Manufacturers past their heyday

Much of the 'old line' of manufacturers have slouched into somewhat blah offerings....and,spread thinner, most lose the coherency that created their name & rep....

MBL?  Probably lovely, but selling the family into slavery and you may have the down on it/them....

Spouse wouldn't be thrilled about the slavery thing, no cute kids to please the peds....end up in EMERG will multiple ice knife wounds....

I'll stick with what appears to be 'junk'.....;)

In resent years I have ventured into the Linn camp and very happy I did. Both my dealer and Linn have been great.

One of my all time favorites, which I was not able to buy at the time as I was still in collage, was a few stack Cello system. I had an opportunity to speak with Mark Levinson a few times and that was quite the conversation. There are some great offerings out on the market right now, but very expensive and if it broke it would be difficult to repair.

Some other brands that were big in the day were Phase Linear, Threshold, Magnepan, Dual, Nakamichi and Revox. All cool stuff. 

I really like audio companies with good heritage and stay true to their vision. Their products always seem to sound best to me. 

It's true that Ayre has a lower profile than it used to. Probably since the founder died.

true that since charlie h passed, ayre has taken a lower profile, at least in print and online advertising

that said, i currently own the following from ayre, c-j and arc

ayre -- p5xe, codex, k5xe mp
c-j -- et7-2, et5, prem16ls2
arc -- ref 3, ref 75, ref 110, 100.2, vt60, v70, vt100-2

not to mention over a dozen other items from them that i have since sold

over the past 10 years, each and every time i have called or contacted these companies for assistance, or just a question, they have been responsive and helpful - their gear is excellent, well designed and built, produce superb sound -- when an item has needed service or support or just a health check, they have been responsive and solved the problem efficiently and at a fair price, even during covid

i don’t feel they cut corners, lack integrity, or have diluted their customer service mindset, they have never let me down - in the case of my ref110, i told greg christensen that the cooling fans were audible with quiet music, he and i worked together and he sent me newer fans spec’d for a later version, which ran silently

i have no affiliation to these companies other than being a customer, and i turn on their gear on a regular basis and enjoy the music

maybe these companies are past their heydey as the hot thing, social media darlings... but high standards in product quality and customer care persist, and pleased and appreciative owners like myself abound