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Audio Research Reference 5SE reliability

After reading the glowing revieuw on the Stereophile-website by Brian Damkroger on the ARC REF5SE there was a comment that: quote: by Audioware on nov 15, 2012,

"These pres are outstanding. However the problem is their poor reliability. 06 (six) of them were already on my services bench this year to fix problems with the transformer that feeds the dgital, the remote control and the on-off switch, circuits. It is a small xformer below the circuit board that burns out frequently. Another very serious problem is with the 6H30s filament regulators that do not stand for the increased current demanded by the new 6H30s intead of the old 6922s. ARC has to pay more attention to these problems!"

I already checked my dealer, who was really surprised and did not recognise these problems.

Comments will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
sequence56

Showing 1 response by pabrognara

pabrognara
12 posts
 
Hi everybody.
Currently I´m testing a REF 5 used unit to evaluate sound and finally buy a brand new 5se. From what I heard in comparison to my previous VTL 6.5 was a stunning sound, deeper and punchier bass, and finally the most impressive mid and highs, never fatiguing. Anyway sounds terrific. BUT I found a problem that´s happening and doubt wheter is the unit, energy or some incompatibility with rest of gears. Here I´m connecting REF 5 by XLR to Paganini DAC and to Krell EVO 600e amps. Here´s the issue: sometimes, when changing volume level during a track, after 30secs or so, the sound cuts for a milisecond time and returns "instantly". I dont know if It really has to do with this unit, but I´m really worry If will get the same issue on my possible brand new unit. Never experienced It before with any preamp.
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