Any experience with Arc ref75 driving magnepans

Keep the Pass XA30.5!

More peak power at 4ohms, and better sound quality. No tube hassles like break-in, ageing, blown resistors, and trips back to ARC.

I have experience with ARC tube equipment, and they work fine a minority of the time!

I have had both ARC and Pass Labs in my system and both companies make some of the best, most reliable amps around. Granted tube amps are intrinsically, more likely to break down than SS, but I really can't agree with Don c55, that ARC have reliablity problems.

I can't comment on the Reference 75 and matching with Maggies, but the consensus seems to be that they will drive most speakers, except the most punishing, to sensible volumes. On a prolonged recent audition, I thought the Reference 75 was one of the best sounding amps I have heard and I plan to buy one, when funds allow.

Whether a move from the Pass to ARC is a step sideways or up, I think you would have to audition in your system, but at these prices I would take that as mandatory anyway.

Wow a 30.5 drives the maggies with no problem. Does the needle jump around much? I suspect then the ref 75 would drive them as well. The only issue then is dealing with power tubes and a the maintaience of a tube amp.

My amp now is a Pass labs xa30.5 only 30 watts but it doubles in 4 ohms.

Yes, 30 watts in class-A. "While the XA30.5 may give 30Wpc into 8 ohms in class-A (14.8dBW), the distortion at this power level is low, at 0.015%. The amplifier doesn't actually clip (defined as the THD reaching 1%) until a much higher power level: 130Wpc into 8 ohms (21.14dBW). Even higher powers were available into lower impedances before clipping: 195Wpc into 4 ohms with both channels driven (19.9dBW), and 332W into 2 ohms with one channel driven (19.2dBW)." Measurements

ARC "lied" about the power of the Reference 75!

Per the Stereophile testing:

Audio Research specifies the Reference 75's maximum power as 75Wpc (18.75dBW into 8 ohms) at typically 0.6% THD. Figs. 5, 6, and 7 show how the THD+noise percentage increases with power into 8, 4, and 2 ohms at 1kHz from the 4 ohm output transformer tap. We define clipping as when the THD reaches 1%; the Reference 75 doesn't quite meet its specified power at that level of distortion, delivering 61Wpc into 4 ohms (14.8dBW, fig.6), and lower powers into the other impedances: 43Wpc into 8 ohms (16.33dBW, fig.4), and 40W into 2 ohms with one channel driven (10dBW, fig.7). However, relaxing the definition of clipping to 3% THD, the Reference 75's 4 ohm tap gives 46.5Wpc into 8 ohms (16.67dBW), 70Wpc into 4 ohms (15.45dBW), and 94W into 2 ohms (13.7dBW). Slightly more power was available from the 8 ohm tap into 8 ohms (fig.8): 70Wpc at 1% THD (18.45dBW) and 78Wpc at 3% THD (18.9dBW).

This amp will not be useful except for very low volumes!