Problem with Ref 5SE


I recently purchased a 5se and took delivery the other day. Did not get a chance to open it up until last night. Upon installing it into system I switched it on and after it warmed up, I was very much interested in hearing how it sounded against my current 27. After listening to several tracks with the 27 I switched pre's and after a couple of minutes playing a CD I got some noise, almost a loud static sound coming from the right channel. It was not effected by changing volume controls or input selector. It went away after 10-15 seconds and then returned. At that point, as it was late, I shut everything down and figured I would take another look in the morning.

This morning I removed the top cover and pulled and reset the output tubes and then the power tubes. I fired it back up and still had the 'static' sound but now it also had a humm, like an impedance type hum and constant. I do not believe that the humm was present last night as it is quite noticeable. 

The static type load noise seemed to have abated after the unit warmed up after maybe 15-30 minutes.

Can I assume that perhaps a tube was damaged during shipping? Do you ARC guys think a new set of tubes will fix this issue or am I looking at something more severe? Any additional suggestions to try and pin this down?

I rerouted the IC going to the amps to get them further away from source IC's and no help...

I am a little bummed, as my initial impression it that it is a leap from the LS27, my current...
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Showing 4 responses by stevea1298

ghasley

That is a definite possibility, but will wait until the new tubes come in and try that, if sound remains I guess in it will go.

I did go back up late last night to see if it was something that I can live with, from listening position, once the music starts the 'noise' disappears and only reappears between tracks, even soft passages it is really not noticeable.  My speakers Shahinian Hawks are 87db with a nominal impedance of 6 ohms.

Previous owner has said it was dead quiet in his system.

I am going to hold off judgement until I get new power plant installed, then new tubes and then considering a aftermarket power cable, although the factory seems pretty substantial. 

Hopefully one of these will quiet the beast.

I have not checked how hot the tube had been running, currently the top cover is unscrewed (so I was able to access tubes). If I get home early enough I will take a look around the tube and see if there is any evidence of prolonged high heat exposure.

Just got word that tubes are shipping today so I should have them on Thursday and be able to answer a lot of questions Thursday night.