To circle back around to the OP's original thoughts - tangentially, at least - I remember having several fruitful discussions with a few audio makers themselves, including Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen, Steve Deckert of Decware, and Clayton Shaw of Spatial, about products, audio advice and other stuff. When in doubt, call. Talk with someone. People are people.
What is up with Audio Research during the pandemic?
I ordered a set of tubes for my ARC Ref 3 line stage on May 4, 2020. So far, no tubes, no tracking number, and no contact initiated by ARC. I did get an email response last week from them saying that they were "... working on getting caught up in the shipping department and have not yet shipped your tubes." This post is not to hassle ARC in the midst of a crisis. My hope is that all there are safe and well. Many "non-essential" businesses are struggling and frankly, I want to do all I can to support them. Music has been a wonderful source of comfort and enjoyment for me, now more than ever. I can wait, but I would feel better if I knew that the ARC folks were doing OK.