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ARC Quality Issues Ref75 Ref5SE Ref10

Over the past two years I had several issues with ARC Ref gear and am wondering if I'm the only one out there having so much "bad luck"?

My issues started when I bought a Ref5SE plus Ref75.
The two meters in the Ref75 had a noticeable different color and had to be replaced by my dealer.

Two of the Ref5SE tube sockets were soldered crooked to the board. I found a loose screw bouncing around inside the chassis when I unpacked it and found that the two crooked tube sockets were not even bolted down to the metal support on the main board. ARC apologized and replaced the brand new Ref5SE.

The replacement Ref5SE blew up after 600 hrs of use. A small component in the power section exploded with a single loud bang with smoke following.

To not end up with a nearly new but repaired preamp I upgraded to Ref10. The Ref10 power section also blew up after two months and only 390 hrs of use. One or more of the smaller white caps in the power section exploded (four or five significant and loud bangs with smoke). My dealer just informed me that ARC is going to replace the failed Ref10 against a brand new one.

I can not believe I am the only one having repeated problems with ARC's new gear!?

Feedback and comments will be greatly appreciated !
decibell
david12
1,454 posts
 
Only owned the Ref 75, no problems at all so far after 15 months. Re tubed with KT150's, no problem there either, except the amp top will not fit over the tubes.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Decibell ... of course I can't dispute your sad tale. If it happened ... it happened.

For the record, all of my electronic gear is ARC. Never had a problem, save for an occasional and very rare pesky blown bias resister.

As I am sure other owners of ARC would attest, every ARC unit comes with a QC card that shows all the QC checks that every unit undergoes. Even Bill Gehl, ARC's official listener, performs a listening test before any unit leaves the factory. And this applies to new units that come off the production line as well as units that go in for repair.

Sorry to read about your troubles. But for the benefit of other readers, Decibell's ARC troubles are a rare anomaly. I hope ARC puts everything in proper order for Decibell.
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t
1,602 posts
 
.
I've never had a quality issue with an ARC product.

I've owned 5 different models of their line stages, 3 different models of their phono stages and 3 different models of their cd players. Never a problem with reliability with any of their products in more than ten years of ownership.
.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Who jinxed me? I just blew a bias resister. :(

The ARC tech is coming out on Tuesday.
tonywinsc
583 posts
 
I have had ARC gear since 1989. Well, I have had three different preamps the DAC3 and CD3- so not so many changes. The umbilical cord on my SP-15 failed in 2004. ARC repaired the cord and refurbished the power supply for me while they had it. Kind of weird since it just sat on a shelf.
My CD3 MKII player has been repaired by ARC twice. Once for something internal that made the system pop when muting and then one time the CD drive mechanism failed. I have never had an ARC amp. Three repairs in 25 years. That's pretty good, I think.
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