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Questions about Aragon 2004 MKII

Hello All,

I recently purchased an Aragaon 2004 MKII amplifier. I have it mated with a Bryston BP-20 pre amp and an Arcam CD72 cd player. Wharfdale E90s are the speakers I am currently using. I am using the Acoustic Research interconnects that were designated as the "$20 high end interconnect" in Stereophile a few months back. Also using lamp cord for speaker wire. The previous amp I was using was an old Hafler dh-220. Is it me or does anyone else notice that the 2004 mkII rolls off the high end frequencies? I never had this problem with the old hafler and am somewhat suprised to say that I genuinely prefer the sound of the hafler over the Aragon. I am hard pressed to find any benefits of this aragon. The only positive I can think of is its uncanny ability to run cool. No stove top heat radiating out of this unit. Could my specific unit be an anomaly or is this quite characteristic of this brand. Also does anyone have any idea of what kind of the frequency response curve this aragon has?

Thanks in advance
krazeeyk
bigtee
803 posts
 
It is probably an interface problem with your cables (speaker and/or interconnects) This is the first I have ever heard of the Aragon rolling highs. I don't know of any amps of recent vintage(solid state) that don't extend well out past 20K.
Also, could it be that the Hafler was a touch bright and the Aragon is more on the neutral side?
kool39
53 posts
 
Hi, Personally i would not own an aragon 2004 MKII/ 4004 MKII without a tubed preamp. Really settles them down. On my aragon 4004 MKII the highs are not rolled at all. The bass is low and solid. The only area i believe where aragon had some difficulty with these particular amps is in the upper mids which is what the tubed preamp takes care of. Best of Luck.
krazeeyk OP
24 posts
 
Hello All,

Thanks for the responses. Does anyone know if there is some way I can verify that my unit is running to the original manufacturers specifications. Does Aragon/Klipsch still offer this type of service. I purchased the unit second hand and am curious to know how its "health" is.

Thanks Again
johnfadden
2 posts
 
Hi,
I recently bought an Aragon 2004 from a seller on audiogon and couldn't be more pleased with the sound... Really nice high end. I think the important thing that you mentiones is that you were using lamp cord for speaker wires. With an amp this good you can actually tell the difference between interconnects and speaker wires. I was origionaly running 11 gauge Monster cables and found the sound nasty and confused. I then tried the 14 gauge twisted Monster inwall cables which were better but what really brought everything together was that I spent $15 on a 100 foot roll of Cat 5e wire and made up speaker wires with 6 runs taped together. This is the best speaker wire I've ever tried and the sound couldn't be better for anything I could afford IMHO
chopsrr
11 posts
 
A couple months ago, I bought the 2004 MK II off of AudioGon. I have had quite a few great amps, but this one beats them all with ease. I recently replaced my Carver TFM-35x with this amp and can honestly say I made the right choice. It runs almost ice cold with my Tannoy Mercury mX3's. I can't wait until I get my Triangle Zephyr 2's back up and running and hooked up to this amp.

By no means is the 2004 rolled off on the high end. It is very natural and neutral sounding. For interconnects I'm using MagWire Nakeds and speaker cables are Kimber Kable 8TC. Even with the little Tannoys, everything is excellent sounding. Actually, these little speakers are quite amazing for the money, but I rather have my Triangles back.

If I were you, I would first replace that lamp cord with something good. And then I would start looking around for some better interconnects. But I seriously think the lamp cord will solve most of your problems.
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