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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 4 responses by hansk46

hansk46's avatar
hansk46
122 posts
 
Hello ACR REF 3 owners , I replaced the original 6550 tube
by an NOS Tung-Sol 6L6 WGB , I will tell you after some 100 hours what will be the differance .( together with the 6H30P-DR tubes some 200 hours ago )
Greetings from the Netherlands Hans
hansk46's avatar
hansk46
122 posts
 
Hello ARCL60 , I 'm also a proud owner of the REF3 , I left the 6550C original supplied , but replaced the normal tubes by the DR version . I liked this roll out . The tubes were bought at the Tubestore , fast delivery , had no problem .Do you do the upgrade of the 4 bypasscaps your self ? In the Netherlands the importer refuses to do the upgrade for me , so I like to do it myself , but dont know
the value of the caps , and the place in the machine .Perhaps you have the schematics ?
Greetings Hans
hansk46's avatar
hansk46
122 posts
 
Hello arc160 , the Dutch importer told me only that the 4 bypass caps will not make my REF 3 better .So I 'am very interested what will be the result in your amp.Please keep me updated when you have let them installed.
Regards Hans
The Netherlands
hansk46's avatar
hansk46
122 posts
 
Hello Arc160 , yes you can change the 6L6 by the 6550C.The 4 bypasscaps are on the back of the board where the 4 golden caps are located.The bypasscaps ( 0,0024 mF ) are C111-114 , don 't mount them on the board , but leave some distance ( about 5 mm ) to the board.
Greatings from the Netherlands Hans
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