old Aragon vs new

I was emotionally attached to my Stage One, until I had to unplug and reset it at least weekly. The older Mondial Aragon equipment has a reputation for reliability that the newer units do not have. Some of the older models has been in use for many years with no problems. Like owning a vintage truck that never breaks down, like my 4 Runner. You sorta get attached to it.

I'd say it depends on what you mean by "current" Aragons.

The original Aragon amps were the 004 series--4004 and 2004, and the original Palladiums. Metal case transistors (the later amps had the better Toshiba metal case transistors instead of RCA/Motorola. The 004 series was introduced in the late '80's but was still current into the early/mid '90's.

The next generation was the 8000 series--8008ST, 8008BB, Palladium II, 2008, 8008X3, 8008X5. Plastic case output transistors (also made by Toshiba) and somewhat nicer-looking than the 004 series.

Klipsch took over the company in Y2K, the "guts" stayed the same but the chassis was made more fancy. No difference in sound or circuitry. So the 8008 Mk II is just a re-packaged 8008BB, and the Palladium 1K is a re-packaged Palladium II.

The MOST CURRENT stuff is the 2000 and 3000 series--2002, 2005, 2007, 3002, 3005. This stuff has NOWHERE NEAR the current delivery capacity; and is not deeply biased into Class A operation like the older product. It's more like Acurus than Aragon, but it was sold under the Aragon name.

ALL Aragon product has been discontinued; there is one dealer I know of that still has some remaining new product.

http://reviews.ebay.com/Classic-Aragon-Amps-A-primer_W0QQugidZ10000000001149810

I have owned the 4004, 4004mkII and I currently have an 8008BB - all Mondial versions(pre Klipsch). I have had friends help me A/B the 4004mkII and the 8008BB in my home, in my system on more than one model of speaker.
I can not reliably tell them apart soncially.

I have, however, been able to draw one decisive conclusion about these amps - the hotter you can get them, the better they sound.

Given that the 8008BB has 50% more output devices, more heat sink area, twice the capacitance and bigger toroids than the 4004mkII... it is easier to get the 4004 "hot".

If you have a really difficult load to drive, go for the 8008BB. If not, save some $$ and get a 4004mkII. I used my 4004mkII to primarily drive Carver Platinum Edition Amazings with 60 inch ribbons and four 12" woofs per side. These speakers have one of the nastier x-overs around to drive - dipping into the 1 ohm region in the bass. When the 4004mkII drove these speaks at high volumes, you could smell the paint on the lid.... and it never sounded better - :-)

I have never been able to get my 8008BB to even break a sweat no matter what its hooked to. I have however seen it smoke four 20 watt resistors wired in parallel in a crossover and not even strain doing it. In-other-words, this amp can deliver the "current" - I think you could weld with it.

It is great to get a take on the old versus the new Aragon amps. Currently I own a couple of 4004s and a 2004 dispersed into separate systems. I am in the process of putting together a 5.1 system with Aragon amplification across the board and basically adding to my 2 ch system. A 8008x3 is on my radar screen which could be pushed to the front LF-Center-RF or pushed to the back LR-center-RR and letting the 4004MkII continue in the front L-R speakers in all its glory. I have heard from knowledgable sources that the 8008x3 is superior to the 4004mkII and should be driving front speakers (perhaps it runs deeper into class A). I do have enough amps to go around now but would lose 2ch amplication in another room. Either way I would continue to enjoy the Aragon sound. If anyone else has any comparisons with the 8008 vs 4004 series I certainly wouldn't mind hearing about it. I am running an older Classe preamp DR-5 that mates quite well with the Aragon amps and still looking into a permanant solution for the prepro side. I will be using my Denon 3805 as a pre-pro for the time being.

I would say "cult following" is accurate.