Pearl Audio has been an authorized Audio Research dealer in Portland since 2018. We represent the company's vacuum-tube amplification, from the integrated amplifiers through the Reference series, along with its solid-state models, and we look after what we sell for as long as you own it.
Tell us which pieces interest you and we will set them up in a listening room for your appointment, with loudspeakers suited to the amplifier and to the room you have at home. Matching matters with tube amplification: an amplifier's output and a loudspeaker's sensitivity and impedance decide how well the pair will work together, and we are glad to advise before you visit. See the Audio Research range.
John Loranger, Pearl Audio's owner, bought his first high-end tube system in 2000, before he worked in the audio industry: an Audio Research Reference 1 preamplifier with a VT100 amplifier. His first questions about living with tubes were answered by Leonard, for many years the voice of the Audio Research service department, whose patience with owners is still remembered fondly. In the years since he has also owned a Reference 2, a VT200, a VSi75, an LS28 SE, a VT80 SE and a PH3 SE phono stage, and he has attended factory training at the Audio Research factory in Maple Grove, Minnesota.
Pearl Audio became an Audio Research dealer in 2018, the year the Reference 160M monoblocks were introduced. Our pair came from the first production run, which made us one of the first dealers in the United States to have them on display. That fall we hosted our first Audio Research event, with the Reference 6 preamplifier, the Reference Phono 3 phono stage, the Reference CD9 and the new Reference 160M, the first Audio Research amplifier with the GhostMeter: a large glass meter through which you can see the power tubes glowing behind it. The system played through Magico S5 loudspeakers, with a Linn Klimax LP12 and a Koetsu Rosewood cartridge.
A tube amplifier asks a little more of its owner than a solid-state one, and we make that part easy. When the amplifier is delivered we explain warm-up and tube life, and we keep replacement KT150 and 6H30 sets and other spare tubes in stock. Current Audio Research amplifiers show tube hours on their displays, so you always know when a set is due.
Tubes are also the reason most problems are simple ones. When a tube amplifier is not behaving as it should, the cause is usually a single tube that has reached the end of its life, and replacing it is the whole repair. That can almost always be done where the amplifier lives, without moving it.
We use an Amplitrex AT1000 tube tester, the same model Audio Research uses in its factory and one of the few able to test KT150 power tubes. It measures each tube precisely, in our shop or in your home, so we know where a set stands.
The tester and a supply of spare tubes come with us on every installation and service call. On a service call, one of the first things we do is take every tube out of the amplifier, test each one and write down the results, so we have a clear picture of the whole set before deciding anything. We also check the bias before a new power tube goes in, because a fresh tube needs a different setting from a worn one; on the Audio Research models with auto-bias, the amplifier takes care of that itself. Good decisions depend on good information.
Audio Research builds each product by hand in Maple Grove, and the factory can restore nearly every product it has made in the last forty-five years. For an owner, that is a large part of the case for the brand: an Audio Research amplifier is something to keep.
These amplifiers are large and heavy, so for customers who bought their Audio Research equipment from Pearl Audio, we come to you first. If our visit shows that the amplifier needs factory service, we pack it in its original box, palletize it, arrange its shipment to Audio Research and reinstall it when it returns. Please keep the box and packing your amplifier came in; we need them to pack it for you.
We deliver and install Audio Research in the Portland area. We fit and test the tubes, check bias where the model calls for it, and listen with you before we leave. Because the circuits are balanced, we plan the sources and cables with you in advance.
William Z. Johnson founded Audio Research in Minneapolis in 1970. Its story is on our Audio Research history page.
To hear Audio Research in Portland, call (503) 222-2599 or arrange an audition.
