Audio Research Reference 6 Preamp Review

I do not like the reliability issues, and changing sound quality of tube power amps.

My Pass Labs XA.5 amps sound better than tubes.

To each their own.

In my experience several gears over the years, the combination of tube stage preamp and solid state amps gives you the best of both worlds.  

Well, Don, caps make a huge difference in a finely tuned system. For example, I tested two different brands of teflon cap in my RIAA stage: one was fast and clear, one was unlistenable. Now, having brought my amps to a fine edge, I found that power supply caps on the circuit board made a significant difference - replacing "mere" polypropylene f&f with MIT RTX styrene f&f did it. That's on the rails, for heaven's sake - not the signal path.

Does that "c55" part of your name refer to MB?

terry9

Of course caps make a big difference, and ARC has used very good exotic caps since the 80s, in their equipment.

But only in the last 10 years did ARC preamps take 600 hours to break in. That is 10 months, at 2 hours per day, on average. Can you return the preamp if you do not like the end results?

Bill Johnson must be rolling over in his grave!