp, but since that's the product for which you're shopping it doesn't make sense to focus on any other direction.

Any journey begins where you are at the time. Just step wisely.

Nrchy is right. I auditioned a 8008st. Very dynamic, but the treble and midrange region will not compare to either the krell FPB200 or the MCCormack DNA 2 Deluxe. Years ago ... I was blown away at how confused and slow the Aragon amp sounded compared to my stock Mccormack DNa1. Eventually I wanted more power, and the Dna 2 Deluxe was an awesome upgrade. Krell will sound great with preamps that connect with it in the balanced mode. If you use single ended connections like I do(cj 17ls) Mccormack is a great way to go. You will find that if you play cd's, you will want an amp that has a smooth top end. Aragon's tend to emphasize the bass. They are not that detailed, smooth, dimensional...though they do put out the power and through difficult loads. They are better than most mid-fi stuff. Depends how finicky you are. Fred