Aragon Palladium 1K mods:Help!

[soundofvoid]

I am waiting for a pair of these monos to arrive at my door.
They are going to be used as bass amps for a big diy speaker.
They are going to power two TL loaded 11" woofers running in
parallel that are able to take 150 Watts each.
Cross point is about 250 Hz (actively crossed)and i am thinking about how steep
the slope is going to be...I'll try 24db/oct first and see...
The question is a)how do i convert them to xlr iputs (they are RCA).
b)what can be done to improve on bass quality (slam,control of the woofers).
Has anyone tried a mod on these?
The usual way of upgrading reservoir caps/adding smaller+faster caps,better internal cables etc etc pays off?
Thanks for looking...

[ThomasW]

When they arrive pop the top to see how they've wired the driver boards to the RCAs. Post a pic of this if possible

They have a very stout/stiff power supply.

I doubt you'll need to do any mods/tweaks if they're just working from 250Hz down.

[soundofvoid]

I 've seen pictures with the top off.I think there is plenty of space on top of the small board that covers the four big PS reservoir caps for something smaller and more snappy!Also changing the output wires to something more than "off the reel" ones,has never disappointed me.Then better output posts, a better AC wire and so on.Ah!not to forget to change the blue leds
with soft green perhaps...blue is so passe these days!And Indy audio labs has sent me a small sketch of how to convert RCAs to XLRs.All i have to do is wait...and wait and wait...agrrrrrrr!

[Brian Kingsbury]

Changing from RCA to XLR is only going to be a "cosmetic" change. You'll have a different connector but you won't actually get any sonic benefits.

[ThomasW]

Changing from RCA to XLR is only going to be a "cosmetic" change. You'll have a different connector but you won't actually get any sonic benefits.

Palladiums are a dual differential design. Running them single ended is a waste of a 'channel', so yes he will benefit from converting them to run balanced with XLRs

[ThomasW]

I 've seen pictures with the top off.I think there is plenty of space on top of the small board that covers the four big PS reservoir caps for something smaller and more snappy!Also changing the output wires to something more than "off the reel" ones,has never disappointed me.Then better output posts, a better AC wire and so on.Ah!not to forget to change the blue leds
with soft green perhaps...blue is so passe these days!And Indy audio labs has sent me a small sketch of how to convert RCAs to XLRs.All i have to do is wait...and wait and wait...agrrrrrrr!

Palladiums are an 8008BB. The power supply is large and very stiff. Only your ego is going to benefit from any mods to this amp when it's only being used for woofers

FWIW I have 4 Aragon 8008BBs and 6 Aragon 8008STs in various systems.

At some point when Jon gets tired of building speakers we'll release the Aragon-X design which replaces the driver cards in any 8000 series amp with a significantly better circuit. Don't hold your breath for this though, it's at least a year away..

[soundofvoid]

I respect your views comrades...I will hold my plans untill i have the real thing in my hands and then i'll see what can be done...
Regarding the change to XLR :i am using an active crossover that has XLR in/outputs
only.The rest of the system is running XLR's (sacd/pre/tube amps) and i would prefer
NOT to use adaptors.Since it looks like a straightforward diy job,i'll certainly do it...
Regarding the upgrade that Jon is thinking of producing ,i am definately in!
I think i've read in somewhere in his posts about the use of a couple Jensen input
transformers that would improve the quality of the incoming signal and lower the noise.
Has anyone done this?

[Brian Kingsbury]

Palladiums are a dual differential design. Running them single ended is a waste of a 'channel', so yes he will benefit from converting them to run balanced with XLRs

I stand corrected. ops: I assumed that since the amp came stock with RCA's and no XLR it probably wasn't dual differential. It makes me wonder why they didn't include XLR inputs in the first place? :roll: Were XLR's excluded intentionally in this model and only has dual diff design because it shares components with another (more expensive) amp that has XLR's?

[soundofvoid]

Nope!Believe it or not, it was the exact same amp that you could have (or order)
either with a single XLR or a single RCA input jack!!!!
Definately one of the great mysteries of high end audio manufacturing...
Cutting costs on the price of a jack?Beats me....

[soundofvoid]

Just got them!They are a pair of beautiful beasts!Arrived in top shape (just a couple
light rubbed places on top).I have opened them and i do believe there is room for minor improvement...I'll order a couple gold contact Neutric XLR's ,WBT posts and an assortment of caps and here we go...I'll keep you posted!

[dnlyko]

Palladiums are an 8008BB. The power supply is large and very stiff. Only your ego is going to benefit from any mods to this amp when it's only being used for woofers

FWIW I have 4 Aragon 8008BBs and 6 Aragon 8008STs in various systems.

At some point when Jon gets tired of building speakers we'll release the Aragon-X design which replaces the driver cards in any 8000 series amp with a significantly better circuit. Don't hold your breath for this though, it's at least a year away..

Any news on this new driver card?????

[franSSS]

Just got them!They are a pair of beautiful beasts!Arrived in top shape (just a couple
light rubbed places on top).I have opened them and i do believe there is room for minor improvement...I'll order a couple gold contact Neutric XLR's ,WBT posts and an assortment of caps and here we go...I'll keep you posted!

Hiya Mr,

Did you do the upgrades? how did it pan out? Eager to hear what you did. I have recently bought a pair of these for stereo listening and wonder what tweaks can be made for optimum effect.