New Audio Research Reference 150 SE

Spoke to Kal today. He told me it was ok to put KT-150s into the Ref 150. Hallelujah ... Moschiach has arrived.

But wait ... there's more. The cost to upgrade the Ref 150 to the SE grade is $5000. Of course, that includes all new tubes --- KT-150s and 6H30s.

Kal said the objective of the SE upgrade is to tune the amp to take full advantage of the benefits of the KT-150 tube. Kal added that the improvement is on the order of going from the Ref 5 to the Ref 5 SE.

Five grand is a lot of scratch! The Ref 5 SE upgrade was only $2500.

P.S. Kal commented that the Ref 150 SE will make Maggie 3.7i speakers sound heavenly.

Geez, I bet it will be $10k for a pair of Ref 250's. That's too much scratch......

$10k can buy you a pretty darn good integrated. Tube or SS.
I wonder what the price of a new Ref 75, 150, 250 SE will be.

I'm glad i haven't replaced my good old trusty Classic 120's with a Ref 75 or 150 now that i can get a MUCH improved SE version.

If the KT150's work in the 75, 150 and 250 and they do, why do you need modifications to make the change optimal? I suspect most of the benefit is in the tubes themselves and they are cheaper to buy at Upscale Audio. You would need some brave soul to compare a cooking version of one of the ref series amps, that amp with KT150 tubes and a factory modified SE version.

It does sound a great deal of money to me, but it seems to explain why ARC has refused to say if the 150 tubes will work in the Reference series amps, for the last year. Sorry if this offends you ARC fans out there and I do love my Ref 75, but the company's main aim does seem to be to wring the last bit of cash out of loyal customers, they can.