How good is the Aragon 8008mk.2 amp?

The Aragon amp is very good. It begins to approach the quality of better amps, but it will never be on par with the Krell or Levinson gear, unless it is being compared to integrated amps or HT gear.

I owned the 8008 for several years, and was very happy with it. I built a system around it, but when I replaced it, I bought a Krell FPB 200.

On paper these are very similar amps, both rated at 200 wpc into an 8 ohm load... the specs go on very similar, but the Aragon could not touch the Krell for impact and dynamics, or reserve power. The sound of the Krell was from top to bottom better than the Aragon.

That doesn't mean that the Aragon is a poor quality amp. It is not. It is very good, but know going into the deal that while it is good it has limitations that the comparable Krell or Levinson will not.

Aragon is relatively inexpensive, and a great bang for the buck unit, but not state-of-the-art.

Well i had the 4004II it was great for the money. Ive Owned Krell ksa 300S Ksa250 Mda300 (cruddy) IMHO VTL Hurricanes Zeus Cary And many others. I sold everything, and unloaded A Large $$ of money on a 1000lb pair of monitors, Until i can put down some serious cash im getting a 4004II Or 8008.

Guess my experience is just different - I think that amp is every but the equal of the others mentioned. I'm not a believer that all amps sound the same, but I also don't think they sound as different as many would have you believe. Just found a post on the old usenet group that I was thinking of...take it however you like.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/browse_thread/thread/e7d7b36322972842/39af202ebc13f5a8?q=8008bb+33h&rnum=1&hl=en#39af202ebc13f5a8

My experience is based on the 4004MkII, which I owned for a couple of years. In my system, I can easily hear differences in the amps I have owned. The 4004MKII was a bargin as discussed by others above. You could tell it was a sort of mid-fi SS amp (a little grain, fast but a little flat in the midrange) but its strength was that it sounded musical and did nothing really wrong. I upgraded to a Classe DR 25, which I thought was smoother, and displayed better dynamic range, and it can't touch my current McCormack DNA 500 for purity, power, midrange texture, HF decay, etc., but I would certainly like to own one again for my second system. IMO it kicks Adcom, Acurus, Rotel and others in its range. BTW, they are a great stepping stone since they are built very well and still sell used for the same price I paid 4-5 years ago.

Yes I would say a great amp in that price range is the mccormack Dna225. The 500 is 2 under 1 case.