Audio Research Reference 3 Seeking help

I have owned equipment over the years from many high end manufacturers. A few have not been helpful with customer inquiries, but, over the past decade or so of my ownership of ARC gear, ARC --I usually speak to Kal--is right up there with the very best. On one occasion when Kal was out of service, I spoke to Chris who was extraordinarily helpful and polite.
Perhaps Don_c55 impressed Chris the way he is impressing us, in which case I suppose Don_c55 got what he deserved.

Gpgr4blu ... my experiences with Kal and Chris are the same as yours.

Tsushimsma1

If an independent repairman in one part, of one state, in the USA can make a living repairing ARC equipment for 20 years, I would say ARC equipment has gross reliability problems.

I do not believe tube amps are any more complicated to fix than TVs.

Yes, I have had issues with ARC service, and know personally many other people in Minnesota that also have had ARC service issues.

The internet forums are chock full of ARC failure stories.

This is "NOT" true of any other audio tube manufacturer. Yet many people love ARC, and do not care about "down" time.

It is like women that get abused by their man, but keep going back to them, after being repeatedly being beaten up!

With reliable audio equipment you never meet the service people because good reliable audio equipment almost never needs to go back to the factory!

If one repair person in one part of one state in the US can make a living for 20 years repairing one brand what does that say about the reliability?

Don_c55 ... this is my last post on this thread. Did it occur to you that Hifigeek1 is not a "one trick pony"?? That is, maybe he services many other brands and may also have other commerical interests going on as well. If you're so interested, why not ask him. Frankly, I don't think it's any of your business.

Further, as is the case with most gear, part failure occurs -- period .... The older the equipment, the more frequent the failure rate. There is a lot of serviceable ARC gear that is decades old doing what it was originally designed to do; to wit, make beautiful music. Caps dry out and need replacing. Switches wear out. Bias resisters burn. And so forth and so on.

Gary (Hifigeek1) is a long standing and respected A'gon member. ARC is a fine company. Look at my system description. Except for an occassional pesky burned biased resister in my amp -- NEVER had a problem with equipment reliability!! And ... IMHO, I am blessed to own a killer rig that is powered by ARC gear.

Don ... let this one go. You've stated your opinion. We all got it. I have no intention of trying to change your mind. I have no dog in this fight. My only point is to put out there that I *AM* A HAPPY ARC customer and I believe that there are many others.

Have a nice day. :)