Life of KT150 tubes on ARC Amps

Oh no, I forgot to mention one thing. Last one, I promise. Brooks wasn’t an ARC dealer (he had sold the brand when he was at GNP in Pasadena in the 80’s), but he loved having customers who owned them. He sold them a lot of RAM tubes, and also made money repairing them everytime a power tube took out some parts when it blew. The shelves of his used equipment racks were full of ARC power amps, everyone of them having scorched circuit boards. The brand reminds me of not Porsche, but Fiat ;-) .

I know man, Roger Modjeski and The Band, my two crusades. Also Bruce Thigpen and Iris Dement. I shall attempt to curb my enthusiasm out of consideration for ARC apologists, if for no other reason. Before I do though, I wonder how many have actually heard the RM-200 Mk.2 or Eminent Technology LFT-8b? Brooks Berdan enthusiastically recommended both to me, but that was on a friend-to-friend basis. To his paying customers he sold Jadis, VTL, and Wilson. WAY more money to be made selling brands with audiophile cache’ and bragging rights. Higher price = better sound? I have no doubt that lots of people dismissing the RM-200 Mk.2 (particularly in comparison to the REF 75SE/150SE) have never listened to the amp. They just "know".

For the price of retubing a big amp directly from ARC, one can buy a used Music Reference RM-200 (100w/ch), which needs it's four output tubes (a pair of KT88 or 6550 per channel) replaced only every 10,000 hours. And like folkfreak's VTL, the MR tubes are fused, so no fireworks ;-) .