Audio Research in Receivership.

@4afsanakhan I have been led to believe that sales wasn’t the problem, it was top end overhead and debt service. Oh, and there isnt a viable business model building gear in America for the market segment you described above. The dealer network, the loyal dealer network, isn’t built to sell affordable to the masses boxes. It isn’t worth the trouble and doesn’t align with the brand equity.

@4afsanakhan I think that’s what they were trying to do with the new 50 series.

@ghasley, if you will pardon my saying so, sales is always the problem. One would have to think that the requisite number of sales to service the debt, then generate a working profit, was not attained, likely over a period of years. The challenge for ‘high-end’ companies is finding enough wealthy customers with sufficient disposable income to support the increasingly stratospheric pricing structure. Audio Research must have had difficulty in appealing to enough of these customers.

Example of a successful brand bridging the gap; Technics (by Panasonic).

Let us qualify affordable. I did not intend to say generic lower end hifi, but more upper tier that is still affordable by ‘the masses’ as you put it. Let’s take another example, Devialet. Their Expert Pro 220 offers a decent enough streamer compatible with Qobuz, Apple Music, Spotify etc., a terrific DAC, a superb amp / preamp, and to crown it off, a truely superb phono stage. All this for 10k. Are there better, yes. Are they 20k 30k 40k and more better, decidedly not. Iconic brands such as Audio Research, McIntosh, Conrad Johnson, and Mark Levinson are experiencing stiff competition from European and Asian brands. The question is how many can hang on if the uber high-end market shrinks further?

I don't know why their amps look like a cheap Kenmore oven. For this much money, couldn't they look nice(r)?

I know, it's subjective mostly, the sound matters a 50 times more

@Mr_Bill, thanks for the heads up! Indeed, the 50 series looks fascinating and in my opinion the right product to go to market with. Next, great marketing to reach Millennials with extra cash to get their first really nice system. If I was in product development for ARC, I would have included a high quality DAC/ streamer / phono stage for an extra 2k rounding it out to around 5.5k. Its just about affordable enough for younger folks with moderately decent disposable income and would represent a far larger market with which to drive sales. 
 

ARC should not give up, but go all in on this one more time - forget uber high-end focus for the immediate present.