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Bryston or Aragon

My son is a music lover like I am.  He plays bass and dabbles in audio recording.  Well he’s all grown up now and has his own family and home and he has decided to leave his Yamaha receiver behind and stick his toe into the world of hi fi.  He needs a power amp.  He has done his research, browsed audiogon and talked with me and has decided on either a Bryston 4BST or an Aragon 8008BB.  Both are within his budget on the used market.  Initially the amp will be paired up with an Adcom GFP 555 (I think), a Technics turntable, some kind of CD player and my old Polk SDA 1A speakers.  If you have had experience with either of these amps please share your thoughts. I know there are other options that might fit the bill but he is firm on these two.  Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
128x128pipebro
alaric62
80 posts
 
" The older Bryston are very fast and high resolution, but can sound a bit dry and sterile."

This^. "Clinical" was a common term. Depending on the speakers (don't know about the Polks in question, I don't care for the Polk house sound) the difference can be a real deal breaker. For me, the Bryston paints a perfect reproduction of music-the Aragon plays the music.
asw
11 posts
 
I have the next model in Aragon the palladium monoblocks.i had the 8008bb before that.for over 20 years no problems built like a tank.my aurum preamp was recaped recently and my repair guy said he could upgrade my amps.the output rectifiers were replaced with the same ones that mark levinson uses. He is a authorized dealer. The upgrade left me speechless. So long story short they can be repaired or upgraded. 
terry9
2,348 posts
 
Owned three Bryston amps before I began to DIY. Recommend them highly - good, bullet-proof design, good implementation, unbelievably good customer relations and service.

Bryston is one of the best companies out there.
8th-note
414 posts
 
Usually there is no clear answer to the question. The best the OP can hope for is perhaps several anecdotes of poor reliability which could steer them the other direction by default. In this case both amplifiers are great examples of top notch design and sturdy build.

You really have two choices. 1) Buy the amplifier that your gut tells you is the best choice. Both are great and you really can't go wrong. It may boil down to buying into the story of one amp or the other. Or maybe you like the looks or one more than the other. Make a decision and don't look back. 2) Buy both amps and test them in your system. After a few weeks or months of comparing them pick the one you like best and sell the other one. If you got them at a fair price you shouldn't be out more than $100 in transaction costs.

Thanks go to pipebro for narrowing it down to two choices and providing a good context of associated equipment. The posts that kill me are the open ended questions of "which amp should I buy?"
f917025
81 posts
 
aragon because magic wins over accuracy
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