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Audio Research Tube AMP Reliability

I was out shopping for amps this weekend, and I ran across a guy getting his ARC tube amp repaired.

He said he really like it, but he has gone through tube replacements, and he had the thing burn up on him, the power lines on the board had smoked and burned. I saw the splices on the board, the damage was pretty big, and about $500 in repairs.

The owner of the shop said he got in ARC amps often due to poor design and reliability.

I am interested in ARC because the reviews are great, but I was wondering if other folks are having trouble with their ARC Amps?

How about the Pre-Amps?

Thanks,
Scott
scottlanterman

Showing 2 responses by gmorris

gmorris
351 posts
 
I owned the ARC D76A for 12 years (1976 - 1988) with no service issues and still going strong in a friend's system, same for the ARC D115 MKII (1988- 2000 , which I owned for 12 years. I now have the ARC VT100 MKII since about 2000 with only needing to replace the fusing resistors which protected the amp from an arching defective output tube. However the VT100 requires input 6922 tubes that are very closely matched with tight triode balances. This is needed to properly bais the input section of the amp and to ensure proper functioning of the output tubes.

In general ARC tube components are very reliable.
gmorris
351 posts
 
I forgot to comment on the reliability of the ARC preamps.
I have owned the SP9, SP9 MKII, SP14, LS2B, LS2B MKII and now the LS25 MKII and the Phono PH2. I have never had any problems with any of the preamps. NEVER!!. Currently, I leave my PH2 and LS25 on 7/24 without any service issues. The PH2 is well over 15 years in my system without any issues (albeit it is solid state).
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