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Audio Research REF 3

Dear all ARC REF 3 owners,
I just bought an REF 3 preamp which has replaced my LS25MKII preamp. To be honest i'm little disappointed by the result so far, but i guess tubes have to be replaced. My concern is especially on the sound image which is not precise as my LS25MKII image was.
The number of hours of used displayed by the my REF 3 is 1670 but i realized that hours counter increased only for full hours of used, so i can estimate the number of hours of the tubes inside my REF 3 to be the double i guess.
My question is the following
What do you recommend for tubes replacement and source for the replacement of REF 3 tubes.
I used sovtek, EH gold, and 6H30-DR on my LS25MKII and i was pleased with all those tubes even if i didn't find the DR much better than the 2 other brands.
Thanks in advance
ARCL60
arcl60

Showing 1 response by chadnliz

chadnliz's avatar
chadnliz
3,737 posts
 
I agree with Talon, my dad owns the Ref3 and while there has been alot said about it your experience isnt the norm, Seeing how you bought it used the only hour count you can trust is your own, invest in new tubes and reset number, maybe note the old count for a total hours of use record.
My sather had some noise on his and as he bought a dealer demo (saved over 3K) AR sent new tubes for free.
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