Tube Questions - Audio Research Reference 5

I would try switching the tubes left to right and see if the problem follows the tubes.

Shanghait...are you sure the ARC Ref 5 is the source of the noise? How have you eliminated either the Linn DAC or Bel Canto amps as the source of the anomaly? Just trying to make sure you have diagnosed the source of the problem accurately before making fixes to the Ref 5 which may end up being unnecessary. I am not saying this is the case, just wanting to make sure you have id'd the problem correctly. Thx

Dear Cmalak,

In a way I did eliminate them as sources of the problems. Below were my tests and outcomes..

When I first identified this problem the scratchy noise was quite loud in the one speaker, and the sound of the music was not like before. The bad channel seems less full, less bass, tinny sounding.

Here are some of the things I did:
1. Switched XLRs coming out of the amp: Sound moved to other channel.
2. Turned Power off, then on again on Preamp: This removed about half of the scratching noise, but sound of the music was still not the same.
3. Replaced the tubes on the output stage with the EH: No more scratchy noise, but music still sounds less full.
4. Swapped Preamps to the Bel Canto Pre 3, sound is more balanced between channels.

Theo,
Thanks. I had also tried that too before I switched to the EH/s The scratchy sound was hard to replicate 100% of the time when switching out the stock tubes. It seems when I simply turned the power off, the scratchiness would go away, but slowly come back.