ARC Ref 75 vs. Ref 75 SE

Bifwynne says:

"Have tubes arced and taken out bias resisters?? Yes!! But how often?? Maybe once or twice a year. And since I've been using KT-120 and KT-150 power tubes, tube arcing has been a very rare occurrence."

That says it all!

I owned a D125 and a tube shorted. The amp went into flames shooting up six inches from the bias PCB. The dealer said that happened to 4 other customers. And they only sold 10 D125's in the era.

ARC sounds good, but the owners do not care about reliability! Most all other tube brands have better reliability.

I want failure free as the norm! Over the amps complete life!

Moved to Pass Labs Class A - better sound - no problems!

Bifwynne

ARC's service center is a profit center.

I have been to the factory, and the service team is large for a company of 80 employees.

The D125, although built around 1989, was touted as a reliability breakthrough, due to the addition of an LED on each tube, indicating a weak one, for replacement before failure. That was the only ARC amp ever made with that feature. Tubes can short at any time, especially near the end of life, with no warning. They later added timers to prevent owners from running tubes to failure.

I repeat: What other tube manufacturer has parts failure when tubes fail? It is poor design, and a lot of ARC customer do not care. Many give up on ARC in the long run. The internet forums are full of those stories!

Bifwynne: Why are you in every ARC post?

You are like Stringbean and VPI!

WE know you are a ARC cheerleader!

Bifwynne

I have owned, and heard, ARC equipment for 40 years.

In the last 10 years ARC has changed the sound, since Johnson passed.

The older ARC gear has fans that do not like the current, over over the "Golden Oldies".

ARC now uses caps that take an absurd time to "form", and sound lean, and SS, compared to their older gear, IMO.

Have a good day!