ARC Ref 75 vs. Ref 75 SE

Model updates to facilitate use with a new tube is, of course, an entirely different matter, and most welcome.

Bdp24, you might not like the way ARC does business but from a marketing viewpoint it doesn't get any better. Sell the customer the latest and greatness and then 2 years later offer an upgrade for 2k to 5k. They have a loyal customer base which will fall for this most of the time.

Bifwynne says:

"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."

That says it all!

I owned a D125 and a tube shorted. The amp went into flames shooting up six inches from the bias PCB. The dealer said that happened to 4 other customers. And they only sold 10 D125's in the era.

ARC sounds good, but the owners do not care about reliability! Most all other tube brands have better reliability.

I want failure free as the norm! Over the amps complete life!

Moved to Pass Labs Class A - better sound - no problems!

Don c55 ... No question about it ... Pass Labs gear has a great reputation. And I am glad that you are enjoying your Pass Labs amp.

But let's put your comments into a little perspective. The D125 was introduced in 1988 and discontinued in 1991. My goodness, it's been almost 25 years since the amp was discontinued!! There's been a lot of water under the bridge since the D125 was on the scene.

As I already mentioned, I've owned 3 and a half ARC amps in the last 10 years or so: VS-110, VS-115; Ref 150; and Ref 150 with SE factory upgrade. NEVER had a flame out. Burned bias resisters ... yes. Massive circuit failures ... never.

Btw, I also own other ARC gear: Ref 5 SE (linestage); CD-8 (CD player);and PH-8 (phono pre). Never had a burned tube problem, flame out or any other problem for that matter.

I think most of the crabbing in this thread goes to the inherent nature of tubes ... they arc from time to time. No getting around that. Of course, the other point is that ARC does not use bias circuit breakers. If it did, it would be a simple matter to push a button and you're back in business. Voila.

I surmise that cost cutting is not the issue here. Jeez, the Ref 150 SE lists for $14K. How much could little circuit breakers cost?? Either Kal or Len of ARC told me many years ago that the reason ARC use bias resisters was to minimize artifacts in the signal path. I'm not a EE, so I can't speak to the pros or cons of that choice.

Heck, if I knew my way around solder and a soldering iron, I'd replace the darn resisters myself. Just afraid of messing up my amp.

As I posted above, if after auditioning amps, one chooses another brand because it sounds better, then what can I say?? Or, if having to replace tubes or, on the rare occasional, having to hire a tech to fix a burned bias resister is too much hassle, then an ARC tube amp is not the amp of choice. Personally, I'm ok with ARC amps and other tube gear.

Bifwynne

ARC's service center is a profit center.

I have been to the factory, and the service team is large for a company of 80 employees.

The D125, although built around 1989, was touted as a reliability breakthrough, due to the addition of an LED on each tube, indicating a weak one, for replacement before failure. That was the only ARC amp ever made with that feature. Tubes can short at any time, especially near the end of life, with no warning. They later added timers to prevent owners from running tubes to failure.

I repeat: What other tube manufacturer has parts failure when tubes fail? It is poor design, and a lot of ARC customer do not care. Many give up on ARC in the long run. The internet forums are full of those stories!