Hi Kincade:
DO NOT leave your Aragon amps on all the time. I don't know if anyone else can attest to the same sort of experience, but I didn't pay much attention when I first had my 8002, so I left it on all the time. Aragon amps tend to be havily biased into class A, and I didn't realize my little 8002 drew 1000watts just sitting there doing nothing. My first $400 electric bill(for ONE month)
stopped me from doing that. Besides, they only need about 10-20 minutes to warm up and sound their best anyways.
By the way, all "Class A" amps switch to class A/B when putting out more than several watts(varies a bit). The reason the 8002 and 8008 pull so much idle current is because they are heavily biased into A, which is very inefficient, but switch to class A/B probably when output exceeds around 10-20 watts. I can explain more if you wish to be bored to tears sometime. Oh, and I have had a
Sherbourne 5/1500 connected to my JM Labs Electra 936 speakers a while back, and it was ok. Haven't heard the one you have, but the one I heard simply couldn't keep up with my 8002, let alone my 8008BB. Frequency extremes were where the Sherbourne seemed a little lacking. Still, if your only going to use it for non-critical listening, it would be good for a hometheater. I'm also a fussy pain-in-the-butt 2-channel snob, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Using the Sherbourne for the surrounds? Probably should stick with it and save some cash. $1200 buys a lot of movies! Whatever you decide, good luck, and ENJOY...
Shayne.