Tube sound. Need I say more? This amp has it in spades! Its not that thick hazy or woolly sound from years ago. There is a robust character to the sound, but with resolution and detail (not haze!). Sure there are amps that can blow this thing away, but you'd be adding another zero after the 840 and not come up much better off for the coin spent! Bottom is particularly full sounding, with a ton of extension to my Adire DDR dynamic Dipoles. These speakers are rated to just under 80hz, but with this amp they actually DO go to the mid 50hz range, and even take a shot at 40hz before dropping the last octave. Outstanding! The mids are pure tube- elegant, rich and liquid with just a hint of that "romantic sound" that I hear some reviewers talk about old tube gear having. The top end is clean, with just a hint of fuzz (this was reduced with new output tubes, and re biasing, but is a symptom of the design).

Heat and weight. Did I say it runs hot? Heck, its tubes, and there are 17 of them in this thing. Five 6550s (four power and one bias regulator), 8- 6CG/FQ7 (drivers), and 4-12AX7s (phase splitters). With all those tubes and a very clean 75Wpc, the power supply and output iron HAS to be big.

There are only two physical faults with this amp

1. Output connectors- its simply a screw terminal block for 4,8 and 16 ohms outputs with a ground connector. I replaced those with actual binding posts (just for 8 ohms though, the impedance of my speakers)

2. No power switch! Weird... I will be installing one ASAP

incredible, heavy, muscular sounding monster of an amp from the mid 70's. i gotmine form Ebay just under a month ago at the insistence of a good friend who has designed and built tube gear for years. I am currently recapping everything, but have listened extensively after each stage of upgrading. The amp itself weighs in at around 60lbs. It is built like a tank.

Customer Service

They still support this thing with some parts (tubes yes, metalwork, no) and even provide links to a user's forum for old ARC gear! Again, Outstanding...

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Hafler Dh-200, Crown PL-3 and Mission Cyrus II integrated amps

Power, price, collectible.

Build quality (only because its old and things could fail on you), cost of all those tubes, heat, weight.

Great, old classic amp that can still give a lifelike presentation to the music. (I have a D-75A which is essentially the same thing as a D-76A). I have been into stereos for a very long time, so am always on the lookout for new equipment or in this case an old tube amp from the 70's. This was my brother's who stored it in a closet for the last 20 years. (I put 900 in for the price because that's around what they cost these days.) He gave it to me and I had it professionally cleaned up, biased, tested, and installed new tubes-- it uses 17 tubes. My version is all original, no modifications except one small capacitor that failed. I am even using the original filter capacitors. Probably should change them someday but for now its working great. What an amp! 70 watts per channel and still sounds great! I used it to power Vandersteen 2CE speakers and it played them to ear-shattering levels, with no harshness or apparent clipping. It provides great clarity and dynamics. This is a substantial amp from a long time ago, and weighs a ton, but I really enjoyed its performance. You can see that I have used a lot of very good amps from the list below, I would say this amp has a little more bloom than the others, and is a little noiser due to all the tubes, but it is very enjoyable to listen to. I thought it might have a restricted HF response but the highs are there and crystal clear. Bass is also very good, though not as good as the BAT. On the down side it generates a LOT of heat from those 17 tubes and doesn't have an on/off switch. But it does have level controls for the L/R channels and 4-8-16 ohm taps for your speakers. I recommend the 4 ohm taps for the 2CE, the 8 ohm taps sounded very bad with these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Amplifiers: Adcom GFA555 II Counterpoint SA-100 Alta Vista Audio NP-100 (upgreaded SA-100) Pass Labs Aleph 30 BAT VK-200

I discover a new kind of sound when I listen the same records.

great midrange, classic tube sound.

poor bass control, lack of drive for large speakers.

