Does anyone here own the Aragon Paladium Amps? (1 Viewer)

[Brett DiMichele]

I was over at Klipsh's site checking out the Aragon amps.
In the distant future I would like to add some very robust
ampage to my 2 channel system (it's nice to have a good set
of tubes and a good set of S.S too.. Why not? and I was
drooling all night... The stuff is not only gorgeous but it
is friggin dynamite inside too.. It looks more like an
enthusiast DIY amp than something "mass" produced.. Nice
Point to Point HEAVY wiring.. HUGE amounts of capacitance..
THICK buss bars... They just reek of overbuild quality..

I forget the model number but they have a dual mono in one
case that puts out like 300WPC x 2 at 4 Ohm and it's about
$2400.00 from what I can see.

Has anyone compared these Paladiums directly with the Pass
Labs X series amps?

 

[Scott_N]

Brett i've heard the Palladium's with Martin Logan speakers and they sounded great. If you want a powerful very stable amp Aragon is hard to beat for the price. My Aragon 8008ST pushed my Studio 100's without effort when I had the amp in my HT. As far as Aragon two-channel amps go the 8008BB MkII is better than the 3002 IMO. Some people call Aragon a poor man's Krell.

 

[Michael R Price]

Brett,

Not having any experience with either, the Pass X amps could be better sounding since they're more like Class A (judging from the heatsinking at least), and lower feedback among other things... then again, they cost a lot unless you DIY them, and I'm biased (heh) because Pass publishes and discusses his designs (he's basically explained why they're good ). I think they're at least $8,000 a pair for the larger models.

I don't know about the design, but the Aragons are solidly built and really powerful, plus they must sound pretty good if so many people like them (especially the 8008). I think Thomas W has the big Palladium monoblocks, unless he moved to Ayre or something else without feedback.

Geez Brett, how much power do you need? Looking for any kind of sound in particular? Are you looking for an amp to drive your future line arrays?

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Mike,

I didn't say I was looking to buy anything did I? I was
just looking


It doesn't hurt to look!

LOL

And you can never have too many amplifiers either! Right?

A good amp is a solid investment

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Mike,

Check these out...


http://www.klipsch.com/photo_gal/8008MKIIinside.jpg

http://www.klipsch.com/photo_gal/8008MKIIside.jpg

http://www.klipsch.com/photo_gal/Palladium1Kside.jpg

http://www.klipsch.com/photo_gal/Palladium1Kfront.jpg

That's pretty

 

[Michael R Price]

Oh, yeah... Definitely pretty. A little less pretty when you find out how much they cost, though.

Amplifiers are a good investment, but speakers are better...

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Mike,

Yeah well that's relative.. A good amp is a long term
investment (so are good speakers)..

I am no DIY'r when it comes to electronics I would never
even attempt to build my own amp. I would rather pay a
company $2400.00 and get a decades worth of warranty and
thier expertise

But I am not paying anything, for anything right now! I
need to cool off for a while

Just got my Delphi SkyFi today (((XM))) Rocks!

 

[Kevin T]

i have a pair of palladium ii monoblocks (same internals as the palladium 1k) and they are far and away the best amp i've ever owned. i'm a tad biased though since i'm a diehard aragon fan. i have no doubt they'll drive any speaker with ease. the palladiums run for the first 125 watts in class a before switching to ab. i've had them for close to two months or so and have yet to find any fault with them. they stay suprising cool to the touch as well even after multiple hours of high volume metal and industrial music. i'm using an aragon soundstage for a pre-pro with a lowly pair of mirage frx-7 for the mains. i'm looking to upgrade by the years end but i still can't make up my mind between thiel and gershman acoustics speakers. either with the palladium 1k or the 8008 mkii you can't go wrong. i had to have the palladiums because i wanted the pinnacle of performance though to my ears they don't sound significantly better than my older 8008bb, but for the deal i got on the palladiums, it was too good to pass up.

kevin t

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Kevin,

Well I can imagine why you are biased. They are very well
built pieces of equipment!

 

[Michael R Price]

It's great, using the word "biased" when talking about amplifiers.

Kevin, congratulations on your amazing system... you could try DIY type speakers, which starting around the $800 price point are using the best quality drivers available. Those would be worthy of the Aragon amps...

Here's a little musing of mine... what is up with these crazy "Class A" specifications? For example, Kevin said the Palladiums run the first 125 watts in Class A... and that the heatsinks are surprisingly cool. My amplifier draws 60 watts per channel at idle (it's fairly warm) and it's got maybe 7 watts in Class A. I'm not sure if it's even this much. Klipsch's web site states 120 watts idle consumption for the Palladiums, which would indicate about 10-15 watts of Class A operation unless there is something special going on that I don't know about. They're probably not the only manufacturer that does this.

It's sort of funny, since claiming a lot of "Class A" power is one of the latest marketing techniques and yet, with this kind of design there's a certain amount of optimum bias (above which, distortion increases). Oh well.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Mike,

I dunno.. 125 Watts In class A seems a bit far fetched to
me. I am not saying it can't be done look at the Pass Labs
Alephs.. But they also generate enough heat to fry eggs in
a cast iron pan if you sit it on the heat sinks! (well, ok
not that hot.. But more than enough to warm your coffee!)

You would think if the Paladiums are really running 120+
watts still operating in Class A Mode that they would be
throwing off some serious heat!

 

[Michael R Price]

Brett,

125 watts Class A with voltage rails (+/-90V I think) needed to get 400W into 8 ohms would necessitate something like 1000W of idle dissipation, which is clearly not possible with those power supplies and heatsinks.

The Pass Labs X and Aleph amps chassis are *huge*, and they run at 45-55C (just about too hot to touch). The X1000 dissipates 600 watts per channel at idle and the first 50 watts are class A. Class AB amps have less Class A power than single ended amps for any given dissipation, because both the positive and negative transistors must be biased. In other words, if huge power isn't necessary, the best sound for the money probably comes from single-ended amps.