Buy tubes from Audio Research or not

Do more research. I could be wrong, but I remember there being problems with retubing and biasing VT-100 amps. Unfortunately, I don't remember which version of the amp. What I do remember of the discussion was that Upscale Audio would no longer sell tubes for the amp because of the problems buyers faced installing them.

Tater, with ARC I think you are pretty much going to be stuck with the brand they carry. I'm sure they choose what brands to choose on the basis of reliability
and price points. The sound quality may be good too, but what they have may not be your preference for sound quality. If you checkout the Tubedepot or The Tubestore, they have a pretty good selection as well as some sound descriptions of the tubes. I'm thinking about tube rolling my ARC REF 5 with some NOS tubes . Good luck.

I re-tubed my VT100iii w/matched winged "O"'s and 6H30's from the Tube Store and biased them myself. Leonard at ARC walked me through the process before I did it, even though I did not buy the tubes from ARC. No problems and fine results. I don't agree with Cyclonicman's suggestion to keep ARC tubes around in case of a problem, to deceive ARC. There's right and there's wrong and that aint right.

The VT-100 series was the model that Upscale Audio will not retube anymore.

Here is the thread:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1236156733&read&keyw&zzupscale=audio

Tater...if you are not familiar with tube biasing then sending it to ARC to do the retube is the easiest (but most costly) approach but you will be guaranteed a good result. Alternatively, if you can find an audio technician or a dealer with an onsite tech who is willing to do the work for a nominal fee than you can save some money. The most cost effective is to order 6550s from The Tube Store or similar outfit and do the tube replacement yourself and it seems from 77jovian's remarks, ARC will walk you through the process anyway. So I think it is a matter of what you are comfortable with and how important the cost issue is to you. Good luck and let us know how you make out.