Solid State to replace Audio Research REF110?

Your problems are not due to having a tube amp but rather to having an Audio Research tube amp. If you do a little reading on the Agon forums, you will find many, many accounts similar to yours---a burst of sparks (if not actual flames) and a burned up resistor perhaps causing damage to the circuit board, all requiring an expensive trip back to the factory. In many of these accounts, this was the second or third time the customer had the problem.

For the life of me, I just don't see why anyone would put up with this. Other designs using the same output tubes are capable of far greater reliability and when an output tube does fail the only damage is a blown fuse that is easily replaced without the amp ever leaving home.

One example of a very good sounding tube amp that should be more reliable is the Emotive Audio Vita, which I happen to own. I have had zero problems during the 3 years I have owned the Vitas, but perhaps more importantly if I should have a catastrophic tube failure it should only pop a fuse, not take out other components. Plus there is no circuit board to be damaged. There are certainly many other good sounding yet reliable tube amps, but I mention the Emotive Vitas because Jonathan Valin of TAS had a pair in his system and said they were very similar in sound to the ARC 610T which was his reference at the time (this was around 2010). He also said the Vitas were the best medium power amps he had heard.

So don't give up on tubes. You just need to try a different brand.

I have wondered why reviewers don't comment more often about reliability problems with ARC amps. My guess is that they don't have the amps long enough to experience the melt down problems with output tubes that are past their prime.

And I want to emphasize that (1) the problem is not that ARC amps break down so frequently, it's that when they do occur the breakdowns cause damage that the average user can't fix, and (2) the ARC reliability issues are only with power amps--I have never heard of any problems with their preamps.

Bifwynne, you clearly like your ARC gear and the helpful service over the phone, and that's great. Nothing wrong with a happy customer. However, your note actually proves the point made earlier about the reliability problems with ARC power amps. From your own experience, you know that a bad tube can burn up a resistor which requires either a trip to the factory or a visit from a service tech. Also, you imply this happened more than once.

Now, you may appreciate the friendly folks at ARC when you inquire about a breakdown, but I ask you: wouldn't it be even better not to have to call the service dept in the first place? Just speaking for myself, I would rather know that if one of my output tubes failed all I will have to do is replace a fuse and put a new set of tubes in, set the bias and then be good for many more years. Great sound and reliable performance. That's what I want from my gear.