I've been following this thread hoping to learn from the "experimental" owners of the Ref3 and their findings on various tubes here. Thank you Ethannnn and Elberoth2 for sharing the details of your findings. I hope to soon borrow a Ref3, perhaps first an LS26, to put it through a shootout with the Aria WV.
I am interested as well (rightly or wrongly) how so much magic happened to Elberoth's Ref3 after only 10 hours of tube burn in. Psychoacoustics or real??
I'm not surprised at all. The burn-in time for the "new" tube may have nothing to do with Elberoth's result at all. Rather it could easily have been the poor sonic performance of the tube it replaced.
I have experienced many times where a new tube easily outperformed what I had been using up to that time; the old tube never made it back. Whatever smoothness was achieved later on with the new tube was simply an added bonus. There's too much focus that burn-in is necessary to validate a product whose performance is stellar from the start.
Again, ARC is not putting in tubes that have the magical properties that many of us seek and discover through tube-rolling trials. ARC, CAT, Lamm, Aria, etc., are putting in tubes that are readily available and perform well on the electrical-measurements test bench. Such tubes are typically the starting point rather than the final choice. If one wants to get more out of their product, they need to put forth the effort like Ethannnn and Elberoth2 have done with their Ref3.
This recurring theme that the designers of a product are the only ones qualified to choose what tube works best for the product's owner is silly. The designer may have vast knowledge based on listening tests. But so do many owners of their products. And perhaps the designer has found a pair or two of coveted tubes that are used in their personal systems. But as a manufacture such an option is not viable in the shipped product for a number of reasons.
I commend Michael Elliot, the designer of Aria of Counterpoint products, for being candid to his customers that the tubes (mainly EH and Sovtek) that he ships with his products are fine as a starting point, but with very little effort, the customer can take his products to far greater levels of performance. He stays clear of recommending specific brands as his preferences are likely to be very different than those of a customer. But he does share the many different tube types for the customer to try. And he provides a forum for his customers to share what they have found. I would expect such knowledge and support from a dealer as well. But I think far too many are also under the impression that the only the manufacturer knows best on what tube(s) should be used.
Anyway, thanks again Ethannnn and Elberoth2 for going for it.
