ARC VT 100: MkII vs. MkIII?

Djbaudio and the rest of you and any fans of ARC's current products. Do you know where I can find a nice SP-10 Mk2?

Hey, I agree with Djbaudio. spend you money wisely. If your current ARC equipment bring you happiness then don't rush into the upgrade. System matching is everything in this hobby. ARC has a history of putting out tons of upgrades. Just go to their website and look at the upgrade page. How does one determine that an upgrade actually sounds better than the old version? - depends on your taste - Shortly after the REF 1 was introduced, there was an upgrade to it, replacing some old caps with infini caps. Nothing changed in the circuit topology, just upgrade to infini caps. Why ARC did not use the inifin caps right from the start is a mistery to me. Now, REF 2 uses tube power supply and it sounds warmer??????? If you already have a warm sounding system, would you change to REF 2? I think not.

I talked with Leonard at ARC too. On the extended tube life, he mentioned that the life of the input tubes has gone from 5000 hours to 10,000 hours, but the power tube life at 2000 hours remains the same. The thetubestore.com 6550C power tubes cost 240 a matched set and the input tubes are 95 a set. He said the failure of the 6922's is actually caused by overheating when you place the vt100 in an enclosed area instead of an open rack/amp stand. That amp does generate a lot of heat. He also mentioned that the bass response would be improved and that a new 12v on/off input would be available. This presumably is for future control from another source to turn the amp on and off.

I have a VT100MKII and LS25, and formerly had a VT100MKI that had the FET upgrades and Infini Cap upgrades that the later model VT100's had. I understand that the new MKIII is quite an improvement over the MKII, but I am reserving judgement until I audition one in my system. I have mixed feelings regarding the switch to the new 6H30's, because I have gotten great results by upgrading the Sovtek 6922's. Several years ago, I began using Amperex 7308's, Siemens 7308's and Mullard CV2423 (6922's) to replace the Sovteks. This tube change results in a very,very large improvement in the amp (can you say "liquid"?). Care must be taken to match and have strong readings for the tubes in V7 anbd V8, in that these two tubes set/maintain the bias voltage for the 6550's. Unfortunately, 6922-type NOS tubes are hard to find and are insanely priced. When I upgraded to the MKII, I upgraded from the ARC 6550C's to a matched octet of EI Type 3 KT-90's that Upscale Audio recommends for the VT100. Once again, I obtained a very significant improvement in performance over new 6550C's. Anyway, I have said all of this to explain my hopes that with a better tube compliment in my MKII, I may not be as disappointed when I do an A/B with a MKIII.

I heard the MkII at my dealer's showroom. I fell in love with the sound. By the time I was ready to make the purchase the MkIII came out, so I didn't have the chance to audition the MkII at home. I am in awe of the sound of the ARC MkIII. First thing I noticed was improved bass response and even more detail from my Dunlavy VI's. I just made the purchase a couple of weeks ago and although I paid close to manufactured suggested retail (5 grand), it looks now like I got a great deal. My salesperson called me today and said ARC has just raised the price of the MkIII to $6.000.00. The new ARC VT 200 MkII is also going up a thousand bucks to $11,000.