It's probably your power tube. The stock 6550 power tube is run fairly hot and runs out of steam at about 1100 hours--clarity and dynamics diminish. You need a matched replacement 6550 tube from Audio Research. They will want the number written on your 6550 power tube and the cost is about $85. Your small signal tubes have a longer life span, so I doubt that the problem lies with them. I owned a Ref3 for about 8 months and replaced the 6550 tube twice, before selling the unit. It should sound much better than the LS25MKII. The problem of "running out of steam" isn't something that is well known, but if you do an Audiogon search, you'll see it talked about. Good luck. Best regards, Stan
Audio Research REF 3
Dear all ARC REF 3 owners,
I just bought an REF 3 preamp which has replaced my LS25MKII preamp. To be honest i'm little disappointed by the result so far, but i guess tubes have to be replaced. My concern is especially on the sound image which is not precise as my LS25MKII image was.
The number of hours of used displayed by the my REF 3 is 1670 but i realized that hours counter increased only for full hours of used, so i can estimate the number of hours of the tubes inside my REF 3 to be the double i guess.
My question is the following
What do you recommend for tubes replacement and source for the replacement of REF 3 tubes.
I used sovtek, EH gold, and 6H30-DR on my LS25MKII and i was pleased with all those tubes even if i didn't find the DR much better than the 2 other brands.
Thanks in advance
ARCL60
I just bought an REF 3 preamp which has replaced my LS25MKII preamp. To be honest i'm little disappointed by the result so far, but i guess tubes have to be replaced. My concern is especially on the sound image which is not precise as my LS25MKII image was.
The number of hours of used displayed by the my REF 3 is 1670 but i realized that hours counter increased only for full hours of used, so i can estimate the number of hours of the tubes inside my REF 3 to be the double i guess.
My question is the following
What do you recommend for tubes replacement and source for the replacement of REF 3 tubes.
I used sovtek, EH gold, and 6H30-DR on my LS25MKII and i was pleased with all those tubes even if i didn't find the DR much better than the 2 other brands.
Thanks in advance
ARCL60
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- 34 posts total
- 34 posts total