Great link you provided Tubegroover. This is about what I have heard, company is solid but is for sale for the right price and to the right people. |
THE DAC YOU USED IS ALSO 3/4 YEARS OLD,NOT THE SAME AS IN THE CD3. |
THE CD 2 AS A TRANSPORT IS WAY BELOW THE PERFORMANCE LEVEL OF THE NEW CD3. SO YOU SHOULD TRY THE CD3 FOR A TRUE COMPARSION. |
Check this out.
http://www.audiorevolution.com/news/0402/01.audioresearch.shtml |
I have good information that ARC is solid and doing fine. The rumors that the company is for sale have circulated for about five years now. No doubt that if the right buyer came along and offered the right money, it could be bought.
In this economy no high end manufacturer is rolling in the bucks, but my guess is that ARC will be around for a good while unless there is something going on that is hidden, even from the employees. |
I have owned ARC products since 1976/77 starting with the venerable D76A, followed by the D115 MKII and the VT 100 MKII. I have owned numerous preamps such as the SP6, SP9 MKI/II, the SP14, LS2B MKI/II and LS25 and PH2. I have dealt with ARC and Leonard on numerous occasions. The response and service have always been helpful, prompt and effective. I have never had a bad service experience with ARC. In fact, I had to ship my new VT100 MKII back to ARC for warranty repairs. Mr Gordon called me personally and sent me a hand written note. ARC shipped me a new amp overnight instead of repairing the previous amp.
I intend to continue using ARC gear as long as the company remains in business. |
the cd3 is very good
but it could have been better
ARC decided not to go with new upsampling for the machine
I've extensively demo'd a dac 3 and a cd2 against my EVS MIllenium II
no contest, the EVS 24/192 evs upsampler beats the ARC in every way and only cost $1050. tweakaudio.com
reviews at audioreview.com
arc missed the boat with no upsampling imho |
in response to Kiwi's remark regarding the cd3IT'S SO GOOD THAT IT'S BACKORDERED FOR 3 WEEKS ,GIVE IT AN AUDITION! |
They still seem to be alive! I made a phone call about two weeks ago from the number on their site. I am ordering a remote, so there are still live bodies there! |
I have eight pieces of Audio Research and I live in a remote area and talk to Leonard quite often about one thing or another, Always a lot of help, never is thier a problem getting a answer about electronics or wire products. You should call Leonard yourself and get the answers. |
yep...i've figured it out now. the situation is as Kiwi has described. the distributor/dealer must have been uncooperative as i did not buy the ARC amps from him.
thanks guys! |
Although I have a somewhat different opinion, I agree with "rwa" That your problem is more likely to be with your dealer than with ARC not calling back the dealer back. Even if ARC is haing problems with a dealer, if there's a customer that has a problem, they're going to take care of the customer. It's likely that your dealer/salesperson never called ARC at all. |
You better find a new dealer this one must be so bad that ARC wont take his calls. ARC is as solid as they come. |
I am a huge ARC fan and owner. And although all the above may be true, I think that ARC is in some serious trouble. They've decided not to participate in home theater(I'm not a home theater guy, however HT is driving the industry, I would say (at least)75% of all audio(video) sales are HT related. Also, they really missed out on developing the replacement of the very popular CD-2(CD-3 has just been released). Bad bussiness decisions have really hurt this legendary company. If they don't make better business decisions, they will not be around for very long. If this is true it will be a sad day indeed. |
Try Calling them yourself! They were great when I called & walked me through tube biasing on the phone for over 15 minutes. Plus they faxed me the manuals for the vintage pieces I bought . WOW ! And of course their equiptment sounds great ! |
thanks for the reassurance. |
I live only 5 minutes from ARC and have repeatedly gotten excellent service just as a walk-in customer. Each time I have needed a manual or parts kit, they are always right there to help me. When I took my VT130 in for service they had put it in a new box as the original box was starting to show its age....and they charged me nothing.
I just bought an older pair of Classic 150 amps that only had single-ended inputs. I called ARC, got Leonard on the phone, who said he would put a package of parts and paperwork together for me to convert the amps to balanced. And sure enough, everything was there for me the next morning. You can't beat that kind of service....and I was not a customer of a new product....and it was a $50 sale! So this tells me a lot about ARC. Contrary to other people and their unfortunate dealings with ARC, I have had just the opposite experiences.
We all have our favorite products from our favorite audio companies. Even then a product or 2 comes a long from that company that we do not really care for....and ARC is no different here. But ARC customer service has never been in question for me. Perhaps your dealer could not get ahold of the ARC staff due to the holiday. Give them a try next week. I am sure you will be satisfied.
John |
I was on the phone with them last Friday. They just upgraded and shipped my preamp. As far as I could tell, they are alive and well. |
