[birdland]

Originally Posted by brad225

Birdland, I am not an E.E. but my gut tells me the build quality is much better with on the NOS tubes than current 6550s.

I'm concerned about any tube I put in my amps let alone tubes that are not from Audio Research. The GE 6550's are not something I would put in my power amps but I feel reasonably safe with them in my 40th Ann. pre.

Audio Research did use the 6550A tubes previously in equipment but stopped as the supply started to dry up and the cost was going to make it prohibitive.

If I bought a new ARC piece of equipment I probably would stay with their tubes until it was out of warranty for the obvious reason.

Prior to these 2 GE 6550A tubes for my preamp the only tubes I purchased from a source other than ARC were tubes for both versions of my LS25's .

Hopefully your button issue will be solved easily but my guess is something is clearly damaged.

Good Luck

Brad - thank you for your comments. I will think twice before using the GE 6550A tube since there are limited sources for them.

With respect to the button issue, I am trying to stay positive.

Anyone know how to remove the face plate on a REF 5SE? I suspect this is an alignment issue.