Amp/Preamp Asylum

Tons of Used Audio Research On the Market PLUS

150.9.201.47

Jotaro

In Reply to: RE: Audio Research Reference 75 SE clone build posted by Wojciech on December 17, 2024 at 11:52:29

They always seem to be in the repair shop which means AR is a no-go for me...in any form.

I owned a cheap...er'inexpensive'Yaqin tube Integrated which sounded great and served me well for over a decade, easy on the tubes, light on the pocket and kind to the music.

J.

Follow Ups:

As they used to say... ARC and Spark. - Ozzie 10:26:55 12/24/24 (0)
They do sound fine though.
It's an old company and they made a ton of equipment which they STILL service - Wojciech 21:40:27 12/22/24 (0)
It's not a surprise there is steady supply of it on the market because it's a premier US manufacturer, considered still a status symbol and pretty much everything they made works or is kept working to this day. Some huge boat anchors of theirs can be problematic to service.
Big tube amp is a rich man's game.
Ref 75SE is very nice. Much simplified power supply and 4 output tubes with premium parts is a good sounding recipe.
I worked on one because the guy who bought it had a problem with biasing one of the output tubes. He called ARC service dept and was told that the switch to check the bias should be used sporadically and not to play with it constantly. It caused those switches to break so ARC re-designed this part and he can buy that small piece of PCB with new switch for mere $600 (or $800). The guy balked at the price, bought the switch for less than $10 from Mouser and attempted to change it quite unsuccessfully. The dealer called me and asked if I could rectify the situation. And the situation was that the original cause was typical for ARC burned screen and cathode resistors on the offending tube not the switch which now had to be replaced as well. (for $10 not $800).
PS. ARC tube amps are made to drive real world speakers and compete with solid state amps in the field. It's not a "tube luver" amp camp driving easy load or going belly up type of equipment>

Edits: 12/22/24

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