Audio Research in Receivership.

The high end market as we know it is almost completely gone.

Say what? Based on reports from the shows, it seems that "high-end" is carrying much of the load. And that would be consistent with broader economy, in which the middle-class is being killed (yet again), while the rich continue benefit from inflated assets.

Looking at the creditor list, like many on this forum, I know several of these people/companies. Some come as a surprise, some not so much. Nonetheless, the one’s that come as a surprise to me are not one’s that most would think would ever be a creditor of ARC.

@waytoomuchstuff 

Or, it could have just been a proper Swan Song for a company that’s been a major contributor to high end audio for generations?

I think it was a proper swan song for Trent...who was likely undercapitalized. ARC as a company and brand will come out the other side a healthy and viable business.

@bigkidz 

Dealers were notified last week.  Most companies fail because of sales. How many units do you think they were selling?  The high end market as we know it is almost completely gone. Counterpoint sold 10,000 units and failed.  Look at the prices of some equipment compared to upgrading those units. Much better to upgrade then to buy new.  That's why we do repairs and upgrades and modifications. The values may drop but the units can be repaired.  Another company may buy them but there is no guarantee they will continue on especially with passion.

I'm not sure your post indicates much knowledge or experience with buying and selling companies. You seem to be quite knowledgable and seem to have the perfect parts upgrade recommendation for virtually every piece of gear that gets mentioned on this forum. Mr. Johnson had his ups and downs with quality and working capital through the years and the quality of today's ARC gear far surpasses much of what is being currently built in the market.

The "high end is almost completely gone as we know it" may be a dead giveaway that you may not have a great deal of in depth knowledge or data on this topic. I speak to a number of top dealers frequently and while they will all agree that things have slowed down a bit from 2021, there are still many manufacturers for whom demand remains brisk and backlogs are still measured in 3-9 months to et something ordered today. Thats still quite healthy.

@rlstx 

Our HT integrator's sales mgr. just told me on Friday that 2 Chanel audio sales are tanking nationwide. HT is still doing okay, but the "listening room" reference system sales are way down.

Well then, it must be true! "Tanking"? whatever....

@ghasley we manufacture audio components so we are pretty much in tune to what goes on in the industry.  Know many reviewers, many distributers, companies, etc.   And yes we can fix repair upgrade built anything audio.  So we offer our assistance to everyone and have our listening room in northern NJ open to everyone. We are not dealers 

As we know from Dutch tulips to the U.S. stock market to bank runs, consumer expectation tends to outrun economic reality. I'm hearing signs of "two channel audio paradigm" panic. In this environment, how sensible is it to hoard one's pennies for that esoteric component whose mfr may go broke in six months; which one's heirs won't want; and which and one's executor will find no market to sell in? I mean limited-budget hobbyists like myself, not the gazillionaires whose $1.5M systems represent only pocket change and who inhabit a global oligarch economy immune from the policies or economies of nations.