2. amps-preamps
  3. 1418844204

ARC Quality Issues Ref75 Ref5SE Ref10

Over the past two years I had several issues with ARC Ref gear and am wondering if I'm the only one out there having so much "bad luck"?

My issues started when I bought a Ref5SE plus Ref75.
The two meters in the Ref75 had a noticeable different color and had to be replaced by my dealer.

Two of the Ref5SE tube sockets were soldered crooked to the board. I found a loose screw bouncing around inside the chassis when I unpacked it and found that the two crooked tube sockets were not even bolted down to the metal support on the main board. ARC apologized and replaced the brand new Ref5SE.

The replacement Ref5SE blew up after 600 hrs of use. A small component in the power section exploded with a single loud bang with smoke following.

To not end up with a nearly new but repaired preamp I upgraded to Ref10. The Ref10 power section also blew up after two months and only 390 hrs of use. One or more of the smaller white caps in the power section exploded (four or five significant and loud bangs with smoke). My dealer just informed me that ARC is going to replace the failed Ref10 against a brand new one.

I can not believe I am the only one having repeated problems with ARC's new gear!?

Feedback and comments will be greatly appreciated !
decibell
didier22
1 posts
 
I am a french Audio research customer since 2007.
My equipment consists in the following gear:
DAC 7 (bought in 2009), reference 3 (bought in 2007), and HD220 (bought in 2007).
In 2008, while my hd220 was still under warranty, I had to return the hd220 to the dealer because of an overheating problem of the amplifier output stage.
the dealer told me that overheating was caused by shifting of the bias of some of the thermal trak bipolar transistors.
The device was repaired and then worked fine until this year. But in august, a complete breakdown of the right channel output stage occurs.
I have returned the HD220 for repair to the distributor in France.
Of course, the device is not under warranty anymore.
The dealer asks me 2k€ for the repair, which consists in the replacement of the output stage on both channel.

Today, I have to decide wether I can trust the dealer or not. I don't know if I can be confident on the repair, and what is the risk to have the same breakdown within the 2 or 3 next years.

My other ARC equipments (ref 3, DAC 7) work fine.
decibell OP
69 posts
 
Aisip, the Ref75 is a wonderful amp. Besides the power meters I had no problem with it so far (appr 1800 hrs). If your speakers have a decent efficiency and are not too hard to drive the Ref75 will impress you (I use Coincident Pure Reference speakers). It combines many positive attributes and simply gets out of the way. The Ref5SE was much better than the Ref3 I owned as well - but the Ref10 is simply in a class of it's own (as long as it works ;-)). I just hope the replacement Ref10 (expected to arrive on Tuesday) does not blow up on me again - because I don't see me looking for another preamp anytime soon.
Feel free to email me if you have more questions about sonic performance.
decibell OP
69 posts
 
I don' use power conditioner but have dedicated power for each device. I can hardly imagine that the usual power swings of a few Volt are able to blow up capacitors ...?
decibell OP
69 posts
 
12-20-14: Bifwynne
In regards to ARC's QC card - how can a preamp pass a thorough QC check with twoo loose and crooked tube sockets - plus be boxed up with a loose srew bouncing around inside the preamp? The QC card is a piece of paper - and has NO value if the people who sign it don't live and breathe Quality ...
decibell OP
69 posts
 
Thanks to all for your responses on this subject. It seems we share both - good and not so good experience with ARC gear. So far ARC and especially my ARC dealer have reacted very quick and obliging. I hope ARC simply had a bad run of components and gets the problem under control.
What seems obvious though is that cost savings at ARC are more important today than a few years ago. While the Ref3 was double-boxed at it's time - Ref5SE and even Ref10 are shipped single boxed - held together with one layer of paper tape. I believe this is the wrong place to save money when shipping sensitive and quite expensive audio gear. Esoteric for example even triple boxes their gear. I like that!
More to discover