My #@%$ Cat Destroyed My ARC REF 5SE. Soliciting Suggestions.

@goldenear19;  What's with the Audio Research bashing? It's okay that you don't like Audio Research for your own personal reasons.  However, in my opinion, most things are over priced and over hyped.  So, include all the other items out there in your response.

Audio Research, like Atmosphere, and many others make excellent products and they keep people employed.

Audio Research quoted the OP a price for repairing the device.  They are one of the few companies out there (Martin Logan and Atmosphere comes to mind) that will still repair just about all of their previous products.  That is saying something.  A complete stuffed circuit board ain't cheap.  To take apart and test individual components and also a multi layer circuit board that may have fried internal traces is just to complicated and expensive, so they quoted replacing the entire board.  At least they still have that board around to replace.  That is also saying something.  If there are very small on-board circuits instead of through hole components, that also adds another costly level of diagnosis and repair.

Lets put aside the fact that we have a completely untrained cat that urinated on a very expensive piece, or a cat that was seriously trying to get the OP's attention (which the cat did), if by some other means a person fried the entire circuit board, it would still cost a pretty penny to either repair it or replace it.  I don't care who the manufacturer is in this case.  It's going to cost serious money to repair.

Get if fixed, or replace it, but definitely train that cat.

enjoy

Train the pussy dude!!

It’s not a pre amp, it’s a Pee amp....
seriously, the R core transformer alone has value.. sell it for parts and get a Ref 6

sorry for the loss

I took the plexiglass cover off my REF 6 and took a look.  If the REF 5SE is anywhere close, then Audio Research used through hole parts on the circuit board.   Also, on the REF 6 main board, I didn't see any logic circuitry.  That was on other boards.  This makes it easier to disconnect and test traces and individual components to see where the problem is.   But first, I would check to tubes to see if they are working, by bring the power up slowly with a variac.

If a schematic is available (which it is not), then testing for voltages and signals at certain places on the board is what is next.

If the logic circuity was damaged, then that is an entirely different problem.

it is time consuming, but doable.  If you don't want to spend the time and money to get it fixed, then maybe a REF 6 is the next logical step. 

For me, I would be taking it apart now and checking components.  after thorough cleaning, and inspection, it may come down to a shorted diode or some such.

I can definitely see and understand why Audio Research said that a new circuit board is the way to go.  I can even understand why it is expensive, but $6,000 for a stuffed circuit board with removal/installation and test?  

Hmmmm?  But, I'm assuming that the circuit board is indeed stuffed.  If it isn't, then there is substantial time and effort involved in stuffing a circuit board by hand.  

Quite honestly, if I didn't want to diagnose and repair it myself, I would send it to an authorized Audio Research repair center like George Meyers AV in Los Angeles and let them figure out what the problem is and the costs to repair it.  I wouldn't tell them anything about the cat issue.

you might get an entirely different response and lower costs to repair.

Unplug it, spray it with electronics parts cleaner and ship if off for diagnosis and repair.

enjoy

There is nothing worse then cat pee for smell and the damage it can cause. I much prefer dog pee if I had to choose between the two. I can imagine how devastated you were when you discovered this problem. There is a silver lining in every dark cloud. This could be a chance to sell  the reference at a loss and buy something else, you might actually wind up with a better sound yet. Then maybe you will you won't be so sore at the cat.
goldenears19 may have a good point with atma-Sphere being a step up and worth looking in to.