Sunfire Signature or Aragon 8008BB to power SL3?


Follow goners, I come to you again for help in choosing an amp for my SL3.

After more than a year of searching and collecting funds, it has come down to two amps: The Sunfire signature and Aragon 8008BB. Before arriving to these final two, I have looked at Rotel 1090, Bryston 4B-ST, Odyssey Extreme monos, and Levinson 333. I am not into whether the sound is warm or bright, but just good sound-stage, transients, and tonal balance - things that my previous Onkyo 504 couldn’t reproduce (It had great specs, though!).

I am more impressed with the 8008BB, but I cannot seem to shake-off the Sunfire signature, even though I have seldom come across people associating the Sunfire with “deep unbelievable sound stage”. On the other hand, I am not sure if there is a significant sonic difference between the 8008BB and 8008ST, besides their differences in the number of components and power supply design. The 8008ST has a more appealing price.

The lack of a place to demo has forced me to rely on my fellow Goners, and I am grateful for that. I am looking forward to your advice, opinions, and suggestions.

Thanks
planckscale

Showing 2 responses by warnerwh

Are SL 3's electrostatics by Martin Logan? If so then the best amp would be the Innersound ESL. It was specifically designed for them and should be on your short list. Power is 300wpc into 8, 600wpc into 4. These sell for a tad more than an 8008st but once you research it I'm betting you'll think it's a good idea.
Well I wouldn't know but after alot of research on the net and over at Audioasylum I bought one and am very pleased to say the least. Over at AA there's numerous people raving as did Harry Pearson and the Absolute Sound and Stereo Times. For the money it's hard to go wrong. The new 330 is 5k but a used ESL 300 can be had for 1200 or so. If you don't like it, which is unlikely, then you can just sell it again for the same money. Cheers