Any experience with Arc ref75 driving magnepans

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!

I was looking at this amp as well but was put off by the specs that Stereophile reported. I was also turned off with the fact that the VSi60 blew a resistor while on the test bench when Stereophile reviewed it. Doesn't bode well for ARC in my book.

Don C-55,

I have to disagree with you about ARC tube amps. I have owned 2 of them for the past 15 years and all I have ever done is replace tubes.