For ARC lovers, Problems?

From the original post:

"From your experience with Audio Research is this a good idea going back to the ref 6 with the hope of upgrading it to the SE?"

Does anyone know if ARC is still doing upgrades?  I was put on the list to upgrade my LS28 to LS28SE when they announced the upgrade program last June.  I inquired about it in December and was told that my upgrade would likely be scheduled for the first or second week of January.  I inquired again this month and have gotten no response.  I called and the greeting says to send an email if you have questions about service which, of course, I already had.

If anyone has any information about the upgrade program that they would like to share I would certainly appreciate hearing it. 

I've had little trouble with six ARC pieces owned over more than 40 years.
In that time all my pre- and phono amps had been ARC until I wanted to upgrade my phono- last year and found  almost no ARCs now run true balanced.  I bought the van den Hul Grail SB and love it.

I also run a Ref 6.  No plan to upgrade.

I still also use an SP10, way ahead of its time and perhaps their most iconic pre-amp.

(I meant mixed bag, not bad above)

Only thing I've heard that's close to your issue is that they've made the decision to stop offering upgrades to their Ref Phono 2 to SE now that the Ref Phono3 SE is out. 
I'm mostly a CJ guy and never have this kind of problem with them. For instance you can upgrade to Teflon caps forever on older units from what I've seen. 

I'm very glad that a lot of people on this thread have had no reliability problems, but if you do I you'll see what the others are talking about. 

OP, it would still be helpful to know what you replaced your ARC with to understand why your unhappy at this point. 

JRW 1971
You mentioned your fuses blew twice on the 160S and the 160 was sent in for service and all was taken care of. I thought the new fuse arrangement on the latest series of ARC amps, like you have, wouldn’t require service if one of the fuses used to protect the amp blew , (when there is a tube failure.) Just replace the open fuse, and your good to go.......apparently not, unless I misunderstood your comments above....