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Audio Research Reference 5SE reliability

After reading the glowing revieuw on the Stereophile-website by Brian Damkroger on the ARC REF5SE there was a comment that: quote: by Audioware on nov 15, 2012,

"These pres are outstanding. However the problem is their poor reliability. 06 (six) of them were already on my services bench this year to fix problems with the transformer that feeds the dgital, the remote control and the on-off switch, circuits. It is a small xformer below the circuit board that burns out frequently. Another very serious problem is with the 6H30s filament regulators that do not stand for the increased current demanded by the new 6H30s intead of the old 6922s. ARC has to pay more attention to these problems!"

I already checked my dealer, who was really surprised and did not recognise these problems.

Comments will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
sequence56
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
Six is a stretch. As if he personally has six folks with them? sorry it does not seem realistic.
First I question that the sort of folks who can afford the REF 5SE are going to NOT send them back to ARC for repair.
WHO? is going to send it to some guy, let alone SIX of them.
So I call it bullshit.
Use you common sense.

Now tf it was some old design, say some thirty year old ones.. Yeah he might have seen six of them over time.
But for the Ref 5SE. no way.

It IS possible he has seen one cross his bench, maybe the same one twice, and his opinion is his. but six. LOL
dbarger
179 posts
 
Yes, I don't buy it at all. Why would he see ANY Ref5se's at all? They would be under warranty and returned to ARC for repair... Remarks like that are what is wrong with the Internet. People just make s..t up.
sequence56 OP
52 posts
 
I suppose Audioware is referring also to ARC Ref5 and Ref3, which are also mentioned in the header of his comments, so it is not clear if the number of six are exclusively all Ref5SE. I also doubt about that.
jtimothya
551 posts
 
Before posting this query, did you find *any* confirming information, any other message on the originating site or anywhere else that supports the claim sufficient to warrant repeating it here?? Just to let you know there is a perspective from which re-posting a 6-month old disparaging commentary from another Web site can sound like a drive-by.
hifigeek1
770 posts
 
I've been fixing ARC for over 20 years as a warranty repair station. I haven't seen a single Ref5 or Ref5SE with a transformer issue. I did replace one transformer in a Ref3 years ago. Me thinks Audioware hath been exposed to too many solder fumes.
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