Audio Research Financial Troubles

This discussion is about 6 months late; ARC’s issues have been resolved with what must be very close to the best possible outcome. If ARC was swept up by another huge corporate conglomerate, OR passed to another small owner in over his head, there would be cause for continued concern. But going to Val Cora seems about the perfect fit here.

If you’re still concerned about ARC, don’t look too close at all the other companies in this industry. ARC’s current status seems more solid than average - and crucially, they’re not a "one-man show" where that one guy is nearing or past retirement age.

If you are really in the market, have you looked on Audiogon or USAudiomart recently? There is plenty to chose from at attractive prices.

Is it true? Go to hifishark and filter by "North America". Then I see none of the Reference 3 phono preamp - don’t confuse those numerous & ancient Ref 3 line stages with the Ref 3 phono stage he (presumably) wants. There are a couple Ref 3SE phonos - 1 priced way above market, the other replicated on a few sites (TMR) and still a bit above market. There’s 1 Ref 2SE phono in Canada. And there’s 1 Ref 6 line stage (which actually used to be mine - nice unit). Definitely no glut of cut-rate units in those three recent-ish models. If you go back to the much older models (like Ref 3 line stage), yeah you could consider that a glut, but it's more understandable. 

These threads are really just lightning rods to bring out the "I don't like Audio Research" guys 😅

We'll see another one, same purported topic, in a few months at most. 

Possibly, but at least some of us are business people with a lifetime of experience analyzing business financial situations including receiverships, so it's second nature.  No trust fund babies here.

@jetter  The financial geniuses in these forums already had their fun back in the May / June timeframe. Besides reporting some rote facts of the receivership, which did indeed look very bad, the speculation was generally inaccurate and none predicted the actual (happy) outcome. All it did was rile up needless panic. And now here we are again for some reason. 

Just had ARC repair my new 150SE under warranty... and... the service was excellent and very responsive! 

@bassdude  That's fantastic! I've heard out-of-warranty repairs currently have a long queue (~ 6 months). But in-warranty repairs are another ball of wax. Upgrades (e.g. 6 to 6SE) are also processing very efficiently, much more so than before. It's absolutely sensible for the business to prioritize these over out-of-warranty service, while not cutting off the latter. Their product history goes back decades! And many other high-end boutique outfits will also make you wait months for repair, in warranty or not - they just don't have it listed as explicitly.