Audio Research Owners Worried?

It’s like a bunch of old Crows chattering. 

Just in case anyone missed this posting about Audio Research:

Audio Research voluntarily agreed to assign its assets to a receiver, Lighthouse
Management Group, Inc, on April 4th . We want you to understand what that means and
how it affects our daily operations.
Audio Research has been operating since the assignment was filed almost four weeks
ago, ten days before the AXPONA show where our VP of Sales (Allan Haggar) worked
with our dealer Quintessence Audio, which featured a statement system including Ref 10,
Ref Phono10, and Ref 160M MkII amps.
Little has changed outwardly. Audio Research remains staffed with Greg and Evan
answering questions and assisting owners via email and on the phone; the service
department continues repairing products; production is building new products and
performing updates; our parts inventory has been good and we continue to receive parts
shipments; our sales department continues to accept product orders, and our shipping
department continues shipping parts and product orders along with completed service
units.
Dave Gordon gave our Philippine distributor a tour of the facilities on April 26, where he
and his wife were able to meet everyone, see everything going on, and listen to music in
the sound room. The tour had been scheduled in March and did not need to be
cancelled or postponed.
Trent Suggs was relieved of control of Audio Research and we have been working with
individuals to purchase the company: we expect to have a new owner very soon. There
will be continuity as production, engineering, purchasing, service, and critical personnel
will remain working for Audio Research. Including Warren Gehl.
We just turned 53 in April and we look forward to continuing to provide the finest high
performance audio products, service and support to our loyal customers, dealers and
distributors.

 

Dont think ARC would have had a room at Axpona if they thought their demise was near. They're still "auditioning" new dealers for their products as well.

Scuttlebutt at WBF from a writer at Absolute Sound is that there are offers on the table to buy ARC out of receivership. Time will tell and if it is private equity look for a lot of streamlining to happen. 

#adsell

How do you explain the 20+ pieces of ARC gear that they will no longer service or have parts for??

AR gear is simple to work on, a very minimalist design and lay out, I would not fear their demise, that is the beauty of tube gear. Easy to understand circuits and ready parts supply. 

I tend to believe AR will survive but I would not send anything to them for update until the dust settles. There is more than one report of long waits on repairs and upgrades. 

@tattooedtrackman 

 

👍

Not Worried. I just bought the REF 750s. I have the REF6 , gonna send it in next week for an upgrade to the 6SE.  👍👊👊

Well spoken ghdprentice. 

I believe ARC’s sales were $71M last year (?). They are not bankrupt, but in receivership. With rising tube costs, inflation, interest rates, and now a downturn in the economy this creates pressure on a new owner who likely had to use debt to help buy the company. I am sure it put strain on cash. I am sure the company will survive.

I have communicated with Trent over the last couple years. He is a really hard working, down to earth owner who had a vision to improve the company beyond the already great company it is. The changes I have seen have been phenomenal. The perfect storm of exogenous events have consorted to creat this cash problem. This is one of the downsides of capitalism, cash flow.  

Personally, as I said before, I would unhesitatingly purchase ARC stuff. In over 30 years I have never experienced a failure or experienced better sounding gear.

@samzx12

Uhh....Not nervous. Sold my LS28 😎

@onhwy61 You are correct. Which is why I said someone at the factory and closed their doors for good...I should have added..an authorized person. 

@onhwy61  possible but it depends on who purchases the company.  

Would not the schematics be part of the intellectual property acquired by the new owners or the liquidators?  For an unauthorized person to release this information would be a form of theft.

@daveyf do far the only unit we could not repair was the bash sub amp but we could have built one for the client that would have been better. We have found ways to repair without schematics and rarely use them if at all.  Like I mentioned by partner has a master's degree in electronics design so he usually can fix, repair, modify most anything

 

@bigkidz You state that the only time one needs a schematic is when the part (pat sic) values are not marked. While this is correct, that occurrence is more than common, particularly it would seem on most typical high end gear. IMO, the more boutique the manufacturer, the more likely this was a factor.

I have discussed this with several techs that I know, they think that without a schematic and/or with knowledge of the part value, the piece basically becomes a boat anchor! To that, as a member stated above, some parts are more than ’unusual’ ( ala the ghost display of the new ARC amps). If that fails, and no one has a source for parts..same result...boat anchor. Hopefully before closing their doors for good ( which I hope they do NOT have to do), someone at the factory will have the decency to let the schematics go public and also the other parts supply vendors.

Dealers were notified last week.  Most companies fail because of sales. How many units do you think they were selling?  The high end market as we know it is almost completely gone. Counterpoint sold 10,000 units and failed.  Look at the prices of some equipment compared to upgrading those units. Much better to upgrade then to buy new.  That's why we do repairs and upgrades and modifications. The values may drop but the units can be repaired.  Another company may buy them but there is no guarantee they will continue on especially with passion.

