Audio Research Reference 5SE reliability


After reading the glowing revieuw on the Stereophile-website by Brian Damkroger on the ARC REF5SE there was a comment that: quote: by Audioware on nov 15, 2012,

"These pres are outstanding. However the problem is their poor reliability. 06 (six) of them were already on my services bench this year to fix problems with the transformer that feeds the dgital, the remote control and the on-off switch, circuits. It is a small xformer below the circuit board that burns out frequently. Another very serious problem is with the 6H30s filament regulators that do not stand for the increased current demanded by the new 6H30s intead of the old 6922s. ARC has to pay more attention to these problems!"

I already checked my dealer, who was really surprised and did not recognise these problems.

Comments will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
sequence56
I had a AR Ref 5 plugged into a PS Audo 300 PC and it burned up. That was my fault though. I didn't know it would work. AR took care of everything though.
Hi i wanted to bring back this thread,as my 5se has played up twice now.I too thought it was a bit much for so many reliablilty problems mentioned.Ive had a real good run with ar in the past.Anyone else having trouble with pre
Likewise, My previous REF5SE was in my system for two years with over a 1000 hours on the clock, never missed a beat.
What are the nature of the faults Misternice?
I blew a power tube,no problem there though.The pre shut down all together,its on the way to a specialist.The power goes to around the 4 tube area,and dissapears.He wasnt a ar specialist and didnt want to go further.I dont think it will be too serious.Im getting them to put on a furutech rhodioum iec inlet while hes at it.Which i wanted done anyway.Im just hoping its not going to be on going.