Audio Research Reference 3 Seeking help

Tsushimsma1

If an independent repairman in one part, of one state, in the USA can make a living repairing ARC equipment for 20 years, I would say ARC equipment has gross reliability problems.

I do not believe tube amps are any more complicated to fix than TVs.

Yes, I have had issues with ARC service, and know personally many other people in Minnesota that also have had ARC service issues.

The internet forums are chock full of ARC failure stories.

This is "NOT" true of any other audio tube manufacturer. Yet many people love ARC, and do not care about "down" time.

It is like women that get abused by their man, but keep going back to them, after being repeatedly being beaten up!

With reliable audio equipment you never meet the service people because good reliable audio equipment almost never needs to go back to the factory!

If one repair person in one part of one state in the US can make a living for 20 years repairing one brand what does that say about the reliability?

Don_c55 ... this is my last post on this thread. Did it occur to you that Hifigeek1 is not a "one trick pony"?? That is, maybe he services many other brands and may also have other commerical interests going on as well. If you're so interested, why not ask him. Frankly, I don't think it's any of your business.

Further, as is the case with most gear, part failure occurs -- period .... The older the equipment, the more frequent the failure rate. There is a lot of serviceable ARC gear that is decades old doing what it was originally designed to do; to wit, make beautiful music. Caps dry out and need replacing. Switches wear out. Bias resisters burn. And so forth and so on.

Gary (Hifigeek1) is a long standing and respected A'gon member. ARC is a fine company. Look at my system description. Except for an occassional pesky burned biased resister in my amp -- NEVER had a problem with equipment reliability!! And ... IMHO, I am blessed to own a killer rig that is powered by ARC gear.

Don ... let this one go. You've stated your opinion. We all got it. I have no intention of trying to change your mind. I have no dog in this fight. My only point is to put out there that I *AM* A HAPPY ARC customer and I believe that there are many others.

Have a nice day. :)

To Michael , at the backside of my REF 3 is written in solder C111 0.0024mF , in the partlist of the CD7 is written
C5,6 quantity 4 ARCpart 53240308 CAP 0.0024mF 500V INFINICAP , which is a MKP type.If you can't get the ARC parts , just buy another good quality brand MKP type.Let it install by a technical engineer.
good luck !!

Thank you Hans