ARC Galileo GSPre vs ARC Reference 5 SE ? ....

Given what ARC charges for tubes and their warranty policy for units not tubed w "their" product, you could also add lucrative retube revenues to Gpgr4blu's theory, which also seems very reasonable.

Bifwynne,
Yes, he certainly did.

Here's what you can do...buy a pile of factory matched 150s from the cheapest Ebay seller with a good rating (I bought a quad for 260 bucks or so), take your old tubes out of your amp, stick the 150s into the recently vacated tube sockets, adjust the bias, and listen to some music...this could go a long way toward alleviating stress regarding these things, and perhaps stop most of the ARC related whining except that which regards the silly price you paid for the amp.