Aragon 4004 Mk II

[Durvelle27]

I think one of first things I noticed was less strain. Wait, I could have been imagining that. .
so, let's forward 6months.

I've been very happy with my Aragon. It's rated at 400w into a 4ohm load. The Aerius i's are spec'ed at 3.8ohms, I believe. Even if the dynamic woofer pulls more, I understand the Aragon's stable down to 1ohm.

Bass. Wow. With the Adcom 545II, it wasn't bad, but with the Aragon 4004 MkII, I actually heard it. To be honest, I was never impressed with the bass in the Aerius i's. Frankly, I didn't expect much.
The very physics of it's not being in a corner meant it wasn't going to be efficient. And come on, how great could it be?

Maybe I'd been living without bass for the last 8 years (Denon 225 receiver, upgraded to Linn Wakonda and Adcom 545II) so my expectations were low, but with the Aragon, I got bass! Movies didn't seem to respond nearly as well. I put on Ravel's Bolero the other day. Subtle rumbles of drums. Later not so subtle rumbles.

The bass was visceral, you could feel it in your gut.

There was a greater immediacy to the treble as compared to the Adcoms.

The imaging, I can't comment on because of limitations in setup in our living room.

 

[Robert D]

I think one of first things I noticed was less strain. Wait, I could have been imagining that. .
so, let's forward 6months.

I've been very happy with my Aragon. It's rated at 400w into a 4ohm load. The Aerius i's are spec'ed at 3.8ohms, I believe. Even if the dynamic woofer pulls more, I understand the Aragon's stable down to 1ohm.

Bass. Wow. With the Adcom 545II, it wasn't bad, but with the Aragon 4004 MkII, I actually heard it. To be honest, I was never impressed with the bass in the Aerius i's. Frankly, I didn't expect much.
The very physics of it's not being in a corner meant it wasn't going to be efficient. And come on, how great could it be?

Maybe I'd been living without bass for the last 8 years (Denon 225 receiver, upgraded to Linn Wakonda and Adcom 545II) so my expectations were low, but with the Aragon, I got bass! Movies didn't seem to respond nearly as well. I put on Ravel's Bolero the other day. Subtle rumbles of drums. Later not so subtle rumbles.

The bass was visceral, you could feel it in your gut.

There was a greater immediacy to the treble as compared to the Adcoms.

The imaging, I can't comment on because of limitations in setup in our living room.

I think yours is about the same as whst I use. I've got a 8008 I bought new about 8 years ago. It's great on my Prodigy speakers. Now they call the 2 channel amp The Titanium. Only problem I ever had was a blown fuse in one channel. I had it turned up a bit too high I think, and that's not something I commonly do.

I'm guessing you have the 2 channel dual monoblock? The 1 channel amps are rated at 2x that power.

 

[Russr]

Experienced the same "Enlightenment" when I first connected my MLs to a Bryston 4B-ST. Great amps, great speakers... good time!

 

[StimpyWan]

Similar here too. ML ElectroMotion ESL's, with an Adcom GFA-5400 sounded OK. But, an upgrade to an Aragon 2004 Mk II really brought the speakers alive. Everything expanded, in a good way...!

 

[twich54]

Durvelle, welcome to the group ! I had an original 4004 back in the day, it's still in use on my sons system out in Colorado.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Those Aragon amplifiers are really well designed. They're built with solid power supplies, high current and very stable voltage. The three most critical elements of any well designed power amplifier, regardless of price.

I first experience Aragon in a Chicago based audio store who carried a lot of B&W and Meridian speakers. In one of their reference rooms, they had the B&W Matrix 800's professional series, driven by a full array of Aragon amplifiers. I was still completing my under grad back then, so couldn't afford this level but sat there until they closed the store!
Fast fwd that to 25yrs... and still to this day, Aragon amplifiers can hold strong. Really tough gear.

Receivers...mmm... not too sure if these are up to par. Perhaps driving other types of speakers with benign loads, though I wouldn't use them with stats. I haven't come across any AVR gear that drives stats optimally. They will drive and play tunes... that's about it.
Integrated amps OTOH do have better flexibility. Some I've tried are really top notch, Plinius, Pass Labs, Boulder, Krell, Anthem, and of course my favourite of all time, Dartzeel! These are exceptional quality but also come at high prices, well worth the extra spend if you can afford it.

Whatever amplifiers you're driving your stats with, be it hybrids or full range stats, if the main amplifiers are not up to par, you will hear it! The stats HF extension will squeal!!! It will sound so bright, as if dragging a piece of cold chalk on a very very dry blackboard or green-board shall I say. Your teeth will grind from the sheer pain of the HF squealing, and the bass will be muddy / fuzzy, with no definition nor agility. This is basically a very poor amp to speaker match.

When things are reproduced effortlessly, from a whisper to a thunderous presentation in a blink of an eye then falls back to softest passages to brilliant dynamics with ease, speed and utter transparency and control... this is a superb amplifier match!

You'll definitely hear it, without a doubt!
Cheers to Aragon!
Woof! RJ

 

[Durvelle27]

Thank you for the contributions as I am getting to read all and get this experienced advise to help me out here and thanks for welcoming me to this platform. I appreciate your contribution a lot.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

More power with stable loads will always help electrostatics. I have the same speakers and they definitely like high quality (more importantly) stable amplification to work at there best.

I'm not sure about your electronics skill level, but what if I told you there's still much better bass to be had? You should look at my thread about going "active crossover" on the woofers.

https://www.martinloganowners.com/threads/how-to-active-bass-section.19237/