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Help with re-tubing an ARC VT100 MkII

It's now time for me to retube my Audio Research VT100 MkII. It appears that it's no big deal, if I only want to retube the power tubes. However, I think its time to retube the input tubes as well.

Can anyone offer any advise as to:
1) Should I just spend the reported $700-$800 (seems expensive to me) and send it to ARC?
2) Can anyone offer an alternative to No.1 (I don't know anyone here in Memphis, TN that could do it)
3) Any suggestions as to what brands/types of tubes to replace the old ones?

In advance, thank you!

Louis
louisl

Showing 3 responses by audphile1

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,443 posts
 
that's a lot of money they charge, these ARC guys. I am considering this amp myself and curious what the outcome of this will be as far as what you can do yourslef vs what has to be done by ARC. As far as buying tubes for my ARC LS-15 pre, I had great experience with www.upscaleaudio.com
Kevin really knows his stuff and their tube matching is very reputable. So far the tubes I got from Kevin made my pre-amp sing and I tried a lot of tubes from lots of different stores. You may actually save some money with UpscaleAudio vs. ARC. Just a thought.
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,443 posts
 
Another advantage of getting tubes from upscale is that they run the tubes in for 72 hours before doing any matching. At least they do that when you get their platinum grade. So I think you can expect the tubes to be stabilized by the time you receive them. I don't know if Research runs the tubes in before doing adjustments, but I would think that they do. At least this would be logical to do on their part. ARC should tell you though. Good luck.
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,443 posts
 
Jea48, Upscale's a little bit more money, but I think it's worth it for what you get from them.
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