Solid State to replace Audio Research REF110?

Swampwalker, I've been down "tube arc road" several times. Yes ... it's true, most times the tube arc took a bias resister out. But no flames, explosions, cascading oscillations that blew speakers, or Fourth of July explosions and sparks.

Yes ... it's also true that replacing the bias resisters is a PITA. Fortunately, there's an ARC authorized service tech about a 30 to 40 minute drive to my house who happens to make house call. It takes the rep about 30 minutes to pop in a new resister and I'm back in business pretty quickly.

Gary (Hifigeek) is an authorized ARC service tech. Perhaps he can bring some perspective to this issue. My guess is that this is more of a tube thing than a design thing. Tubes arc -- period. When they do, they will pop a fuse or a resister. If one owns tube gear -- this goes with the territory. Just my opinion.

I'm with Swampwalker on this issue. There are definitely tube amplifiers
that sound excellent and will blow a simple cheap fuse rather than take out
a resistor. I don't buy the ARC sound quality argument either. ARC is good
but there's better (matter of taste). A good friend had ARC for several years
and replaced it with VAC components which will blow a fuse instead of a
resistor. Nice as the ARC (no knock) was we both felt that the VAC was
clearly a step up in sound quality. ARC may have their own reasons but the
"better performance" doesn't hold up. Replacing resistors is an
unnecessary inconvenience compared to replacing a simple fuse.
Charles,

Charles ...., I hear ya. Don't know what to add to what I've already said. Yes ... bias resisters may blow if a tube arcs and since I am not comfortable taking a soldiering iron to my amp, replacement is a bigger deal than it should be. My gut tells me that if -- and that's a big if -- there is a denigration in sonics, it might be worth the trade-off to insert a fuse into the signal path. Again, maybe Gary (Hifigeek) will weigh in with his reality check reactions.

Happy New Year to all.

Once again, Conrad Johnson just released a solid-state power amp that will rival the last one (Premier SS350).

I found the bigger BAT solid state amps to compete very favorably with the ARC gear. Balanced Audio and VTL have an auto bias system that goes a long way toward solving the burnt resistor problem. BAT has a fuse less system now that will open before the tube blows which makes the blown tube, arc, burnt resistor scenario a thing of the past. I could not hear any audible degradation of sound when that update was performed. I feel a company that fails to address a persistent problem doesn't deserve my business. Just my opinion.