i had an aragon 8002 (same design, lower power) paired with both a McCormack TLC-1, and an Audio Research LS-15. The TLC-1 was a great match with my former dna 225, but NOT with the 8002. Dry, uninvolving sound. The ARC pre breathed new life: dynamics came alive, the subtle textures and midrange transparancy resulted in a much more vibrant involved sound. A buddy of mine now has my 8002 and is driving it with a bottlehead preamp...he likes that much better than the variable outputs of his theta prebasic II. I vote tubes for your aragon!
Dave
Dave