MBL Insolvent

@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.