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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 1 response by smoffatt

smoffatt
205 posts
 
Have owned several ARC units too numerous to list here. What i have now is REF2 MKI, REF Phono, Classic 120 mono's all modified by GNSC and all with vintage NOS tubes. Not once an ARC unit blew up on me and i have always done my own tube replacement and biasing. No reliability issues with the models i have owned over the years.
Hope this helps.
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