8002 Amplifier

The decision to acquire an 8002 is based on power not compromise because the 8002 offers all the quality and refinement of the Aragon 8008. It utilizes the quality circuit board and components of all 8000 series amplifiers. The dual wound toroidial transformer and twin rectifiers maintain the channel separation and sound stage specificity possible only with dual mono operation.

Due to the size of these power supplies, a 3/4 horsepower switch turns the amplifier on and off. Even with a switch of this magnitude, the amount of inrush current required to feed the enormous power supply would eventually cause the switch to weld itself. To prevent this, a slow start circuit is employed which trickle charges the supply at turn on. The slow start not only protects the on-off switch, but also protects all the circuits from the electrical shock encountered at turn on.

The massive heat sinks provide the cooling required for continuous power into the lowest impedance loads. Unlike other amplifier manufacturers which make wild claims about peak amperage, the 8002 provides the continuous amperage and voltage that is needed to properly drive and control low impedance loads. Peak power or transient power, whether stated as peak amps, volts or watts cannot accommodate the sustained power requirements needed to generate low frequencies and sustained notes. An amplifier can provide the equivalent peak power from continuous power, but cannot provide the equivalent continuous power from transient power.

Although the 8002 is very conservatively rated at 125 watts per channel, it is capable of more power into varying impedance loads than most supposedly 'high power' amplifiers. It can therefore provide Aragon sound quality to the majority of loudspeakers.