I have had the 5se and now the ref 6. Both are dead quiet with and without stock power cord. I believe all of your tests you will do will be of no help. Tubes , power supply , power cord etc. I believe something happened in transit. Especially that the tubes were left in the sockets. That should of definitely not have been shipping like that. I also feel that there is absolutely no reason for u to live with your 5 se making a humming noise. I definitely would not live with that no matter how minor it is. Or that it only reappear in between tracks. There is absolutely no reason for that. Send it in to Arc for repair and get it back to normal operating condition. I would also contact the seller and tell him that he didn’t ship it the right way and see if u can work out something that it has to go into service for his negligence. Good luck.
Problem with Ref 5SE
I recently purchased a 5se and took delivery the other day. Did not get a chance to open it up until last night. Upon installing it into system I switched it on and after it warmed up, I was very much interested in hearing how it sounded against my current 27. After listening to several tracks with the 27 I switched pre's and after a couple of minutes playing a CD I got some noise, almost a loud static sound coming from the right channel. It was not effected by changing volume controls or input selector. It went away after 10-15 seconds and then returned. At that point, as it was late, I shut everything down and figured I would take another look in the morning.
This morning I removed the top cover and pulled and reset the output tubes and then the power tubes. I fired it back up and still had the 'static' sound but now it also had a humm, like an impedance type hum and constant. I do not believe that the humm was present last night as it is quite noticeable.
The static type load noise seemed to have abated after the unit warmed up after maybe 15-30 minutes.
Can I assume that perhaps a tube was damaged during shipping? Do you ARC guys think a new set of tubes will fix this issue or am I looking at something more severe? Any additional suggestions to try and pin this down?
I rerouted the IC going to the amps to get them further away from source IC's and no help...
I am a little bummed, as my initial impression it that it is a leap from the LS27, my current...
This morning I removed the top cover and pulled and reset the output tubes and then the power tubes. I fired it back up and still had the 'static' sound but now it also had a humm, like an impedance type hum and constant. I do not believe that the humm was present last night as it is quite noticeable.
The static type load noise seemed to have abated after the unit warmed up after maybe 15-30 minutes.
Can I assume that perhaps a tube was damaged during shipping? Do you ARC guys think a new set of tubes will fix this issue or am I looking at something more severe? Any additional suggestions to try and pin this down?
I rerouted the IC going to the amps to get them further away from source IC's and no help...
I am a little bummed, as my initial impression it that it is a leap from the LS27, my current...
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- 57 posts total
tattooedtrackman
Got a reply from ARC tech support, and the short answer is, to him sounds like the 6550 was damaged and a replacement is in order. I will know soon enuf. He wanted me to touch base after the swap as he did not recommend sending it in for service before trying the replacement. Fingers crossed.... He answered my question same day, still great customer service. |
Good luck on the power tube. Also when you change the tube take a look at the board around the tube socket and see if it shows any sign of overheating or burning. Pull the bottom grate as well and look the bottom of the circuit board over as well. As mentioned, mine had burned from the tube being into long, I bought a demo and the dealer didn’t realize it was past it’s life expectancy. He was cool and paid freight. But if it shows a sign of overheating send pictures to ARC so they can further diagnose if the 6550 doesn’t solve the issue. But I hope it is just the tube. Let us know how it pans out. One last note, mine is dead quiet as well unless at full volume with no source. But really when would ever happen |
It certainly does sound like a power supply issue, which could include the 6550 tube. The advice to look for burned components (check for tell tale odors too) is good advice. Even if such overheating of a component is not related to your problem, it is good to know if there is other trouble brewing in the future. I hope it is the 6550 tube because that is an easy fix. |
- 57 posts total