Audio Research or Macintosh?

ARC has been bought by McIntosh years ago. Guess that tells how good ARC was doing with it’s products compared to Mac...

Please send me a review sample for 24 months to refresh my memory. :-) 

In general, ARC >>> Mc in SQ. My opinion only.
Parasound?? Hardly.

Also, ARC no longer owned by Mc if memory serves. 

Mc has almost infinitely more models though and hits every price point from budget to expensive. Also probably looks nicer and retains value better. Surely some will also prefer it for SQ, but not most esp if they listen side by side. My opinion only

I would never buy an ARC, too many horror stories about tubes failing and causing damage....  use anything but a tube purchased from them and take your chances.  

McIntosh is the more reliable brand without question.  I have owned a few McIntosh components over the years and never a problem.  I put some new lamps in my buddy's C26 and it cleaned up and sounded great....  still working and its 50 years old...  it appears it had a recap in the 90's but still.....

it is unfortunate that arc tube amps don’t implement best possible measures to deal with tube expiration...

but many many folks learn to manage it and feel the tradeoff is well worth it for the exemplary sound

for some others, not the case... it’s all good... the world keeps turning