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Audio Research Tube AMP Reliability

I was out shopping for amps this weekend, and I ran across a guy getting his ARC tube amp repaired.

He said he really like it, but he has gone through tube replacements, and he had the thing burn up on him, the power lines on the board had smoked and burned. I saw the splices on the board, the damage was pretty big, and about $500 in repairs.

The owner of the shop said he got in ARC amps often due to poor design and reliability.

I am interested in ARC because the reviews are great, but I was wondering if other folks are having trouble with their ARC Amps?

How about the Pre-Amps?

Thanks,
Scott
128x128scottlanterman
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Never owned one; first time I have heard that "rap", but IMO, the horizontal, stacked output tubes in some of the ARC amps is asking for trouble for all but the bottom tube.
gmuffley
132 posts
 
I have owned many ARC amps and preamps over the last 35 years. I have found them to be very reliable. The few malfunctions I experienced were tube related, not faulty circuit design or reliability issues.
jallen
502 posts
 
A friend had the VT200, the tube blew, took out the resistor, but burned the board and replacement was not cheap...over 1K...I would never own one like that. Other designs of ARC seem more reliable. Jallen
jbelley
2 posts
 
I've been using a LS2BII pre and and VT130 power for 15 years. A resistor blew on the VT130 due to a faulty tube but Audio Research sent replacements within a few days. If you can solder, very easy to fix. I also use SED Winged C 6550s and 7308s in the VT130 with no issues. The LS2B has been flawless.
geraldm121
63 posts
 
I currently own and use the following ARC products:

a). D75 - has been my old standby for 30+ years. I recently retired it till I have the time to change the filter and coupling caps it has never been serviced other than replacement tubes.
b). SP7 preamp - the mate to the D75 for the same time period currently retired but works fine and will probably rejoin the D75 when it is re-capped
c). CA50 - I did send it back to ARC once but it turned out to be an intermittent 6922 no problem with the amp itself
d). SP9MKIII another bad 6922 shorted and took out $250 worth of FET's and some resistors. It was an expensive way to learn that JJ6922's just are not suitable for use in ARC products.
e). SP3A1 - diodes shorted in the power supply board shortly after I purchased it which appears to be common problem. Currently awaiting repair or upgrade to SP3C (ihave not yet decided which)but it is even older than my SP7.
So that's one man's experience with a variety of ARC products over the years. Not too bad. I would say better than average. Probably McIntosh is the only brand better in my experience with names such as Counterpoint, GAS, NAD, Marantz, Dynaco, Sansui, Pioneer,Sherwood etc.

Good luck,Jerry
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