ARC Ref 3: Tung-Sol 6550 in power supply?

Up date on 6550 Tungsram after almost 100 hrs. I believe a conclusion is not easy to be made. As I posted on the other thread VTL 6.5 vs Ref. 3, the only negative on the ref.3 is that sometimes it is tiring for eccessive details. I finally would not go back to the original 6550C Winged. There is more sense of pace listening to music now. I had to tweak the speaker position a bit since the speakers can now be more apart witout loosing focus. The only doubt still remaining is on the bass that is not as tight as before. I gained in extension but missing some control. This will require probably a tweak on the Preamp foot. By the way, for Ref. 3 owners, I strongly suggest to try something different from the original foot. I found excellent results with Soundcare. Simply Do not expect to replace without some adjustment to accomodate/leverage the differences. If you need more detail go for the Original Winged C, If you need more wormth the tungsol is an excellent help.I will keep you posted on the evolution, but either way the preamp sounds glorious.

Marco, what Tungsol variant are you using? New production or NOS? Guido

Marco

From your post it seems to me that you are hearing something different rather than something better. The loss of bass with your tube IMO is one of the reasons ARC goes with their provided 6550C and then for you to have to adjust speaker position suggests to me that whatever difference you heard was not related to the 6550 Tungsram but rather speaker realignment. It makes no sense to me that by changing a tube you have to change speaker position and the feet on the Ref3 for better listening pleasure. I might suggest to you to put the original 6550C back in, keep the speakers where you now have them and keep the tweak on the preamp feet and I would bet your bass is again back to where you like it and overall the sound is better. By inference therefore the speaker repositioning and tweak is what changed, nothing more.

Yes Guido it is a current Tungsol. I had to buy a matched pair. I'm very intrigued by trying the Black sable as possible next experiment. Probably the result would be half way from the 2 sounds.

You are probably right Oneobgyn. Probably however we are talking about a different philosophy of "the zen of listening to music". From my experience infact, everytime I change something in my system (BTW Soon I will pubblish it to give more clarity about my listening experience), I'm prepared to maximize the benefit (If I sense there is a potential for improvement) by tweaking here and there. Sometimes even changing the Cartridge weight of 0,1 Gram forces me to change something in the system. So for me it is not strange that changing tubes I have to change something to get a new set-up. In this case I'm not saying I obtained miracles; I'm just sharing my experience and adding to the thread (And this is in accordance to Guido conclusions) that the 2 solutions give a different Sound...and that I like what I have with the new set-up because I can hear for many hours without feeling tired. On the other side I understand also that the better definition of Original 6550C is beneficial for easier interpretation of words of singers and or to catch the notes while listening to instruments. This is probably why Guido being a professional musician (I'm jealous!) is looking for the max detail and myself as a concert listener I'm looking for the closest "Concert like" experience....And I believe the current set-up is closer to the timbre I hear in Jazz concerts for a piano or classical orchestra being in the 15th row. Just to correct one sentence in your post, The bass with TS is more in quantity and extension. It is the tightness that I was mentioning as not as good as before. I look forward to getting more on the subject