Buy tubes from Audio Research or not

Interesting how this thread started as a question of whether to buy tubes from ARC or an independent dealer, and is seemingly ending as a Kevin Bash Fest.
FWIW, I have always had good experiences dealing with Mr. Deal. He is extremely knowledgeable and offers quality tubes. He may not suffer fools gladly and has chosen to totally avoid the hassel of retubing a particular amp which can be problematic for those inept at it. So be it. One should at least do some preliminary research online anyway before calling any tube dealer. Common sense.

Philefreak,

I was never nasty or rude to Mr.Deal. I just wanted to know why they would not sell me tubes. I'm in business myself and I always answer the customers questions. I am never rude to customers and I have never told them never to call back. If I can't help them I will refer them to someone else. That is what Mr.Deal should have done.

"And now.....Back to our regular programming"

Fair enough, Taters, hope you find another dealer to get tubes affordable. I'm sure the VT-100 is a great amp, but yowsa that's stiff bill to just replace the output tubes.

How long do they last?

It should be mentioned in this thread somewhere that the Mk3 VT100 is a piece of cake to retube. You only need to bias the output tubes, not the inputs/drivers as on the mk2. I wonder if the problems in tube arcing in the Mk2 are from the difficulty in biasing the inputs. It is not an issue in mk3's.

Kevin was the first dealer I called when I wanted to try tube rolling. At that time I had a McIntosh 2102 amp that Kevin was very familiar with and an Audio Aero Capitole amp which he had almost no experience.

After a long and very informative discussion we settled on some really good, not to expensive tubes for a novice(me) for the 2102 and after reminding me that he was unsure of the exact fit for the Capitole he sold me some tubes for it.

I was very happy with the phone call, price and service. I continue to recommend Kevin, especially to any newbee.

Oh, these tubes made for the biggest improvement (of course from stock tubes) my equipment ever made. My more subtle adventures since have been fun but never as dramatic as with Kevin's help.