MBL Insolvent

Of course the house sound of equipment varies greatly... so while it might be of the right quality and one does not  like the house sound. Also, there are differences in how well designs are executed among companies. But I would say the lie between mid tier components and audiophile (or maybe call it high end) at this point is around $10K and up per single function component or $15K and up for speakers. No, there is nothing absolute about this... just a generality. The higher you draw the line the safer the conclusion. 

@kerrybh 

"..Raises an interesting question though- I suspect we all agree with the wisdom of selling "affordable" gear, but what is that price point? Is it $1,000 speakers, $5,000? I don’t know, but an interesting question."

Yes. Absolutely, An important aspect is that an audiophile company cannot sell an inferior product. I have been in this for fifty years. Every time I have purchased and audiophile product, it has performed at a very noticeablely higher level... not subtle. Never subtle. If and audiophile company produces something that is mid-tier then their public image gets confused. Then communicating I have a Boulder amp... suddenly means nothing... your have to start asking if it is a consumer one or one of the good ones. 

It’s one thing to have a consumer company stretch up... but there is real danger in an audiophile company making products that are not audiophile grade. Let's not get hung up on the word audiophile... the bar that sets the great stuff from the good. 

@yesiam_a_pirate   "...A sad fact is that the 2 channel high end audiophile is aging out and dying off. The successor generation has little use for high end gear. "

I have heard this for forty years. Yet the proliferation of high end companies has been incredible. The population of audiophiles has always been very small. But it must be larger than ever to support all these companies. 

On the other hand, before the audiophile there was the short wave enthusiast. But, music is one of the most shared interests of people world wide... so, I'm thinking, not. 

@lalitk "...That may be true, but what seems to hurt many of these high-end audio companies in the long run is affordability...."

Correct. I am pretty sure that is exactly why Audio Research has just released their new affordable line. It has a name, but I don’t see it immediately. Some or all are under $10K. These are directed exactly at entry level. 

While that may seem like a lot of money. When I bought my first audiophile product in 1979 it was a Threshold s500 amp... in todays dollars it cost $20K or in 1979 dollars $5K. So, the new ARC amp is $2.5K in 1979 dollars half the Threshold cost in 1979. 

Another thought on the dilemma. Forty and fifty years ago, there was little budget competition in the field. There was no Schiit, Lumin, Dark Something, Cayin, PrimaLuna. These companies now supply the springboard. 

https://audioresearch.com/new_website/new-products-coming-in-june-2025/

Yes, it is very sad. But hopefully they will work their way out of it. Glad to hear in the mean time it is business as usual. 

An example of how these audio companies are small businesses run by folks that are passionate about audio and are not getting rich by their greed. Sonus Faber seems to have about 65 employees, MBL 50 employees and Audio Research about 50, Boulder around 20... Ayre is also small. These are small companies making small profits and one small misstep and they can easily go out of business.