THIS AMP IS GREAT. I HAVE OWNED IT FOR AROUND A YEAR NOW, AND I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH IT AT ALL. I HAVE LISTENED TO IT IN MANY SYSTEMS AND CHANGE MY CURRENT SYSTEM ALL THE TIME. THIS HAS ALLOWED ME TO REALIZE THE CHARACTER OF THIS GREAT AMP. THE MIDRANGE IS GREAT, CLEAR, DETAILED, YET WARM AND LUSH SOUNDING. IT DOES A GREAT JOB OF TAKING THE EDGE OFF OF MANY MODERN DIGITAL RECORDINGS AND OFFERS A LOT OF MIDRANGE KICK. MY ONLY PROBLEM WITH IT IS IN DRIVING LARGE OLD TOWER SPEAKERS. I HVAE A PAIR OF INFINITY QUANTUM II'S AND A PAIR OF B&W MATRIX SPEAKERS, BOTH OLDER. THE AMP WONT DRIVE THEM VERY LOUD AND THE BASS ISNT REALLY TIGHT. SO I HAVE USED A SEPERATE PAIR OF 15" SUBS, AND A SEPERATE AMP FOR THE BASS SECTION OF THESE SPEAKERS. THIS SET UP SOUNDS GREAT, THE MUSIC SOUNDS SO GOOD IT REALLY SOUNDS TANGEABLE. I FEEL I COULD WALK UP AND CONGRADULATE THE MUSICIANS AFTER A PERFORMANCE.

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sae solidstate amps, cary amps, conrad johnson, etc.

I BOUGHT MY D-76 11 YEARS AGO AND RESTORED IT TO NEW WITH ALL NEW ELECTROLYTIC CAPS, UPGRADED THE INPUT & COUPLING CAPS TO MIT POLYPROPYLENE, CHANGED THE BIAS AND AC ADJUSTMENT POTS TO NEWER TYPES, SWITCHED THE FEEDBACK RESISTERS TO CADDOCK AND VISHAY, REPLACED THE WIRING WITH NICE NEW TEFLON COATED STUFF AND CHANGED ALL THE CARBON RESISTERS TO METAL TYPE. THIS AMP CAN KEEP UP WITH ANY NEWER AMP-IT BASICALLY IS A NEW AMP; IT WAS WELL WORTH THE WORK. IT HAS BEEN A MARVELOUS PERFORMER THE MIDRANGE AND TIMBRE IS GORGEOUS. IT IS TUBE INTENSIVE AND NOT FOR THOSE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE EXTRA CAUTION AND CARE REQUIRED FOR SUCH EQUIPMENT. THIS IS A CLASSIC AND AUDIO RESEARCH SUPPORTS EVERY PART ON THIS AMP SO IT IS NOT OBSOLETE.

D76A is a very special amplifier to me. It is a old tube aplifier that was presented at the beginning of the 70's decate. At my opinion it has one of the most warm and musical sound ever made. Its midrage frequencies are ammazing. It produces 70w per channel from two tubes 6550 per channel and it uses at its drive another 6 lamps per channel + 1 tude 6550 as stabilizer total 17 tubes (5 - 6550 8 - 6fq7 and 4 ? ). Even it worths a much better position , at the moment I use it as a driver at my center speaker 'Martin Logan logos', it is an amplifier that even the pass of all these decates I would say that it has better midrage frequencies than more modern amplifiers that worth many thousand dollars. I recommend it strongly to someone who has not a very difficult drive speakers.

I owned the ARC D76A for over 12 years, I bought it in 1976. It is still goingstrong in my friends system. The midrange is still glorious and is comparable
to top tube amps of today. I upgraded to the ARC D115 mkII in 1988. I recently upgraded to the ARC VT100 mkII.

Phenomenal midrange, easy high end, warm but neutral sound.

typical tube amp issues: heat, maintenance requirements.

This review is for an ARC-refurbished D76, not D76A. Well, I don't own this amp anymore, and ultimately a day will come when I will regret having sold it. Not today, however- I now live happily with solid state stuff. But this amp was miraculous with a pair of Vandersteen 2CE's. I have never owned an amp with which I enjoyed the music more. I hope that says enough. One problem was that the thing put off so much heat that I couldn't use it in my small apartment for about 8 months a year! That was a problem. If I ever move to Alaska or northern Wisconsin or somewhere like that, I know I'm going to buy some big mother 16-tube 6550c amp, and look at those tubes glowing all night instead of a fireplace.

BTW, excuse me for entering 1995 as the product year. That was the earliest year offered, and my submission was rejected when trying to leave this blank. I understand this amp was manufactured in the early or mid '70's.