Kodac wrote: ARC designs are compromised and not state of the art. Overpriced for what you get. See video for the anatomy of their flagship mono blocks.
OCD Guy /11Stereo Atlanta is a NAT dealer. Upstart rival. You always pick a fight with the biggest kid when you want to make a name for yourself.
What I am buying when I buy ARC gear is proven research converted into field tested technology. Nobody has the power transformer technology ARC has. It's proprietary and as my repairman says "has some magic in it". Anybody can build a frame, buy some good quality caps, resistors, tubes, etc. and solder them together.. But what combo creates what voice? There is where the years and years of laboratory work pay off.
I agree that the Ref 750s were overpriced at retail. So what? Buy a used set for $15K. They are readily available and flat out awesome if you like clean volume. Moreover they weren't priced for poor guys. Really wealthy men don't flinch at 85K for amps. I have a friend who puts $26,000 of diesel in his 170' boat for a Saturday cruise to Charleston for dinner and back. That's not counting the crew of 4, the fine wine he serves, the boat itself, the insurance, maintenance etc. It's an $85,000 Saturday- which is no big deal to him. There are LOTS of guys with that kind of bank. More than you can imagine.
You get the point: Cost of luxury goods are relative to the will of the spender. ARC sold a blue Jillion of those Ref 750s. Ditto the Ref 600s, and the latest (10 years old now) Ref 250s. 70% of their sales were overseas! You can get a Ref 75 for 4K, a Ref 250 for 10K, and a ref 750 for 15K pretty easily these days. Add a Ref 5SE and you have the core of a system that will rival almost anything sold today- for very little money.
This begs a question: Why is resale so low compared to original MSRP? The answer may surprise you. Rich men don't spend much time quibbling over rounding errors when they trade in or trade up. Most of the truly wealthy guys I know call up their dealer and say "come get my LS 460 and bring me an LS 500L in the morning" They don't trot out with their calculator and checkbook haggling like an rug merchant at at bazaar. The bill goes to their family office and gets examined, verified and paid. If the dealer gouges him his office manager calls them up and explains that if this isn't fixed Daddy Warbucks and all his 300 golfing, sailing, club buddies will never buy from Mr. Greedydealer again. Presto! the invoice changes. Big Daddy's golf outing isn't interrupted so he's happy, the family office gang is proud of protecting the cash well, and the dealer has some used equipment to move for quick cash.
