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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
techalliedsinatown
7 posts
 
Dear Brothers,

I am Michael from Hong Kong. I bought my Audio Research Reference 3 Preamp from the previous authorized Hong Kong dealer in 2008. Now I intended to upgrade the said 4 pcs 0.0024 coupling caps inside the Ref3 but the present authorized Hong Kong dealer refused to help me to make such order.

Would you guys offer me assistance to that? Of course, I must pay you back the charges in advance, if any.

Thanks for your help.

Rgds,
Michael Cheung
from Hong Kong
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Michl, you need to contact Audio Research directly. Here is the ARC page on Audiogon:
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/manu.pl?audioresearch&1&showmanu&Audio+Research
techalliedsinatown
7 posts
 
Dear Guidocorona,

I contacted them already by overseas phone call but they asked me to contact the local dealer direct and they do not deal with end consumer!!

Oh my god!! What can I do? Would anyone offer me any help?
Thousand thanks.

Rgds,
Michael
onesign
18 posts
 
Should Ref-3 save display state after on/off?
I set display off, then turn amplifier off, then on and display is on too.
Why?
onesign
18 posts
 
Anybody?
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