ARC Quality Issues Ref75 Ref5SE Ref10

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.

Knghifi, the Phi Beta units Kevin Hayes designed and built over ten years ago suffered from a military spec component that failed in many units within a year and half and for me this was very disappointing and it did cause me to lose valuable listening time and then eventually move away from VAC. When it worked back then, I loved it and it surpassed anything I had ever known. Based on the long history and what others had claimed, I purchased a ARC LS25 pre-amp, a LS-9 SS pre amp, a PH-7 and then an REF-5 in the ARC line to try it's flavor. In my mind, they were okay, but more to the boring side; the REF-5 had a big sound stage and was detailed, but it lacked body and bloom on the notes and musicality. It sounded more like a solid state than a tube pre-amp; sounding a little lean. I spoke with Kevin years later and he told me the issues with the Phi Beta were caused by that capacitor or whatever it was. After speaking with owners of his newer line and the lack of issues, I went back to VAC and couldn't be happier. For me, the VAC gear has a huge sound stage, depth of sound stage, inner detail and bloom on the notes and incredible bass extension for a tube preamp. The phono option destroyed my ARC PH-7! There is an ease and pace to the music with VAC that is very inviting and engaging. It isn't syrupy or overly colored like many tube manufacturers; just musical. ARC has die hard fans like MacIntosh; they exhibit cult like tendencies in their defense of ARC. If you and the others are happy, great. I find ARC equipment boring and sterile sounding; lots of detail, no musicality. I admire Kevin Hayes for admitting the issues with the Phi Beta, taking care of the units with problems and then redesigning his equipment. One thing I also respect about VAC is they don't have a new model every six or 12 months. Kevin takes his time and makes sure the newer design truly is a notch above his current offerings. As far as the continuation of the line if Kevin leaves, I am not sure. He has talented people around him that can surely service what's out there and maybe design and continue the quality after Kevin leaves. ARC lost their genius and they still seem to be designing and developing new models! I suspect VAC will make arrangements to do the same. As far as dealers in every city, there are many high end manufacturers that don't have dealers in every city and do quite well.

Thank You! for sharing your experience(s) w/ ARC gear. It is imperative that users of such pricy gear post both positive & negative examples fort he rest of us.

Do not forget to mention your dealer/retailer whom helped or did not help you. Keep us posted & happy listening!

I am a french Audio research customer since 2007.
My equipment consists in the following gear:
DAC 7 (bought in 2009), reference 3 (bought in 2007), and HD220 (bought in 2007).
In 2008, while my hd220 was still under warranty, I had to return the hd220 to the dealer because of an overheating problem of the amplifier output stage.
the dealer told me that overheating was caused by shifting of the bias of some of the thermal trak bipolar transistors.
The device was repaired and then worked fine until this year. But in august, a complete breakdown of the right channel output stage occurs.
I have returned the HD220 for repair to the distributor in France.
Of course, the device is not under warranty anymore.
The dealer asks me 2k€ for the repair, which consists in the replacement of the output stage on both channel.

Today, I have to decide wether I can trust the dealer or not. I don't know if I can be confident on the repair, and what is the risk to have the same breakdown within the 2 or 3 next years.

My other ARC equipments (ref 3, DAC 7) work fine.

Aisip, the Ref75 is a wonderful amp. Besides the power meters I had no problem with it so far (appr 1800 hrs). If your speakers have a decent efficiency and are not too hard to drive the Ref75 will impress you (I use Coincident Pure Reference speakers). It combines many positive attributes and simply gets out of the way. The Ref5SE was much better than the Ref3 I owned as well - but the Ref10 is simply in a class of it's own (as long as it works ;-)). I just hope the replacement Ref10 (expected to arrive on Tuesday) does not blow up on me again - because I don't see me looking for another preamp anytime soon.
Feel free to email me if you have more questions about sonic performance.