Re the point about asymmetry in market presence between European & US brands: I live in Scotland and spent the last several months trying to audition (and hopefully buy) an ARC amplifier. I approached all the listed dealers within several hours drive - few responded, and all who did simply tried to sell me other brands.

I approached the UK distributor directly - no response. I’ve no bought an Octave (German) and am very pleased with it. The self-inflicted idiocy of Brexit shouldn’t have impacted shipping from the US, so I’m going to just guess at a combo of the factory being unable to ship product, plus the lazy arrogance of much of the UK’s ‘high end’ dealers and distributors.

From The Absolute Sound: Audio Research Corporation Is Dead! Long Live the New Restructured Audio Research Corporation!

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audio-research-corporation-is-dead-long-live-the-new-restructured-audio-research-corporation/?mc_cid=57e827209c&mc_eid=dbc9896170

I totally agree with @4afsanakhan . This isn't 45 years ago. There are many tempting foreign and domestic brands, and only so many buyers.

Business is business, brand is brand,and owner is owner. As long as the brand is on the market, it is ok for most of us. The word " Dead"  at this moment is really their opinions and I don't agree with.

So basically, it looks like ARC is probably going to be fine after a blip.

Too many people speculated way too hard with NO useful knowledge on this situation. The guys who were asserting "ARC is closed for business" should be considered for bans.