ARC SP-6 Warmup time

Not familiar with that unit but 10 minutes does seem excessive. My cj premier 16 took less than a minute or so. Currently my Herron phono stage goes through the same start up sequence and takes less than a minute as well.

Chuck

Which version of SP-6 do you have? The power LED on the SP-6 and SP-6A don't blink.

Starting from SP-6B ARC introduced a timer circuitry which auto mutes output on power on. If yours is AP-6B and later, I think that is what you are seeing. It is normal. Nothing to worry about.

All the SP-6's sound great. I like the 6A the best.

It is not normal. I once had an SP-6C. The mute clicked off in about 2m.15s. Have it checked out!

Why not call ARC? They were always very helpful when I would call them about the ARC amps and preamps I owned, and they have supported their older products admirably.

I enjoyed my SP-6b for 14 years. The power light stopped blinking after about 3 minutes. I normally let it warm up for an hour before listening. I suggest checking the bias voltage of V2 and V5 (The two middle tubes in each series of three). Unless your preamp has been modified, the bias voltage must be adjusted manually. If it is too far off, the unit will go into automatic mute mode (blinking light)at times.
If you are not handy with an electronics screwdriver and a voltmeter, have someone do it for you. It has been a few years, but as I recall, I set V2 at 155 Volts and V5 at 150 Volts. There are adjustment potentiometers next to each of those tubes. Check voltage from the capactitor next to each of those tubes to ground. It is shown in the schematics. Be careful. Don't go poking around in there too much. Voltages are very high. One time I put my voltmeter lead on a transistor case and measureed 550 Volts! I still have an old analog voltmeter that I used for calibrating bias voltage. A digital DMM should be fine as well. Just that I prefer analog :)