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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
hansk46's avatar
hansk46
122 posts
 
Hello Arc160 , yes you can change the 6L6 by the 6550C.The 4 bypasscaps are on the back of the board where the 4 golden caps are located.The bypasscaps ( 0,0024 mF ) are C111-114 , don 't mount them on the board , but leave some distance ( about 5 mm ) to the board.
Greatings from the Netherlands Hans
arcl60 OP
24 posts
 
Hi Hans,
Many thanks for the confirmation, i will do the test.
For the ByPass capacitors, i checked my Ref3, and they are there
Best Regards
Laurent
hansk46's avatar
hansk46
122 posts
 
Hello ACR REF 3 owners , I replaced the original 6550 tube
by an NOS Tung-Sol 6L6 WGB , I will tell you after some 100 hours what will be the differance .( together with the 6H30P-DR tubes some 200 hours ago )
Greetings from the Netherlands Hans
arcl60 OP
24 posts
 
Hi All,
I had the chance to re listen the LS25MKII on my system directly front to front with my Ref3. So i confirm that Ref3 is on another league than the LS25MKII. The Ref3 sound more natural, with more details and it's 3D image is amazing.
New tubes, power cable and patience improved a lot the performance of the Ref3. I noticed also that removing the silicon rings on the 6H30 has improved the quality as well
Thanks again to all Audiogon members for their answers
I'm an happy Ref3 user now
Laurent
mgguy
12 posts
 
I have found that it is best to follow what Audio Research says when it comes to the right tubes . Call them and ask to talk to a technician. They will recommend the right tubes from audio research.
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