Love the sound of ARC amps, anxious about at least annual retubing costs

[markmck79]

Haha. I still had this page open from last night and didn't see cmalak's last post until I posted. You beat me to it!

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by markmck79

Haha. I still had this page open from last night and didn't see cmalak's last post until I posted. You beat me to it!

[BillK]

Unfortunately, I've never heard a Class D amp I liked, including the new ARC amps.

I actually prefer the sound of my present ML 334 to the DS series.

On the other hand, I wonder if a compromise might be to pair my or another SS amp with an LS17; I'd still need to retube every year or two but preamplifier tubes tend to last more like 10,000 hours.

[cmalak]

Bill did you actually hear ARC's DS amps. I was told when they are mated with ARC's preamps, they preserve the ARC sound. I have not heard them myself so going on reviews and user commentary. If you have not heard them, may be worth an audition with an ARC preamp. Just a suggestion.

[BillK]

Yes, I have - nowhere near as bright and dry as an Ayre or analytical as a Krell, but also nowhere near as liquid as a Ref 110, but rather more smooth like my Madrigal-era Levinson.

But also IMHO not as liquid as a Pass Labs SS amp.

[cmalak]

Bill...interesting. Thanks for reporting back. I was always interested in hearing the DS-450 in my system mated with my Ref 3 to compare it with my Ref 110 but my dealer nevver got the amps in.

[BillK]

FWIW, I checked with my dealer, a Ref 150 will cost around $1000 to retube with ARC tubes, but his demo 110 has 7900+ hours on it since he last changed tubes and it still sounds beautiful, IMHO meaning you need to take ARC's "preamplifier tubes last 5,000 hours or more, while power amplifier output tubes will last up to 2,000 hours" with a grain of salt. (Though to be fair, my dealer mentioned the 110 seems to be much easier on tubes than the Ref 210 is.)

By comparison an LS-27 costs around $110 to retube with ARC tubes.

[Karma]

HI All,
First post here.

You have some alternatives that could make sense. Why use your expensive tubes for background music? I'll use my case as an example.

My main system is ARC and has 50 tubes in it. It never gets used except for serious listening meaning I'm just listening to music, not playing with the kids, not reading, not doing anything else but listening. It is located in my listening room.

I have a second system, a bedroom system, based on Krell, set up for HT and background music. It gets used a lot. The sound is good but does not compare to the main system. But it doesn't need to. I'm not paying that close attention to it. I find this to be completely satisfactory. I have cut down the hours on my main system by a bunch.

Just an idea.

Sparky

[chessman]

Sparky, welcome aboard!!

[Karma]

HI Chess,
Thank you.

Sparky