I’ve built a number of Paragons but I remove the charge pump because I think the circuit sounds and feels better at 9V, a little easier to “push”. but it can still run at 18V with an 18V power supply if need be (there’s no way to step the stock Paragon down to 9V if you wanted to try it.).
I haven’t built the Aion version (it’s pretty new) and don’t really feel the need to, since I already have drill templates and artwork for the Paragon (and I prefer building on PedalPCB boards both for already having values silkscreened on the board and also because I’m not a fan of AionFX’s method of off-board wiring). The big difference is the “higher gain” switch, but that’s not really all that big a deal IMHO - it just shifts the gain range up a notch or two (so it’s a little more clipped when cranked and a little hairier when turned down, but there’s still plenty of overlapping gain between the two modes), it doesn’t make it a fundamentally different pedal by any means. That’s why most KoT buyers tend to do one side “high gain” (usually the right side, so they can use the left side as a clean-boost after it)
aionfx.com
