Audio Research Tube AMP Reliability

I have worked in service, and since the only units a serviceman sees are broken ones (not the other hundreds or thousands that are working) all they will ever have are negative comments. I have owned some Audio Research gear (VSi55 tube integrated, SP5 & LS3B solid state preamp, D52B & D100 solid state amp etc.) and my father started out with Audio Research equipment in the early 70's. He had an SP3A preamp with a Dual 51 and Dual 75 bi-amped driving some of the first pairs of Magneplanar Tympani speakers. He was high-end before such a term existed. Never had any trouble with anything. Recently we took one of his ARC tube amps - A Dual 79 which is a 110+ pound monster of a tube amp produced in very few numbers around 1979-1980. The amp sat for 20 years without being plugged in or powered-up. In bad practice we plugged it straight into the wall instead of using a variac to bring the voltage up slowly. We had no problems, unlike typical older equipment where something pops/smokes/glows red etc. After letting it warm up I connected it to my Magneplanar MG 1.6's and it quickly put to shame the McCormack DNA 0.5 amp I was using (no insult to the McCormack because it is a great amp). I don't know about the latest equipment (although my VSi55 was from 2006) and I could certainly not speak for all their models, but I believe ARC uses high grade components and their reputation is built on reliability and sound quality, instead of marketing and gimmics. Just my two-cents for what it's worth. From the serviceman's standpoint everything sucks when its broke.

I owned the ARC D76A for 12 years (1976 - 1988) with no service issues and still going strong in a friend's system, same for the ARC D115 MKII (1988- 2000 , which I owned for 12 years. I now have the ARC VT100 MKII since about 2000 with only needing to replace the fusing resistors which protected the amp from an arching defective output tube. However the VT100 requires input 6922 tubes that are very closely matched with tight triode balances. This is needed to properly bais the input section of the amp and to ensure proper functioning of the output tubes.

In general ARC tube components are very reliable.

I forgot to comment on the reliability of the ARC preamps.
I have owned the SP9, SP9 MKII, SP14, LS2B, LS2B MKII and now the LS25 MKII and the Phono PH2. I have never had any problems with any of the preamps. NEVER!!. Currently, I leave my PH2 and LS25 on 7/24 without any service issues. The PH2 is well over 15 years in my system without any issues (albeit it is solid state).

I have owned a VT-100mk111 for 7 years and have retubed it once. I have never had any service issues with it. I also have a LS-25 and PH-5 and have never had any problems. The reason I buy ARC gear is because it is reliable.

I guess my experience is different than the majority. I had a demo ref 110 for a couple of months. Had one tube failure and the next time the blown tube took the board with it too during LOTR - ROTK. I got so scared I sold my ordered unit without even taking it out of the box. Did I like the sound yes. Would I ever go back to ARC or tube amps no.

My 2 cents.