Audio research runs their tubes especially hard and they need to be replaced more frequently. And many say they sound like solid state.
I was close to buying one but it doesn’t work well with home theater due to heavy tubes use.
They were priced on the hi side. And now with all the dealers involved and reluctance by dealers to take trade-ins, used prices Will be very depressed. Long-term servicing a product is now a question. Someone pays $15,000 for A preamp and then 4 years from now something doesn’t work properly and then you worry about servicing and warranty it’s a death spiral it’s a financial mess nobody’s gonna wanna buy this company.
So happy I never bought one of these. And this is just the beginning for other hi-fi dealers and manufacturers. Financing costs are going a lot higher and 4 to 5% and even higher it’s very difficult to manage inventory