What Audio Research power amps have you owned or admired?

Jay_S · Apr 26, 2010

ARC has a 40 year history of making power amps. In particular, some of the tube models have been iconic products that are still interesting decades later. When I look at an old D-79 I just shake my head -- it is a massive industrial-looking product that looks like it could get a second job as an arc welder. But it only puts out about 60 watts per channel. The D-79 represents an overkill approach that is entertaining just to look at.

http://www.arcdb.ws/D79/D79.html

I have a D-70 II from the 1980s with the same power output. It has considerably fewer parts than the D-79 but still works perfectly. The only issue is that the bias setting procedure may be the least friendly of any tube amp.

http://www.arcdb.ws/D70/D70.html

What ARC amps have you owned and what are your favorite ones?

Steve Williams · Apr 26, 2010

Last ARC power amp I owned was the Ref 600 Mklll's at 600 wpc. Each amp had 31 tubes which with my ARC Ref 3 Preamp (8 tubes) put out so much heat that listening in the summer weather was challenging until I ultimately added a 3rd central AC in my house dedicated for only my listening room.

MylesBAstor · Apr 26, 2010

Steve Williams said:
Last ARC power amp I owned was the Ref 600 Mklll's at 600 wpc. Each amp had 31 tubes which with my ARC Ref 3 Preamp (8 tubes) put out so much heat that listening in the summer weather was challenging until I ultimately added a 3rd central AC in my house dedicated for only my listening room.

LOL..and you don't have winter out there

I've liked quite a few but one that stuck in my mind were the old M100 monoblocks. A good friend used them on the top end of his highly modded and possibly the best sounding Infinity RS1bs (he used the cj Premier 1 on the bass towers). That amplifier was light, airy and did a great job at recreating soundspace on tape and LP (he was using at that time also the SP10 and a prototype Basis table/ETII arm/Carnegie cartridge (I think). Now I don't know what it did in the bass since it was only driving the speakers about roughly 120 Hz or so.

mep · Apr 26, 2010

My first "real" amp was the ARC D-76. I loved that amp and owned it for years. It never game me a minute of trouble. It replaced a Dynaco ST-70 that I had bought from the original owner. The ST-70 was a boy trying to do a man's job in comparison to the D-76. The D-76 had balls and authority. I briefly owned a D-76A but ARC decided to mount the bias jacks upside down so that you had to remove the bottom of the amp in order to jack in and set your bias. The D-76 had the jacks mounted correctly on the top and you just had to worry about burning your fingers as you plugged in the jack to your meter. I also owned a D-70 MKII and it was a nice amp. However, as Jay said, the bias scheme for the D-70 was horrible. I would dare say it was almost criminal in that it was dangerous and a total pain in the ass. There is no doubt that ARC did that on purpose to discourage owners from setting the bias themselves and forcing them to take it to their dealer or send it back to ARC. I also owned the ARC VT-100 MKII which is also a nightmare to set the bias on. You have to remove a million screws from the top plate and another million from both side plates in order to set the bias. I find that to be a fatally flawed design. Compare that to the Quicksilver V4 amps which I also owned where I could bias each amp in under a minute. The ARC VT-100 MKII also had some strange interaction with my Def Tech BP7000SC speakers which would start a feedback howl with the subs. I sold the ARC and never looked back. I now own a Defy 7 MKII and it is the best amp I have ever owned.

Mark

Steve Williams · Apr 26, 2010

I still could never figure out why ARC didn't go with "autobiasing" as other companies have....

MylesBAstor · Apr 26, 2010

mep said:
My first "real" amp was the ARC D-76. I loved that amp and owned it for years. It never game me a minute of trouble. It replaced a Dynaco ST-70 that I had bought from the original owner. The ST-70 was a boy trying to do a man's job in comparison to the D-76. The D-76 had balls and authority. I briefly owned a D-76A but ARC decided to mount the bias jacks upside down so that you had to remove the bottom of the amp in order to jack in and set your bias. The D-76 had the jacks mounted correctly on the top and you just had to worry about burning your fingers as you plugged in the jack to your meter. I also owned a D-70 MKII and it was a nice amp. However, as Jay said, the bias scheme for the D-70 was horrible. I would dare say it was almost criminal in that it was dangerous and a total pain in the ass. There is no doubt that ARC did that on purpose to discourage owners from setting the bias themselves and forcing them to take it to their dealer or send it back to ARC. I also owned the ARC VT-100 MKII which is also a nightmare to set the bias on. You have to remove a million screws from the top plate and another million from both side plates in order to set the bias. I find that to be a fatally flawed design. Compare that to the Quicksilver V4 amps which I also owned where I could bias each amp in under a minute. The ARC VT-100 MKII also had some strange interaction with my Def Tech BP7000SC speakers which would start a feedback howl with the subs. I sold the ARC and never looked back. I now own a Defy 7 MKII and it is the best amp I have ever owned.

