Audio Research in Receivership.

@randybrinkman: Some ARC owners get defensive about their favorite brand of electronics, but your experience is not atypical. The ARC decision to not fuse their output tubes---using :"sacrificial" parts in their place---leads to amp repairs being required every time a tube goes bad. And output tubes in ARC amps going bad is a frequent occurrence (1,000 hours in typical); the tubes are driven hard. That amplifier design is akin to building a car which, when a tire blows, the car's suspension is taken out with it.

Here's what ARC stands for now: "AS Receivership Continues" Now that's not funny because it's probably true!

It is true.  There are two pending ARC legal cases; one is a collection action by the secured bank lender and the other is a state court receivership under which the court appointed receiver is trying to sell the company as a going concern.  On May 22 the court granted the receiver a stay of all creditor legal actions, including the bank's, through August 1 to give the receiver more time to try to get a deal done. As of this writing, nothing had been filed since then in either case so there is no deal yet.  The next hearing in the receivership case is scheduled for June 20.

The end of an era. As the product cost increased over the generations I never saw the value increasing like companies such as Accuphase or post Alpine Luxman. Both of these companies, from what I saw bettered their best of the lines while modestly increasing the lowest all the while increasing their MSRP. As long as the lower end product quality does not slip tremendously all will be well :)