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Audio Research filing for bankruptcy?

I just heard Audio Research might be filing for bankruptcy. This is a shock to me. I just called them a few days ago to have my Ref 6 upgraded to a Ref 6SE. I will also be the new owner of the Ref 750s. I was just wondering if they did go bankrupt what would all those millions of owners do about servicing their equipment. Should I be concerned? I’m alittle worried now. 

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Showing 2 responses by whart

whart's avatar
whart
2,971 posts
 

One of the ARC execs just posted on What's Best- company is open, running, they hope to have a new owner quickly. We have a bunch of threads on this. I reached out to TPTB to see if these could be consolidated.

Bill Hart

whart's avatar
whart
2,971 posts
 

Sad news. They set the benchmark in the States with the SP-3 preamp. I owned a fair amount of their gear back in the day, stopping at the SP-10mkii preamp and a succession of their amps. W Z Johnson was a force in the industry- hard to get the line as a dealer-

They went through a number of different periods- from classic but very open sounding tubes to what I called their "white period" where the sound was drier, bleached, to the later Reference line which was very good. I stopped dealing with them in the '90s not for any reason other than that I changed directions. I still have my original Dual 75a that I bought new in 1975, awaiting a recap and retube (I have all the power tubes I bought from ARC 15 years ago). Still have some of the old literature showing prices with Magnepan- that was a big deal system back in the day- ARC electronics with the big Tympani panels. 

I hope for the sake of their customers and the legacy of the brand that this gets turned around. 

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