Audio Research in Receivership.

Since the market for high end gear is world wide, and not just limited to a certain demographic and location, that would seem to be what has been holding up the industry. 

However, ARC has some serious competition due to this world wide market, more so than ever before in the past. When ARC was in their heyday ( which IMO was in the mid 80's to the late 90's), they had the US market far more to themselves than today, and they had a decent exposure in Europe as well. This situation applies to many other well known high end US audio companies today, which makes me question who is going down next, unfortunately. It would seem that many of these US companies have been heavily relying on the far east market, question is for how long can that continue?

The number of US brands at European dealers today is negligible, the opposite of true about European brands at US dealers.

I can see how ARC appeals to the older generation and a very wealthy segment of it, and how other, mostly Scandinavian brands figured out the formula to find a much broader audience.

Way back in the late 90s an iconic German sport car manufacturer realized they couldn't survive making only two seater sports car.  They needed to make a vehicle that had mass appeal and that was the genesis of the Porsche SUV.  SUV models now account for 63% of Porsche sales.

ARC needs to come up with products that have mass appeal if they wish to survive long term.  They need to expand beyond their niche while still keeping their existing customer base.  A difficult task, but not impossible.

@grislybutter     A billion bucks of speaker sales last year. So, in toto, about 5 pairs each of Magico M9s and Wilson Chronosonics then.

ARC isn’t set up to be a high-volume manufacturer.  They’re a premium brand that plays in the higher end.  Full stop.  They are not Sony.  And there is plenty of room for audio manufacturers in that space and plenty are doing well.  This strikes of mismanagement to me, which leaves me hopeful that someone who understands the luxury goods market can rescue this iconic company assuming they find the right buyer.  I’m hopeful and optimistic that there’s enough brand equity and concerned long-term employees that they’ll find the right solution and soldier on.