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Audio Research REF 3

Dear all ARC REF 3 owners,
I just bought an REF 3 preamp which has replaced my LS25MKII preamp. To be honest i'm little disappointed by the result so far, but i guess tubes have to be replaced. My concern is especially on the sound image which is not precise as my LS25MKII image was.
The number of hours of used displayed by the my REF 3 is 1670 but i realized that hours counter increased only for full hours of used, so i can estimate the number of hours of the tubes inside my REF 3 to be the double i guess.
My question is the following
What do you recommend for tubes replacement and source for the replacement of REF 3 tubes.
I used sovtek, EH gold, and 6H30-DR on my LS25MKII and i was pleased with all those tubes even if i didn't find the DR much better than the 2 other brands.
Thanks in advance
ARCL60
arcl60

Showing 1 response by zargon

zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
How did you come to your conclusion on how the clock works? I would have thought that while the time is only displayed to the nearest hour, the timer starts up exactly where it left off.
I also moved up from the LS25MKII to the REF 3 and the difference was astounding. Thus, I have not had any motivation to experiment with other tubes. I'll be interested in what you learn.
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