2. amps-preamps
  3. 1436921808

ARC Ref 75 vs. Ref 75 SE

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the ARC Ref 75 with the new Ref 75 SE?
hkaye
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,096 posts
 
I wondered why there were always so many ARC power amps on the trade-in shelves at Brooks Berdan Ltd. Sure, he was a VTL, Jadis, and Mac dealer, so there would be trade-ins, but why so many ARC? Brooks' tech Tom told me he was constantly repairing ARC power amps because when a tube blows in one of them it often takes with it some of the circuit board parts. The tubes aren't fused---ARC uses resistors and capacitors in that role!

Brooks preferred to sell the Music Reference RM200 as his $5k amp, with hand-wound transformers (the heart of any tube power amp), wound by Roger if you pay him extra! 100w/ch from a pair of KT88/6150/KT120 tubes per, power increasing with diminishing impedance, the opposite of a normal tube amp. It sounded very good to Brooks, and Fremer likes it enough to put it in Class A. And with it, no costly, frequent update/upgrades (or, as I like to call them, corrections ;-). Roger works on his designs for years before putting them into production.

Even if you really want a REF75, think about trying to hear the RM200. I love mine.
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
My REF-75 SE now has 375 hours on it. As soon as it hit 300 hours, it really opened up. My early impressions here on AG were for an amp that wasn't broken in. Take my comments I made before and add 30% to my enthusiasm for this amp. What more of a recommendation can one make other than to say that a product far surpasses one's expectations? In the many years of enjoying this hobby, I've had a lot of amps, both solid state and tube. They've ranged from modified Dynaco amps MKIII's and ST-70's (in the early days) to Van Alstine, to
Counterpoint, to Atmosphere and various ARC amps including the Classic 60, a REF-75, and now the REF-75 SE. Nothing so far comes close in my experience to the New ARC SE's.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Bdp24 ... you wrote "why so many ARC? Brooks' tech Tom told me he was constantly repairing ARC power amps because when a tube blows in one of them it often takes with it some of the circuit board parts. The tubes aren't fused---ARC uses resistors and capacitors in that role!"

Nonsense!! I have owned 3 and half ARC amps over the last "n" years: VS-110, VS-115, Ref 150 and currently, the Ref 150 SE.

Have tubes arced and taken out bias resisters?? Yes!! But how often?? Maybe once or twice a year. And since I've been using KT-120 and KT-150 power tubes, tube arcing has been a very rare occurrence.

Cost of repair is about $100. There's an ARC authorized tech who lives near me and who makes house calls.

Have other A'gon members reported very serious problems with the ARC amps? Yes, on rare occasion. But I don't recall the last reported occurrence.

Look ... if you want tubes, this is the cost of admission. Oh ... some might say other tube amp manufacturers use circuit breakers to protect the amp if there's a tube arc. True.

But ARC told me they prefer not to use circuit breakers because they believe it's an artifact they would prefer not to add to the circuit. Is that credible?? Haven't a clue. And frankly I don't care.

Cheers,

Bruce
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
And we can clearly hear the degradation whenever something unnecessary is put into the circuit. Just turning off the display lights on the ARC SE gear improves the sound. It becomes more relaxed and three dimensional. Who knows what switches intended to save a resistor in the event a tube blows would do to the sound. I guess if one hasn't experienced this phenomenon, its as though it doesn't exist. Go figure.

By the way ... There's 375 hours on my amp now ... and it really opened up at about 300 hours. Phenomenal amp.
taters
1,149 posts
 
Bdp24, hasn't that been there marketing plan for 30 years now?
More to discover