FYI proprietary parts do not always mean what you think they are.  Only time we need a schematic is when the pat values are not marked.  My partner has a Masters Degree in electronic design and to date he has been able to repair most anything sent to us for repair.  Designs are not new, and circuits can be repaired. 

I would not be concerned as we can repair and upgrade your ARC equipment and are way more reasonable then ARC was.

 

 

To my way of thinking, I think the only thing an ARC owner would have to worry about are proprietary parts. For example, early CD players and Analogue Modules that you can't get anymore. And likely the new ghost displays. With the schematics however, I suspect a good tech would be able to troubleshoot and repair just about anything.

When the PS went on my SP3a a while back, I found a good shop in OR who did a really nice job on it. 

I feel for their longtime employees, vendors and suppliers though. 

I read someplace (Fb?) that their CEO was "relieved of his duties". 

Happy (and cautious) listening...

There are multiple threads going around indicating that Audio Research has filed for bankruptcy. 

RHG3 did you have your LS28 upgraded to the SE or buy it as an SE? Curious to know the differences between both?

Not worried. I’ve owned only ARC amps and pre-amps since ‘87. I currently own a Ref75SE and a LS28SE. I’ve always had an excellent (albeit expensive) experiences with ARC service and ARC authorized service centers. 

I think it’s very likely that they will continue in some form or another. I might not buy any more gear from them but there’s a lot of money to be made on the service side. I’m confident that service will continue even if it’s only by the authorized service centers.

Anyone who is selling their ARC gear on this news probably did the same with their 401k when the marked tanked. Patience is a virtue.

I own all Audio Research Reference gear. I am not worried in the least. If I was thinking about buying another piece of ARC gear I would buy it immediately. I have never had a failure in owning one or more components over 40 years.

@fsonicsmith1 Sorry to hear of your issues with ARC. I do remember in the WZJ days, the amps came with a schematic as part of the instruction manual. I started a thread about schematics and the varying co-operation of companies to supply them, or not, a while back. The fact that some companies want to hold back on supplying the schematic to one of their customers is IMHO, somewhat of a disgrace. Yes, I understand and comprehend the reasoning behind that, but it doesn’t sit well with me!

Audio Research voluntarily agreed to assign its assets to a receiver, Lighthouse

Management Group, Inc, on April 4th. We want you to understand what that means and

how it affects our daily operations.

Audio Research has been operating since the assignment was filed almost four weeks

ago, ten days before the AXPONA show where our VP of Sales (Allan Haggar) worked

with our dealer Quintessence Audio, which featured a statement system including Ref 10,

Ref Phono10, and Ref 160M MkII amps.

Little has changed outwardly. Audio Research remains staffed with Greg and Evan

answering questions and assisting owners via email and on the phone; the service

department continues repairing products; production is building new products and

performing updates; our parts inventory has been good and we continue to receive parts

shipments; our sales department continues to accept product orders, and our shipping

department continues shipping parts and product orders along with completed service

units.

Dave Gordon gave our Philippine distributor a tour of the facilities on April 26, where he

and his wife were able to meet everyone, see everything going on, and listen to music in

the sound room. The tour had been scheduled in March and did not need to be

cancelled or postponed.

Trent Suggs was relieved of control of Audio Research and we have been working with

individuals to purchase the company: we expect to have a new owner very soon. There

will be continuity as production, engineering, purchasing, service, and critical personnel

will remain working for Audio Research. Including Warren Gehl.

We just turned 53 in April and we look forward to continuing to provide the finest high

performance audio products, service and support to our loyal customers, dealers and distributors. 

Anyone heavily invested in ARC gear who says "no" is either quite well-off or lying. 
When my Ref 150 SE blew up a year ago I tried to send it in for repairs and was told that they were so backed up with repairs that I would need to join a wait-list. I did and to this day they have never gotten back to me. In the meantime I took the amp in to a very talented local tech. He told me he needed a schematic. What followed was a pretty laughable see-saw of being told "yes, we will get you a schematic" with "who told you that? We don't provide schematics". ARC eventually sent one to my tech and he repaired my amp. It sounds great. But what if they had shut their doors?

See the other thread - I just posted a message that was posted on WhatsBestForum by someone associated with the company

@daveyf agreed I reached out to Gon central control to ask them to do just that. 

Maybe join this up to the receivership thread already running?

Oddiofyl I would tend to agree with you but have you seen Audiomart listing geez.  

I've needed help from OEMs and got it...let me count up.... yep that's it...zero times.

It’s tough times for makers of tube gear no doubt. I got many years of enjoyment from ARC gear and am exceedingly grateful for that.  Iconic stuff!

I'm sure somebody will aquire them,  I would be a little nervous if I had something in for repair or on order .  I would be surprised to see them actually cease to exist ,  big name in audio.