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Audio Research REF 3

Dear all ARC REF 3 owners,
I just bought an REF 3 preamp which has replaced my LS25MKII preamp. To be honest i'm little disappointed by the result so far, but i guess tubes have to be replaced. My concern is especially on the sound image which is not precise as my LS25MKII image was.
The number of hours of used displayed by the my REF 3 is 1670 but i realized that hours counter increased only for full hours of used, so i can estimate the number of hours of the tubes inside my REF 3 to be the double i guess.
My question is the following
What do you recommend for tubes replacement and source for the replacement of REF 3 tubes.
I used sovtek, EH gold, and 6H30-DR on my LS25MKII and i was pleased with all those tubes even if i didn't find the DR much better than the 2 other brands.
Thanks in advance
ARCL60
arcl60
zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
How did you come to your conclusion on how the clock works? I would have thought that while the time is only displayed to the nearest hour, the timer starts up exactly where it left off.
I also moved up from the LS25MKII to the REF 3 and the difference was astounding. Thus, I have not had any motivation to experiment with other tubes. I'll be interested in what you learn.
markwatkiss
508 posts
 
The tubes should be fine for at least 4000 hours.Did you buy used,previous owner may have reset the counter to "0"Check with Audio Research technical support.
talon4
185 posts
 
It's probably your power tube. The stock 6550 power tube is run fairly hot and runs out of steam at about 1100 hours--clarity and dynamics diminish. You need a matched replacement 6550 tube from Audio Research. They will want the number written on your 6550 power tube and the cost is about $85. Your small signal tubes have a longer life span, so I doubt that the problem lies with them. I owned a Ref3 for about 8 months and replaced the 6550 tube twice, before selling the unit. It should sound much better than the LS25MKII. The problem of "running out of steam" isn't something that is well known, but if you do an Audiogon search, you'll see it talked about. Good luck. Best regards, Stan
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
I agree with Talon, my dad owns the Ref3 and while there has been alot said about it your experience isnt the norm, Seeing how you bought it used the only hour count you can trust is your own, invest in new tubes and reset number, maybe note the old count for a total hours of use record.
My sather had some noise on his and as he bought a dealer demo (saved over 3K) AR sent new tubes for free.
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