2. amps-preamps
  3. 1187779737

Unhappy with tubes so which transistor amp?

Hi guys,

About 6 months back I bought an ARC Ref110. For one reason or another I am still running on the demo unit which has failed 2 times during this time. The first time it was one of the output tubes which was blown. This time it simply won't power up. I have checked the fuse and it looks ok but the amp shows no sign of life.

Based on my experience so far I am thinking that I will sell my unit brand new when I get it next week. I don't want to deal with a piece which breaks down often as for me reliability is one of the key criteria as I am totally zero on the technical side of electronics (changing the fuse may be as technical as it gets for me). So even stuff like biasing, changing tubes after x amount of hours looks like a lot of work to me.

Now after this background I come to the million dollar question. Since replacing the amp with my old Aragons I have noticed that I have lost significantly in 3 areas.

1) Soundstage does not seem to be as big as with the Ref110 specially in regard to sound coming from outside the speaker thing, which btw is gives you an awesome feeling if you are listening with the lights switched off

2) I have lost the mid range magic. This is painfully apparent in vocals as they have lost their sense of realism.

3) Digital glare and harshness has also crept back in the system.

Now I am looking for an amp that is SS but can give me back what I have lost although I am not sure about number 2 as everyone says you can't do it with SS. Basically I am looking for an SS amp with huge soundstage, beautiful and natural (not "smooth" as in muffled) midrange and san any digital glare. Price should be ~10K new or used.

The related equipment is ARC CD3 MKII, ARC LS26 and Peak Consult Empress loud speakers.

Any help or ideas is welcome.

Thanks

P.S. I posted the same on speaker forum by mistake. Mods please feel free to delete the other thread. Thanks
rayden1972
rlawry
479 posts
 
I, like you, had tube amps that continued to fail in one way or another. I even had some OTL tube monoblocks that had the biggest soundstage I had ever heard. But I got tired of going to my music room and panicking when the amp failed. When I went back to solid-state for its reliability, the midrange magic and dimensionality of the instrumental images and soundstage were mostly gone. So I tried a number of SS amps and never found one I liked until I bought a used Essence amp here on the Gon. Superior dynamics, bass, and detail to any other amp I have heard with some of the dimensionality of tubes. And no tube biasing nor tube failures. I will never look back.
honest1
586 posts
 
One other to check out is Audiopax, if they are available in your country. They are from Brazil, and the 2 years I went to CES, they had one of the best sounding rooms in the show. Although mostly known for their tube amps, they were showing a pair of solid state monoblocks in 2006. Although there was a year separation between the 2 shows, I thought the 2006 system (w/ solid state amps) sounded better than the 2005 system (w/ tube amps). They had also upgraded their speaker design, so this probably contributed, but the amps certainly weren't hurting.
I would also recommend Pass amps as very musical and detailed.
billyg1
81 posts
 
try clayton audio!!!! pure class a and really gives you the best of both worlds and a true bargain to boot!! the m-300's are awesome
Ag insider logo xs@2x
cipherjuris
145 posts
 
I second Kurt Tank's recommendation for Lamm hybrid mono blocks. I have had a pair of Lamm M1.2s (110 watts each) for a year now and would not want to give them up for anything else.

They would make an amazing system with your other equipment.

Ed
williamredburry
51 posts
 
You must have bad luck. Problem seems to be a tube problem not an amp problem. Happenend to me many times with Graaf OTL GM 20. The amp was great only there were problems with a certain stock of tubes. I still own a Graaf ( GM 200 now it is ) with 32 output tubes and untill today they never let me down.
In my set I also use the ARC CD7 and the REF 3. In the winter I use the Graaf GM 200 OTL in the spring and summer the Belcanto Ref 1000's. I like them both for different reasons. The Graaf is still the winner but man it does get hot. I haven't heard the Ref 110 but read much about it. I don't think you can go wrong with it. Just give it a third chance.
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