Audio Research in Receivership.

Very sorry to read about this.  The times they are a changing. 

Nothing is tragic or negative. Everyone is aging and at some point of life one may sometimes need retirement and rest.

Hopefully, this is a Chapter 11 ( re-organization) vs. Chapter 7 ( full liquidation and closure). However, it certainly looks like the latter. Apparently there is a long list of un-paid creditors!

With some luck, I am hoping that another entity will step in and keep them afloat..and alive. This company has made some truly excellent products over the years. Very sad to hear about their travails.

I own and love ARC but as I have said before, their decision to go all-in with the KT-150 was a mistake. Likely only one of fifty or more but still a mistake. The labor-intensive hand assembly of every circuit board and component here in the US did not help. Reported reliability issues had to hurt. As just one example, my Ref 150 SE which I purchased new in 2017 has a design problem with in-rush current on start-up. It is not a question of if, but when, as to the input fuse blowing and taking the board out with it. The successor 160M, 160S, and 80S implemented a relay-circuit with soft-start. A bit too late imho. It is my understanding they were tough on dealers with all types of rules and restrictions and their dealer network eroded as a result. It will be interesting to see that else gets revealed but as I said, I am sure it a widespread litany of problems. 

@fsonicsmith1 Going all- in with KT150’s was a mistake? IMO, this tube is pretty superior sounding ( depending on the circuit) to the older KT88’s, 6550’s and even the KT120’s. ARC was always looking for the way forward, which meant going to the latest tubes and designing around them.

OTOH, if ARC are continuing to have reliability issues, ( I was unaware of this), then that would indeed be an area of concern.