Audio Research Ref 3 Opinions

I called ARC and asked if there was a upgrade for my Ref 3 and was told that there wasn't. I see on their site they still list the 6H30 tubes for the Ref 3. Will call back and talk to them again about this.
Has anyone else called?

Oneobgyn,
Did you try the tube swap before changing the bypass caps? I don't understand why we would have such different results unless Gmorris is correct and you have to do both.
I will have to call Leonard back and see what he says.

I am waiting for the bypass caps to arrive to have them installed in my Ref 3, as well as the Svetlana 6550C to replace the 6L6GC.
In the meantime, for my amps I have found that the 6550WE was a better replacement for the 6550C that ARC uses. Anybody try these in their pre amp? While waiting for the 6550C from ARC I plan to put one in to see if I can perceive any difference.

I am using the VTM 200 monblocks, which replaced a Theta Dreadnaught. I felt that I gave up some bass going to the VTM's until I switched to the WE tubes. Even without breaking in the bass improved in both strength and articulation.
I put a 6550WE from RAM last night but, I only played one album so can't comment on any difference between it and the 6L6GC yet. Also, I don't expect the Svetlana 6550C tube from ARC until next week.
I do have a new 6550C tube that McIntosh uses but, I don't know if it is a Svetlana tube or not.
I am hoping a friend of mine will be comming by this weekend to help with some audio comparisons. I like to have a second set of ears when trying something new.

Last night I sat down for a couple of hours of listening. The 6550WE tube was so hot in the preamp it seemed like you could fry hamburgers on the lid. I found that worrisome and put the old tube back in.
Will try again when the 6550C from ARC arrives.

It didn't sound any different, at least not that I noticed.

I finally put in a 6550C from ARC to compare it with the 6L6GC tube and the 6550WE tube. First I put about 50 hours of burn time on it.
All I can say is WOW!!! As in 'WOW, why would anybody want to degrade thier Ref 3 with this tube?"
With my present analog setup I usually listen with the volume between 55 and 65, depending on the record. When I really want to crank her up for some electric blues or rock and roll the volume goes up to 75 or even 80 if I want to be wall shaking loud.
With the 6550C in place I first put on Muddy Water's acoustic recording, "Folk Singer". I kept turning up the volume until I was at 90 and yet it sounded like I had furniture blankets over the speakers, talk about veiled. Then I put on Rob Wasserman's "Duet" and went right to the duet with Lou Reed. With the volume at 85 it had no impact, muddy, almost impossible to distinguish the two instruments playing.
I turned off the pre-amp, let the tubes cool down and dropped the original 6L6GC back in. Put the volume at 70, kept the mute on, dropped the needle back on to the Lou Reed track and sat down. Picked up the remote and unmuted the preamp. Back came the visceral bass, the furniture blankets were off the speakers and all the detail and seperation of instruments were back.
Maybe Oneobgyn is mistaken and the bypass caps are necessary in order to improve the sound using the 6550C tube. At this point I would have to hear it in someone elses system before I would chance putting the bypass caps in and trying the 6550C tube again.