Audio Research vs. Aragon


I'm in the market to add a serious 2 channel amp in addition to an existing 5 ch. Adcom, as my new house has a large great room approx. 20'x 30' with 10' ceilings. I'll be driving a pair of B&W DM-640i's backed up by a 12" Paradigm PS-1200 powered sub, controlled by an Acurus ACT-3 pre-pro, and connected with Audio Stream cables and interconnects. I'm mainly an audiophile (jazz), but enjoy home theater every now and then. I was very close to buying the Aragon 8008BB (200 w/ch) for $2,400 when a recent visit to my local high end dealer uncovered a totally reconditioned and re-tubed Audio Research D-115 (130 w/ch?) for $1,500. I auditioned it on a pair of B&W CDM 7NT's. It sounds great, but I'm concerned about the excessive heat that tubes produce as it will probably go inside of an open back entertainment unit. Which way should I go? Any advice would be much appreciated.
herbl4

Showing 1 response by marsalone

My brother, I too have been down the Aragon/Audio Research path. I had an 8008 driving my 'pans. Then put in an ARC Classic 60 and passed through the pearly gates of hifi and into the heavens of sound.

I'd go with the ARC D115. Heat in an entertainment center from tubes would definately shorten tube life. Obviously you should place it as high as possible relative to the other components in there.

Since you have an open back, it shouldn't be too bad. I'm not sure if the D115 has internal fans like most of the other ARC tube gear I've seen. If it does then you should be okay. However you could do the external fan routine as mentioned by J_K above (although I'm not sure what "muffin" fans are).

My amp is in an closed entertainment armoire. I bought a couple of little 3" or 4" black fans with the square housing from Radio Shack. You have to wire them up yourself with a little switchable lamp cord but they are quiet and pump out a lot more air than the ARC internals do. I have one fan blowing into the armoire at the bottom through an access hole and one blowing out at the top of the shelf area. This "push-pull fan system" works beautifully as the inside of the armoire with the front doors closed doesn't even get warm.

I think that it'd probably work just as well with one fan but haven't tried it. Originally I was looking to maximize airflow through the component area...

Ciao,
Daniel