ARC VT 100: MkII vs. MkIII?

Sparky57: You are basically screwed. The MKIII is out. It is an $1,850 upgrade (I think).

Cool! I'm always looking for better. I bought the unit used for $2800 and spent $600 on the upgrade. I couldn't care less that I don't have the latest. I will be curious as to the changes / sonic improvements. What I would really like is the ability to bridge the channels to offer the ultimate upgrade - another!

The newer model has a longer tube life besides better (possible?) sonics. I probably will go for it!

The Mk3 adds a switch for bal/single ended, 12V power on/off trigger. Internally, it now has JFET for input, followed by a 6H30 driver/gain, and a 6H30 follower driving the 6550Cs. There are now four internal bias instead of two. The upgrade will set us back 1895 from Mk2 and 2695 from Mk1. I do not know how different the sound would be from the Mk2. BAT has been using this tube in their preamps for over a year now. Why ARCs moving away from 6922 for their new design? Could REF 3 preamp replace REF 2 next year to correct the tubey sound of REF 2? Oh! well.....

ARC has experienced high failure rates on the Russian 6922. In addition ARC is having problems with the factory. I own both the ARC LS25 and the VT100 mkII. I am not in a hurry to upgrade to the LS25 mkII or the VT 100 mkII. Leonard at ARC claims that the LS25 mkII wallops the LS25 mkI in every respect and is in fact clearly better than the Reference I. I guess we will see.......