Buy tubes from Audio Research or not

After posting the referenced link above, I started to reread some of the responses and realized that "Tater" was the one was asked the same question a year ago...almost to the day.

So Tater, did you retube a year ago and need another retube, or did you just never do it?

Buy winged C 6550 tubes from a reliable tube dealer here on audigon or from one of the recommended sites and save 30-50%

The VT100mkI and mkII are much more tricky to retube due to the driver balancing issues. The mkIII is much easier and shouldn't be lumped in with the earlier versions.

I don't know any onsite people that can do the job. The 2 techs I talked to were both authorized ARC and they will only work with ARC tubes. I can't afford to pay 978.00 for tubes plus 150.00 labor. I'd be happy to buy the tubes and have someone put them in but I don't know anyone. If you know someone that can do it I'll be happy to pay them as long as they know what they are doing.

Taters,
You really need to get to know your equipment better and learn how to do maintenance for yourself.It's very rewarding and also saves you a lot of money.Changing tubes and biasing them should not be that much of a challenge,unless your amp is some kind of weird/exotic design.I can't imagine an ARC amp fitting either one of those discriptions.Good luck.