Aragon 4004 mk2 vs Adcom 555 mk2

Didnt realize i picked such a touchy subject. LOL

Gmood1, I really think Johngalt47 was just stating his real life comparison between the two. And he stated he wasnt sure if the amp or if other components are what made the the biggest difference. Also he was just giving his opinion on the adcom 555mk II which he had in his home so thats a pretty good test. Aragon 4004 mkII also uses a bipolar design.

Eldartford, I understand that you like adcom and own them but have you actually compared it to an aragon 4004 mkII in your home? I see that you drive maggies with 5503's. Really the 555mk II and 5503 are totally different animals. The older model uses bipolar design and the newer uses mosfets. So i am not really sure how you are comparing the 2 amps i requested information about. I do notice you talk alot about the 5503 handling a tough load which you state at being 350wpc/4 ohm load. Well one thing about the aragons they are quite noted for handling tough loads. The aragon 4004 mk II is a true mono design amplifier which doubles down from 8 to 4 and again to 2 ohms. Also with the true mono design i would imagine the stereo seperation between the 2 channels would also highly have to favor the aragon.

But i am not here to slam adcom i think they make good products at good prices. My initial thread was just to find out some comparisons that people have done in their own homes with both products. Aragon just happened to be the favored here from folks that owned both.

Happy Listening!

Gmood1, As I look closer at Johngalt47 reply I noticed that he wasnt even sure of the model number of the adcom.
I stand corrected.

ELdartford, I was looking over your past threads and my wife looks over at me and says what is so funny. I like your humour. Good Stuff!

A friend of mine has an Adcom 555 mk2 and he brought it over to my house a couple months ago because he wanted to hear it power my Paradigm Reference 100.2 (his stereo got piece-mealed when he moved and is still that way). He just had it checked out and it was ready for a test. I took my McIntosh MC7100 out and put his amp in. We listened to the same music on both and the Adcom was definately lean, a little bright, and somehow not as extended in either direction as my McIntosh. We were both surprised. It also started clipping at the same point as my amp desite the Adcom power being rated much higher (gain is similar). He left disappointed and last I heard, it is up for sale.... Anyway, depends on the type of sound you like and your system synergy, but in our test and in our opinion, the Adcom failed. Audition if you can. I don't know the 4004 but I auditioned the 2005 with a Stage One and it sounded very good with Definitive Tech speakers. Good luck! Arthur

Kool39...My observation about "way more musical" was general in nature, interpreting Johngalt47's observation.

With regard to the particular Aragon amp: no I do not have experience with it. From what I see and read it appears to be similar in concept to Adcom products, and I am sure that I would be quite happy with it. (But how do prices compare between comparable models?) I only see one power transformer, so I can't agree with the "dual mono" description. Adcom and some others went from bipolar to mosfets because of inherently better distortion characteristics, but bipolar can be good, and Adcom has returned to bipolar for their multichannel HT products because of lower heat dissipation.

My next amp, if there is one, will be digital. Maybe the Carver ZR 1600. By all accounts it will blow all this stuff away, for less money.

One point I want to make (I have done research in this) about bipolar vs. MOSFET is that the notion "bipolar to mosfets because of inherently better distortion characteristics" isn't quite right. Distortion (due to nonlinearity - not noise which is design related) is lower in BJTs than in MOSFETs. This is why most makers today only use BJTs in output stages. In the near future, with recent developments in lateral MOSFET doping, this may not be the case anymore but for now, the BJT is the undisputed champ for linearity. One of the main advantages of going wtih MOSFET is that you can lower the amount of feedback before instability ensues. Design is a matter of weighing the trade-offs....

As for Class D, there is still some work to be done before all digital kills off analog IMO. There are many issues still to be resolved and talk about non-linearities!! I will stop here because I will get carried away with this one. Arthur