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ARC Quality Issues Ref75 Ref5SE Ref10

Over the past two years I had several issues with ARC Ref gear and am wondering if I'm the only one out there having so much "bad luck"?

My issues started when I bought a Ref5SE plus Ref75.
The two meters in the Ref75 had a noticeable different color and had to be replaced by my dealer.

Two of the Ref5SE tube sockets were soldered crooked to the board. I found a loose screw bouncing around inside the chassis when I unpacked it and found that the two crooked tube sockets were not even bolted down to the metal support on the main board. ARC apologized and replaced the brand new Ref5SE.

The replacement Ref5SE blew up after 600 hrs of use. A small component in the power section exploded with a single loud bang with smoke following.

To not end up with a nearly new but repaired preamp I upgraded to Ref10. The Ref10 power section also blew up after two months and only 390 hrs of use. One or more of the smaller white caps in the power section exploded (four or five significant and loud bangs with smoke). My dealer just informed me that ARC is going to replace the failed Ref10 against a brand new one.

I can not believe I am the only one having repeated problems with ARC's new gear!?

Feedback and comments will be greatly appreciated !
decibell

Showing 3 responses by smoffatt

smoffatt
205 posts
 
Have had ARC many different amps and preamps for over 25 years without any issues and some modded by GNSC. I was considering replacing (scaling down) my all ARC REF separates with a VAC 160iSE. As good as VAC products may be, i won't touch it. If you can not have a dealer in a city of over 3M people with a world renowned audio show being held each and every spring, that tells you how serious they are at expanding their market share across the US and Canada. I would have to drive 400 miles to audition a VAC product. ARC's been around for 45 years with a well established dealer network and likely will be around t'il the day i die. The little boutique shops like VAC; when the owner/designer dies the brand dies.
One such company is Hovland and Joule will likely be next.
smoffatt
205 posts
 
Decibell. I would call ARC and ask to speak with Terry Dorn. Terry needs to know about those quality issues you are referring to. Make sure that you have your serial number of each piece while speaking with him. Crooked tube sockets and loose screws bouncing around inside a $30k preamp is unacceptable.
smoffatt
205 posts
 
He might be. Haven't talked to him in quite sometime but Decibell should make the call nevertheless and speak with Chris Ossana. Not sure who else you can talk to nowadays. With Terry gone/leaving, the "old guard" is quite decimated. ARC has not been the same since the days of Bill Johnson, Rich Larson, Len Gustafson and a few others who have left.

The brick and mortar is still there but i'm afraid that the soul is gone; forever.

Bill and Rich would have never tolerated crooked tube sockets and loose screws bouncing around inside a $30K preamp shipped in a single carton.

Don't they have a QC guy? No piece should leave the factory in this condition. NONE. I can understand parts can fail but we're talking serious assembly issues here. Do we have cold solder points too????
Taking the piece back to the dealer is not good enough. Not to me anyway.
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