Audio Research Ref 3 Opinions

Has OneObGin confirmed that this is factory made? I checked ARC and the ARCDB (better source than ARC itself) and there is no mention about it.

BTW, the 6550C & 6550EH are Power Triodes, used by ARC on their power amps, the 6H30 & 6922 are preamp ("small signal" as per ARC) tubes...I wonder if we are talking nonsense here...

I´ll check with Leonard and hear what's going on.

brgds and thanks

Marcelo

Marcelo, I reread Oneobgin's posts starting at:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vaslt&1049587927&openfrom&151&4#151
The tubes being swapped out are the 6L6GC output tubes. Yes the update is made by ARC. I have confirmation from a dealer. Please let us know what you hear from Leonard.

Well I was wrong again. The tubes being swapped out are the 6H30 after all. OneObgin has posted more info m on his vertual system thread. Cost appears to be $59 for parts only, plus any transportation. OneObgin confirms improved bass and treble behavior after the update. Please see the few posts relating to this subject starting at::
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vaslt&1049587927&openfrom&162&4#162

I called ARC and asked if there was a upgrade for my Ref 3 and was told that there wasn't. I see on their site they still list the 6H30 tubes for the Ref 3. Will call back and talk to them again about this.
Has anyone else called?

Well, this gets curiouser and curiouser! The Toronto dealer for ARC told me she prefers the old 6H30 sound to the updated 6550C sound, which implies addmitting the existance of the update. Furthermore Oneobgin has just paid $59 + shipping to ARC to supply 4 6550C tubes and related bypass caps. He had the update performed by his California dealer. If anyone speakes to Leonard at ARC tomorrow please post here. Just make sure you do not call it an upgrade but a 'rolling update', which is the term used by ARC. There is no version change on Ref 3 at all.