Not one decent cap in the entire preamp and they charge you an arm and a leg for this... Disgraceful, utterly disgraceful. Only idiots will upgrade to 6SE. The smart ones will buy quality caps, mod the crap out their Ref 6 and hear it outperform Ref 10 for a fraction of the price...
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/modding-my-arc-ref-anniversary.27714/What were the upgrades or mods that you did that improved on the SQ?
Naive children populate this forum. Not addicted-to-best mature grown-ups. Sad, really sad...
At that point won't it make more sense to just go to a boutique maker like Aric audio and have something more custom made that can compete for less money?Not one decent cap in the entire preamp and they charge you an arm and a leg for this... Disgraceful, utterly disgraceful. Only idiots will upgrade to 6SE. The smart ones will buy quality caps, mod the crap out their Ref 6 and hear it outperform Ref 10 for a fraction of the price...
If you have nothing - that may be a way to go. But if you already own a decent preamp, my point is it is silly to sell it, losing money. Instead, improve what you already own by replacing the junk they put at the factory with the best part money can buy. To me this is the only logical way to go.At that point won't it make more sense to just go to a boutique maker like Aric audio and have something more custom made that can compete for less money?
I see what your saying.If you have nothing - that may be a way to go. But if you already own a decent preamp, my point is it is silly to sell it, losing money. Instead, improve what you already own by replacing the junk they put at the factory with the best part money can buy. To me this is the only logical way to go.
P.S. The only exception is if what you own is not worth modding because it was crap to begin with (entry-level gear that has no (or very little) potential for improvement and would be a waste of time and money to work on).
He is here > http://hifilogic.com/Steve Huntley immediately comes to mind, wonder what ever happened to him after GNS closed.
HAHAHFunny his name doesn’t appear anywhere on the site.
“Wilson Audio XLF's, Audio Research REF40, VTL Siegfired II, DCS Vivaldi 2.0 stack, Taiko Audio SGM Extreme, Kondo KSL DAC, TechDas Air Force One Premium, SME3012-R, Graham Phamtom III, Sumiko Palo Santos, vdH Black Beauty, ARC Phono 3, Studer A80, Crystal Dreamline signal and speaker, TA Ref XL digital, TA Ref XL gen V power cables, CenterStage footers, Nordost Qkore6' s and QB8's!”If it was not for the number of tubes or heat I would have kept the ARC REF750's. Easily the best tube amplifiers I have owned, retrospectively I preferred them to the VLT Siegfried II's - more bloom and better fluidity, although the Siegfried is more "neutral".
But almost 2kW idle power and changing 40 expensive power tubes every year frightened me. My room was a real sauna when I owned them. At less I know the person who got the REF750's is enjoying them - I tried to get them back, but he was not interested at all ...
Some people I respect due to their large experience with top tube amplifiers told me recently that the latest version of the REF610T, modified to accept the KT120's, are easily on par with the REF750 in most aspects.