There's nothing mysterious about Tom. He's been the tech at Brooks Berdan Ltd. for ages. He's in the shop on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The rest of the week he's employed at one of the TV studios in L.A.---yes, he's a professional engineer. Does he design and manufacture Class A electronics? Why---is that a requirement to point out what he feels are poor engineering choices? Of course, in his profession, reliability is taken very seriously. In consumer-grade electronics, he is very complimentary to Jadis and Music Reference, to name just a couple of companies.
Where should power tubes be mounted? On the chassis, as they are in those Jadis and MR amps, as well as Atma-Sphere's and others. Heck, even budget amps from the 60's had that! If you haven't seen burn marks around the tube sockets in ARC amps, perhaps it's because ARC owners seem to be constantly "upgrading" to new, improved models before the boards get singed from the heat---ARC tends to run their tubes relatively hard. The one's I looked at in the shop clearly had burned circuit boards. Which is bad enough, but what of the parts thereupon mounted? Heat can shorten their lifespan drastically.
The car tire/suspension was an analogy, not to be taken literally. Still, it's not that much of a stretch, IMO!
Yes, I've heard modern ARC products (and owned a couple until a few months ago. I still have the LS-1 I bought from Randy at Optimal Enchantment almost twenty-five years ago!). And yes, they sound great, but that's not the issue. There are many great sounding amps and pre-amps now, no need to settle for failure-prone ones. Are ARC power amps more likely to fail than other tube amps? Seems like it to me, just anecdotally. And though you may feel the bias resistor design in ARC power amps is acceptable, I consider it a ridiculous way to build an amplifier, I don't care how good it sounds. No, I don't design and manufacture Class A electronics.
But it's the constant, frequent, expensive, never-ending "improved" versions of each and every ARC model that disgusts me. ARC pulls the same stunt on every new model, leaving out the improvements that could have been incorporated into the original version (always increasing the power supply capacity, right? How many times can ARC "rediscover" that concept?), so as to generate new revenue from the same customer of the same model a year or two or three down the road (oops, another car analogy ;-), without having to sell him a new piece of gear. I'll bet THAT has played a significant role in keeping ARC in business for forty years. But ARC is doing fine without me---they have a loyal customer base, one whose members don't seem to mind being manipulated. Do I need to design and manufacture Class A electronics to have that opinion?
Sheesh, I didn't intend to ARC bash (though when pushed I obviously have no problem doing so), just to offer the tip above about a great alternative tube power amp, one that I prefer to own over any ARC. No, I haven't heard most of them (remember, it's not their sound I question), and couldn't afford them anyway. The Music Reference RM200 is available, by the way, with transformers (the heart of every tube power amp) hand-wound personally by Roger Modjeski, something I don't believe anyone at ARC is capable of doing. They don't offer that option, at any rate, no matter how much you pay for one of their amps. The sacrificial bias resistors, however, are mandatory, though free of charge. Until, that is, they need to be replaced.
Where should power tubes be mounted? On the chassis, as they are in those Jadis and MR amps, as well as Atma-Sphere's and others. Heck, even budget amps from the 60's had that! If you haven't seen burn marks around the tube sockets in ARC amps, perhaps it's because ARC owners seem to be constantly "upgrading" to new, improved models before the boards get singed from the heat---ARC tends to run their tubes relatively hard. The one's I looked at in the shop clearly had burned circuit boards. Which is bad enough, but what of the parts thereupon mounted? Heat can shorten their lifespan drastically.
The car tire/suspension was an analogy, not to be taken literally. Still, it's not that much of a stretch, IMO!
Yes, I've heard modern ARC products (and owned a couple until a few months ago. I still have the LS-1 I bought from Randy at Optimal Enchantment almost twenty-five years ago!). And yes, they sound great, but that's not the issue. There are many great sounding amps and pre-amps now, no need to settle for failure-prone ones. Are ARC power amps more likely to fail than other tube amps? Seems like it to me, just anecdotally. And though you may feel the bias resistor design in ARC power amps is acceptable, I consider it a ridiculous way to build an amplifier, I don't care how good it sounds. No, I don't design and manufacture Class A electronics.
But it's the constant, frequent, expensive, never-ending "improved" versions of each and every ARC model that disgusts me. ARC pulls the same stunt on every new model, leaving out the improvements that could have been incorporated into the original version (always increasing the power supply capacity, right? How many times can ARC "rediscover" that concept?), so as to generate new revenue from the same customer of the same model a year or two or three down the road (oops, another car analogy ;-), without having to sell him a new piece of gear. I'll bet THAT has played a significant role in keeping ARC in business for forty years. But ARC is doing fine without me---they have a loyal customer base, one whose members don't seem to mind being manipulated. Do I need to design and manufacture Class A electronics to have that opinion?
Sheesh, I didn't intend to ARC bash (though when pushed I obviously have no problem doing so), just to offer the tip above about a great alternative tube power amp, one that I prefer to own over any ARC. No, I haven't heard most of them (remember, it's not their sound I question), and couldn't afford them anyway. The Music Reference RM200 is available, by the way, with transformers (the heart of every tube power amp) hand-wound personally by Roger Modjeski, something I don't believe anyone at ARC is capable of doing. They don't offer that option, at any rate, no matter how much you pay for one of their amps. The sacrificial bias resistors, however, are mandatory, though free of charge. Until, that is, they need to be replaced.