Anyone Compared ARC Ref 75SE and 75 With KT150

Veerapaneni ...

The KT150 upgrade was a definite improvement over the stock REF-75 in every respect. You wouldn't want to go back to the KT120's that were originally in the amp.

The SE upgrade is in another world altogether. Its simply an amazing amp. If you can afford to send your amp in to ARC for the SE upgrade, I would highly recommend it.

If I were you, I'd keep your current KT150's for spares and opt to have ARC install their own matched KT150 tubes. The tubes in my SE amp are more stable than were the aftermarket tubes I installed in my original REF-75.

Keep in mind that every piece of equipment, whether new, repaired or upgraded (as your's will be) is given a final listen-to by Warren Gehl at ARC ... and nothing leaves the factory until it passes Warren's muster. Your amp will be totally correct and perfect, including your new tubes before being shipped to you.

Let us know how you make out. You're in for a real shocker ... in a good way.

Hope this helps you out ...

Thanks oregonpapa. I will upgrade to 75se when time permits.

I have the 75 with KT150's at the moment. I will be taking it to my dealers in a couple of weeks, hopefully for an A/B comparison with his demo 75SE. I will report back when I have been.

In answer to Oregonpapa's post, I have had no problems with stability in the 150's I bought myself, no need for rebiasing to date. Incidentally, our local distributor is willing to make the SE upgrade without including the tubes, which he will keep for spares. It makes it a better deal.

Here's an excellent review on the REF-150se with a sidebar on the REF-75se.

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/blog/audio_research_reference_150_se.htm

Far from excellent I have to say, RG expending way too much article time blithering on about comparisons with a circa1980's D110, I feel that ARC would have been much better served enguaging the services of a reviewer more conversant with their recent Reference line amplification, most pertinently the Non SE Ref150!

Yet again we are not privy to the amount of burn in time on the clock, which as we are all too well aware may have significant impact upon performance at any given point, up to and beyond several hundreds of hours run time, thereby rendering RG's considerations on performance almost impossible to contextualise.