Sad news. They set the benchmark in the States with the SP-3 preamp. I owned a fair amount of their gear back in the day, stopping at the SP-10mkii preamp and a succession of their amps. W Z Johnson was a force in the industry- hard to get the line as a dealer-
They went through a number of different periods- from classic but very open sounding tubes to what I called their "white period" where the sound was drier, bleached, to the later Reference line which was very good. I stopped dealing with them in the '90s not for any reason other than that I changed directions. I still have my original Dual 75a that I bought new in 1975, awaiting a recap and retube (I have all the power tubes I bought from ARC 15 years ago). Still have some of the old literature showing prices with Magnepan- that was a big deal system back in the day- ARC electronics with the big Tympani panels.
I hope for the sake of their customers and the legacy of the brand that this gets turned around.