For ARC lovers, Problems?

I had a ref 6 which I liked a lot and had no problems with. I upgraded to the ref 10 which sounded appreciably better but I ended up with a number of problems that I could no longer tolerate. I have a new pre which is very good but is not nearly as exciting as the audio research sound.
From your experience with Audio Research is this a good idea going back to the ref 6 with the hope of upgrading it to the SE? Or will I regret it due to reliability issues? There are pages on Audiogon concerning ARC reliability issues and I don't want to jump feet first into another expensive audio quicksand.
Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.