I only had the Mk1 and no it did not have really tight bass. It had good bass but not what I would call tight. Some recordings did call attention to this. Maybe with a damping factor of 8 or something this is a hint?
ARC vt100mkiii Questions?
I brought one of these 2ndhand lately. The amp had both side boards inside replaced and only the transformers were old. So, it is not broken in. Well, I would like to get advice from other owners about its bass responds. It seems on some music esp. acoustic double bass, the bass is a bit soft and undefined but on others like big symphonies, it sounds quite right with good dynamics. But overall, the bass is not as tight as I would thought it is. I use JBL4425 and Haarbeths HL_5S so to think it is not the speaker’s faults. Does yours have very tight bass? What bias settings were yours set to, mine is set to 60. Thanks.
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Luna, First off I do not own a VT100 MK3. If the boards are new you will need to put some time on the components. Resistors, capacitors, ect. At least 100 hours with signal flowing I would think. Are the driver and power tubes new? If new they also will need some burn-in time. If the tubes are old you may want to have them tested. Power tubes maybe nearing the end of their life.... Also you stated the bias for the power tubes was set at 60 mVDC (0.060VDC)..... Is that what the owners manual recommends? Below is a link from AA and the discussion talks about the bias being set at 65 mVDC (0.065VDC). If ARC recommends 65 and you have it at 60 it will cause the amp to sound soft, not much punch...... Try readjusting the bias to 65 mVDC, you will not hurt the power tubes. http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=amp&m=86221 http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/arcvt100.htm http://www.drhifi.net.au/Reviews/ARC%20VT100%20Mk.III%20Review/1.htm |
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