Thoughts on Audio Research D70

The Classic series had triode configured output tubes. This tended to make the output tubes last longer and gave it a sweeter presentation. I believe the front end was fet transistor up to the driver tubes. Very different topology from the D-115mkII

@Hifigeek1: Yes indeed triode vs NON-Ultra-linear fixed bias tetrode mode. But same B+ @ output stage.
420V B+ is a bit low for my liking but with 4 tubes per side power should be more than enough.
I have every intention to convert that to triode at a later stage, after I am done with the caps and diodes.

I had the CL120 and CL150s before. CL120 at least has a tube driver stage (different plate voltage from D115 though). CL150 is just raw muscle.

Oh well. So much for the exciting anticipation for the amp.
Seller allegedly got talked OUT of including the original outer box by the FedEx people and the unit was shipped in the inner box only with less than a few pages of newpaper in the box so go figure what happened.

The CL-150 was a totally different animal and frankly pretty average by today's standards. It started life as an M-300 and used Chinese coke bottle 6550's which at that time, were just awful. Their were no Russian 6550's at that time, and the Sylvania 6550 was history. So the only choice was to use the Chinese 6550. The Chinese tubes would fail after a few months, but the heaters would still work. So basically the light was on but no one was home...ARC decided to change the amp to the Classic series and changed the output configuration to triode making easier on the Chinese 6550 output tubes. So it became a CL-150. It's got great slam and sounds good and is miserable to work on. The cooling fans blowing on the fets and tubes while the amp is on is not an advantage. Cooling tubes yes, cooling fets no. Funny thing is a modified M-300 to triode have bigger transformers then a stock CL-150.

Just to chip in for a minute, i have a pair of CL120's since 1990. Those have been modded by Steve Huntley and the inputs were also balanced.
I agree with Hifigeek about those Chinese bottles. The day i got them home from the dealer and plug them in, 2 tubes failed within 5 minutes. I have retubed those amps with 6550 SED Winged C many times since then and have not had a single issue with any of them. I have had the opportunity to "test" a VT100MKIII and VS110 and a VS115 in my system and i'm still holding on to the 120's. Having separate power supplies in monoblocks configuration have advantages which the D series don't have.

I would like to listen to a REF150 next. Last time i talked to Steve before he closed GNSC he recommended i listen to a 150 but only in my system in my room as at a dealer sound room with different ancillaries would not be a fair comparison.
Sly