B&K Sonata M200 vs Aragon paladiums - whats better

M200's if you have them modified by musical concepts. Now your cookin!!

Gee, it seems to me that this thread is all over the place with regard to price points.

Palladiums without a doubt. I had the B&K's and used them with a pair of Legacy Focus speakers. They are great amps, no doubt. But when I got a pair of Palladiums it was a whole new world. Incredible bass weight and detail and tube like magic midrange. The Palladiums are the best deal in an amp I have found. I have three of them.

Not exactly your question, but may shed some light. Have excellent bargain system results with Theta Miles balanced directly into Sonatas into Vandy 2CE, all cheap Nordost cables. Last night, a friend brought over an Aragon 8008BB. No comparison. With 8008, more detail, air, ease, space around instruments, low end control; you name it. I stayed up way too late, even my 15 year old came out for a listen, and beat me to bed.

The Pass X250 is a no lose proposition. It's a fantastic amp. If you don't like it which is unlikely, you can sell it very easily. Pass equipment priced reasonably sells well on Audiogon. I bought a used X250 a little over a year ago and I could sell it today for more than I paid.

I don't know the Boston Lynnfield's or the spl's you like, or the size of your room..but, I would Pass on the Pass, it's not a powerhouse amp for hard to drive speakers IMO. A used pair of Aragon mono's has much more power (not sure if the new Aragon's are the same amp?). How about the Pass-250, this may be more up to the job.

Dave

Boston Lynnfield 500Ls

85 db - but that doesnt tell the whole story - they are power hungry

comments on the x150?

Enough power for what?

Dave

THANKS FOR THE RESPONSES
THE AMPS I AM CONSIDERING ARE USED. THE PASS X350 IS AWESOME AS I AUDITIONED WITH MY OWN SPEAKERS, PROBLEM IS WIFE WOULDN'T GO FOR A $8000 AMP PURCHASE.

I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE GRYPHON BUT WILL LOOK IT UP

AS FAR AS EDGE I HAD AN M8 - WHILE THE SOUND WAS CLEAN AND DETAILED - IT ULTIMATELY DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH POWER AND SOUNDED CONSTRAINED AT HIGH VOLUME

WOULD A PASS X150 BE ENOUGH POWER - I KNOW THE 350 IS....

For the money the M200's are very nice, the Paladiums for a lot more money are better, but whomever said used Pass X250 was dead on, for the money of an M200, yeah ok, but for the money of a Paladium get the real McCoy, at that price on my short list would be the Pass, and Edge, Gryphon, and Levinson, (Levinson is in flux as a company, getting service is a long drawn out proposition 6-12 weeks) still the Pass and Levinson are my common favorites, the Edge and Gryphon are also very nice but less frequent used, note: I am not a Krell fan, have a listen and make up your own mind.

jeff

Sogood51 is right again. The Aragons are great little amps, and a very good deal for the money.

If I were buying I'm not sure what I would do though, you are in the range of some very good stereo amps on the used market. The Pass Labs is a good option, or even some of the Krell FPB series can be snapped up for about the same price.

I understand why a person would want to go with monoblocks, but I'm not sure where the biggest bang for the buck would lie in this application.

Just get a new pair of Wolcott's!

The Aragon's are much better amps IMO. They can run with the Big Dog's.

Dave

Yes you are in the price range of a used Pass Labs X-250. Most importantly is what speakers you are using. The synergy between the speakers and amps is critcal to what amp is better. You could have the best amps in the world but if they don't work with your speakers the sound will be poor at best.

Happy Listening.