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For ARC lovers, Problems?

I had a ref 6 which I liked a lot and had no problems with. I upgraded to the ref 10 which sounded appreciably better but I ended up with a number of problems that I could no longer tolerate. I have a new pre which is very good but is not nearly as exciting as the audio research sound.
From your experience with Audio Research is this a good idea going back to the ref 6 with the hope of upgrading it to the SE? Or will I regret it due to reliability issues? There are pages on Audiogon concerning ARC reliability issues and I don't want to jump feet first into another expensive audio quicksand.
Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

roxy1927

Showing 1 response by clearthinker

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
I've had little trouble with six ARC pieces owned over more than 40 years.
In that time all my pre- and phono amps had been ARC until I wanted to upgrade my phono- last year and found  almost no ARCs now run true balanced.  I bought the van den Hul Grail SB and love it.

I also run a Ref 6.  No plan to upgrade.

I still also use an SP10, way ahead of its time and perhaps their most iconic pre-amp.
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