Fireworks in an Audio Research VT200

I would definitely call ARC or your local ARC dealer ASAP. My guess is the flash you saw was a fuse that popped.

Kurt,

A year ago I was actually told by Counterpoint that they never had an amp catch fire. Hm!

The ARC amps my father had when i was a kid were D-60's and believe it or not, solid state. They'd been installed in a custom cabinet by the high end audio shop he got them from. I was listening to Neil Young at an ear bleeding level and luckily I happened to walk back in from the yard just in time to see that the whole thing was on fire...right underneath dad's oracle turntable. No idea why this happened (whether there wasn't enough circulation in the cabinet or what) but i think about that fire every time i leave the house with my COUNTERPOINTS on.

I'm hoping someone can provide a reason here why not to worry. Then maybe they can talk to dear ol' dad.

Funny you should ask. I was relaxing....... reading a magazine with a little Ella Fitzgerald playing in the background the other night when all of a sudden WWHAM, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!! My entire living room lit up with a wonderful lightning display comming from my ARC VT200. I unplugged it (After I came back from the bathroom), called my local dealer and took it to a Very reputable local tech that they recommended. He fixed the amp (he thought), I brought it home and the second time I turned it on guess what.............. Well the amp is back in the shop and I am wondering what the hell is going on.

Funny you are having the same troubles. I would like to hear what you come up with on this, so please follow up.

Oh yeah, this all happened about six months after the amp had come back from ARC having been fully retubed and gone over.

I am becomming very frustrated as you can imagine.

I would certainly like to hear about what caused this problem as I use a VT 200 in my system. My first thought was non-standard output tubes, but I assume this not to be the case. These amps are pretty picky about what they will accept in the way of tubes and tube matching. I certainly agree that I would by no means continue to play the amp until the cause can be determined. Despite the cost, I would suggest returing the amp to ARC for repair. ARC is pretty good about making repairs at no charge or at cost if they believe there may have been a component defect. Good luck.

I've had tubes blow in an ARC CA-50 & a VT100 with a loud electrical snap & a puff of smoke. In all cases the amps still worked with one tube unlit & exploded resistors next to the unlit tube. Replaced the tube & resistors & life was good again. (In one instance the resistor I "retrofited" wasn't "flameproof" & when it "blew" a very brief wisp of flame was visible.) These were all non-ARC sourced svetlana 6550c's. This has occurred once in the CA-50 & twice in the VT100 (different tube locations) I always check the adjacent resistors when suspecting a tube problem...