Please give me advice about an ARC VT 200 amp

@jea48 - a very good point, and this also means that a variac won't work either!

Your Marantz can't be restarted in this fashion either- not unless you are willing to remove all the transistors! The light bulb trick only works with tube amps with all the tubes removed.

@noromance a 60-100 watt bulb will do the job.

When the caps are fully charged, they won't draw current. The bulb goes out.

The bigger loads just take longer to put the bulb out.

@noromance  The technique I wrote about has been around for many decades as you can see from the post prior to this.

When the bulb is lit, the voltage drop is all on the bulb. This can happen if the filter caps are shorted or drawing current as they take a charge. But over time, eventually the lamp might go out- if it does, that means that the caps are no longer drawing current, so at that point they are fully charged. The lamp prevents the caps from being damaged should they draw current.

This is actually safer than using a variac, as you need to have an ammeter on that variac to monitor the current draw, and there is a serious judgment call about how much current is safe! So you are usually better off using the light bulb in this particular case- but because the tubes draw current, they can't be in the amp while this process is going on. You put them in only after the caps charged up and the lamp is off, and then power up the amp normally.

For an amplifier that has been sitting for decades, this technique is not so good, as the filter caps should simply be replaced. But for an amp that has been sitting for only three years this is the way to go.

@noromance , The technique I offered works just as well and is a lot cheaper. Based on your post I suspect you didn’t read my post all the way through.

@dweller , you are correct. The exception might be if the amp is somehow unstable without a load but IMO such an amp would be borderline criminal to sell on the open market.

FWIW a variac is not needed to restart this amp. If you are concerned about the condition of the filter caps, remove the tubes in the amp, and get a 60 watt light bulb (incandescent) and wire that in series with the power cord (if you don't know how to do this, have someone that knows electricity to do it for you- its not hard).

Then turn the amp on. The bulb will light up, but as the caps charge it will dim out. This will prevent any dangerous currents from damaging anything. If the bulb stays lit, the amp needs service. If the bulb goes out, reinstall the tubes and run the amp normally. Let it play for a while before you take it seriously as it will need some 'break in' time.

That's a whole lot cheaper than a variac!