Aragon 18K Includes Ingot MkII power supply

I am selling my personal Aragon 18K which includes an upgraded Ingot MkII power supply. The Ingot MkII power supply was designed by myself about 2 years ago as a drop-in replacement for the old IPS & Ingot external power supply boards. The list of upgrades to this power supply update are long, if you do a google search for "Aragon Ingot MkII", you will find all the info on it. I only built about a dozen of these power supply boards to test the interest in them, so they are extremely rare. Most of them went into Aragon Aurum’s in replacement of their original Ingot boards. I gave all owners that purchased them a LIFETIME warranty on the boards. To date, none of them have ever had a problem. The cosmetics of the IPS chassis are fantastic as well, there is one light scratch, but overall this unit is super clean.

Now onto the 18K preamp.  This 18k was in bad cosmetic shape when I bought it about 5 years ago. The top cover was badly scratched and the top leading edge of the face plate was dinged up badly. To fix the scratched top cover I took it to a professional power coating business. They burnt the old finish off, sand blasted it and then coated it with a textured black finish. This powdercoated finish is way tougher than the original painted finish and best of all, it looks original. The dings on the upper edge of the faceplate can only be blacked out which is what I did with them. They are much more apparent in the pictures I have of the unit, this is due to the reflection off the dings, the dings themselves are actually black and do not show up in a normally medium lit room. In case you are wondering, I placed this unit in front of a large window for the pictures to get full light on the unit. I’m not trying to hide anything.

I gave the unit overall a 6 rating, but realistically I think that it is a 7+, you judge for yourself as I included a lot of good bright light pictures.

The 18k itself has never had an issue. It functions perfectly. I went through the unit 2 years ago and replaced/upgraded ALL of the 20+ year old electrolytic caps. The preregulated electrolytics were more than tripled in capacity (matching the Aurums internal capacitance). The post regulated capacitors were replaced with audio grade Nichicons (the gold caps). The Noble volume and balance pots were both completely disassembled and cleaned/lubed with Deoxit. The switches were likewise cleaned and lubed. Once all of the replacement work was completed the bias and DC offset were then set up. I set up the bias higher than the stock Mondial specs because it sounds better to me. All of the solder work was performed with Cardas Quad Eutectic silver solder.

In case you are wondering. I have upgraded and refurb’d a number of old Acurus and Aragon pre’s over the years and I have had nothing but positive feedback on my work. Not a single person has ever had any issues.

I will warranty this unit to the purchaser for a full 6 months from the date of receipt. Try to find a warranty of any type, much less 6 months, on a 20 year old preamp, you won’t! But I am that confident in this piece of gear and in my upgrade work.

I will split paypal fees with the buyer, so add 1.5% to the total with shipping included.  

Buyer pays actual shipping. For the shipping I will charge $50 up front and will refund the overage to you via paypal the night the unit ships. This is the only way I have found to keep me from getting stiffed from the incorrect UPS calculators.  As an example, If actual UPS shipping costs w/insurance turns out to be $23.25, then you will receive a refund of $26.75 via paypal, no games and no extra handling or materials charge nonsense. I’m an individual and not a business, I’m not out to make money on shipping.