Mark

Mark-

Have to say that all the tube amps that I've had in over the years were a breeze to bias: cj, VAC, sonic frontier, Unison and a few others.

What tubes are you using in your Defy?

mep · Apr 27, 2010

Myles-The tube set I am using now came from Ram Labs and I am running SED 6550 output tubes. When it is time for a new set, I may switch to KT-88 tubes.

Mark

Gregadd · Apr 27, 2010

My first ARC experience was the SP-10 with a D-79. Finally i could see what all the fuss was about.

MylesBAstor · Apr 27, 2010

Gregadd said:
My first ARC experience was the SP-10 with a D-79. Finally i could see what all the fuss was about.

The SP10 I think was ARC's only dual mono preamp. Just a touch of an edge in its day but my friends who owned it complained about it eating vintage tubes like it was going out of style (like the Art Ferris's Audible Illusions)! The only tubes that seem to have a shot are the ARC supplied 6922 EHs. Funny thing, I've had a 6922 EH fail recently in my amp--and I 've never had a signal tube die. One triode completely died-at first couldn't figure out why was getting just a whisper out of one channel and the protective fuse was fine. Finally traced the problem down to the amp, took out the 6922s on a lark--and lo and behold, one of two triodes was shot. I've also had some of these latest 6922s go a little noisy but on the whole they seem to last ok.

Steve Williams · Apr 27, 2010

For Audio Research lovers both old and new this is the only site to visit when you want to talk everything Audio Research

http://www.arcdb.ws/

MylesBAstor · Apr 27, 2010

Steve Williams said:
For Audio Research lovers both old and new this is the only site to visit when you want to talk everything Audio Research

http://www.arcdb.ws/

Very nice link and database! Great for the ARC fan and owner!

And to think of all the ARC amps have heard over the many years! Dual 75, D76, D90, D250, M100, Classic 30, 60, 150, VT100, Ref. 610T. Now that's a lot of amps. Also got me to also thinking about the Classic 30. Now that was one sweet little amp on the right speaker!

jadis · Apr 28, 2010

I had ARC D115 MKIIs with SP 10 MKII. Then ARC D125 with SP-14. Now using an ARC VS110 though with a Jadis JPL line stage, then into an ARC Ph3 Phono stage. I have SED KT88s on the VS110.

jadis · Apr 28, 2010

Steve Williams said:
For Audio Research lovers both old and new this is the only site to visit when you want to talk everything Audio Research

http://www.arcdb.ws/

Yes, great link. And the owner of the site is a real fan of ARC, and one time was kind enough to answer some questions I had about ARC pre amps.

rblnr · May 3, 2010

The Ref 210 monos are my first ARC amps and they're the best I've ever owned. My previous amp was auto bias -- I don't find the ARC scheme a hassle at all. Have a Ref 5 preamp coming, looking forward to the combo.

Steve Williams · May 3, 2010

Have a look at the new 40th Anniversary Arc Preamp

rblnr · May 3, 2010

Any idea of the MSRP?

Steve Williams · May 3, 2010

rblnr said:
Any idea of the MSRP?

Apparently $24,995

rblnr · May 3, 2010

Thx -- didn't see it anywhere. With the purchase of a pair of Scaena 3.2s, I'm a bit tapped out on audio spending at the moment. BTW, kudos for starting this site.

Steve Williams · May 3, 2010

Thanks for finding us and joining

Gregadd · May 8, 2010

MylesBAstor said:
The SP10 I think was ARC's only dual mono preamp. Just a touch of an edge in its day but my friends who owned it complained about it eating vintage tubes like it was going out of style (like the Art Ferris's Audible Illusions)! The only tubes that seem to have a shot are the ARC supplied 6922 EHs. Funny thing, I've had a 6922 EH fail recently in my amp--and I 've never had a signal tube die. One triode completely died-at first couldn't figure out why was getting just a whisper out of one channel and the protective fuse was fine. Finally traced the problem down to the amp, took out the 6922s on a lark--and lo and behold, one of two triodes was shot. I've also had some of these latest 6922s go a little noisy but on the whole they seem to last ok.

I don't remember whether the SP-10 was dual mono or had a separate power supply. It definitely ate more tubes than an Atma-Sphere amp.

What Audio Research power amps have you owned or admired?

WBF Founding Member

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator

Well-Known Member

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator

Well-Known Member

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member

WBF Founding Member

Well-Known Member

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator

WBF Founding Member

Similar threads