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Review: Aragon 2004 mkII Amplifier

Category: Amplifiers

Musical tastes are blues, and Oldies. I use Diana krall for vocal presence, and soundstage.
Most important aspects of sound are richness, presence, warmth, and bass.
What can turn me off is poor bass, and thin vocals, with no real tonal, or timbral quality.
It has been in my system for a year ++.
It replaced a Harman Kardon reciever.
The sound changed subtily at first, and then after a couple of days I began to realize that the bass was more than just a thump, but had other sounds in the lower regions, and the highs became more timbrally, and tonally accurate, and then the whole sound began to change in the midrange, and there began to be more separation between each instrument.
The strengths would be rich vocals, with excellent bass control/definition, along with an ever present midrange.
The weaknesses would be more in me than the amp, because I find that I can easily get "on the train" again, and think that the answer lies in another endless search. It is a well researched amplifier, and if there is better, it won't be in the hype that is out there, but it will get better, only marginally.
I have read a lot of reviews, and the MCcormack DNA 2 SE really sounds like a wonderful amp to have ( another well researched product, and designer ).

Associated gear
Bryston pre, with klipsch speakers, and sources are an Accuphase T 100 tuner, with a Roksan caspian cd player.

Similar products
Mark levinson ML 331, 335, krell, and various others.
greggie
johnfadden
2 posts
 
I just received my 2004, (from a seller on Audiogon), last week and couldn't be more pleased with the sound. The speakers that I'm running, an 3 way DIY design by Wayne Jaskae, (speakerbuilder.net) feature two 10" woofers a 2" dome mid range and a Vifa XT25 tweeter, are very revealing and have caused considerable equipment changes since their completion in February on this year. The detail, lack of masking, bass slam and wonderful high frequency extension that the 2004 provides makes having these speakers a real joy. A friend was over this weekend for a recording session and said that they sounded really clear. I said "yep, that's the deal".
The Aragon 2004, (non Mkll) is replacing an Adcom GFA 545 that although a decent amp, just didn't have what it takes to drive my speakers. I consider the 2004 to be an excellent bargin in high end sound and considering the fact that I live in an apartment I really couldn't use anymore power than this puts out as it's capable of driving my 4 ohm speakers to in excess of 110db.
I will probibly upgrade my preamp in the future although my current Adcom GTP500 isn't hurting my ears and I enjoy the convience of the remote control.
The music that I listen to is generally smooth Jazz, with some classic rock. I used this system for a recording session this weekend running the electric guitar, bass and drum machine through the system with execellent results.
I'm running Cat 5E 6 run speaker wires, (the best I've ever tried) and Monster standard interconnects.
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