Hello All,

I am in the market for an amp / pre-pro to run my Polk LSi series system. I have boiled down my options to:

1. New 990/7500 Combo
2. New 990 / Used Aragon 3500

Both will cost pretty much the same. My question to you knowledgeable folks is which one will sound better in my system?

I know the Aragon does not have a 12V trigger, but I am more worried about neutrality and soundstage.

Any opinions?

Thanks!

I haven't heard any of Aragon's amps, so I did a little search to see what might have been said before in the saloon and I'm afraid I still didn't come up with much. Even finding specs on the Aragon was hard, since Klipsch has discontinued the brand and the Aragon domain now hosts a duplicate of the Klipsch web site. I did turn up a review of the Stage One and 3005 and an info page for the 3005 , but no mention of a 3500.

The Aragon 3005 has more power than the 7500 (300W vs 200W at 8 ohms, or 500W vs 300W at 4 ohms), and your LSi25's are notoriously difficult to drive - to the point where I'd definitely recommend the 7500 over the 7125 when looking at Outlaw's line-up. Either amp will have a much easier time driving the LSi25 than that Yamaha receiver you have in your sig at the moment. I've been very pleased with my 7500's neutrality and soundstage (I've got a review of it in my sig, along with a 990 review), but I just don't know how much difference there might be between it and the used Aragon. There's also the fact that the 7500 will be new - complete with five year warranty - while the entire Aragon line has been dropped from Klipsch's line-up. All indications that Klipsch is doing right by Aragon owners and continuing to provide timely support, but it's still not quite as ideal a situation.

Let us know which way you decide to go!

Thanks for the reply gonk.

The 3500 model number was a typo on my part, I meant the 3005.

I'm still very much undecided, but will make a decision this weekend (I'm tired of listening to my speakers through a 85Wx5 8ohm receiver only rated to 4ohm for the fronts [6ohm for the center and surrounds]).

The Arargon 3005 was on my radar screen because it won the Editor's Choice Gold Award from Ultimate AV in 2005 (this is the same award the 990 won for processors).

My current issues with the Aragon/7500 choice are:

1. The Aragon's 300Wx5 at 8ohms is only with 3 channels driven, and the 4ohm spec has no description.

2. The Aragon's maximum power consumption is 1200W vs 1800W for the Outlaw (prob. explains the weight difference). Does this mean the Outlaw can actually provide more wattage to my speakers (assuming similar effeciency)?

3. I don't have a good handle on all the tests and tweaking that come with the THX Ultra2 certification on the 3005. Does a THX Ultra2 stamp suggest the sound quality will be better than the outlaw? I ask this realizing that not having the THX Ultra2 stamp does not hurt the quality of the Outlaw, it just provides some sort of standard for the quality of the lesser known (in this forum) Aragon 3005.

4. The 3005's MSRP is twice that of the 7500, but I'm not comfortable assuming Aragon gives anywhere near the price to quality ratio that Outlaw provides.

5. All the reviews I've found on the 3005 are stellar, but they don't compare it to other notable amps. I would have liked to daisy chain reviews starting with the 3005 and working back to either an Outlaw or ATI.

Well, those are my issues at the moment. I've already decided on the Model 990, I'm just waiting to see if I'm going to order the 990/7500 combo.

If gonk or anyone else has any comments on these issues, I would love to hear them. I am taking my amp purchase seriously because it is the one component in my system that I don't plan on changing any time in the next 10 years.

Thanks!

It's smart to choose an amp for the long haul. The difference in power consumption values is curious, but I can't explain why it might be - I'd expect the Aragon to match the 7500 (1800W is the limit simply because that's all that an amp with a single power connection can get from the standard 15A circuit). THX Ultra2 for an amp will mean an assortment of bench tests, I'd assume, but some of the big selling points of Ultra2 are software - things that show up in Ultra2 receivers or processors, not amps. Based as much on Aragon's rep as the Ultra2 certification, I'd expect the 3005 to certainly match the 7500, but I don't know what might be true beyond that. Like you, I struck out pretty thoroughly in my bit of web searching for info on the 3005 in relation to other things, although I didn't dig into it real deeply. Maybe some others around here have some thoughts to toss into the mix.