Audio Research in Receivership.


Papers were filed on Friday. Some say AR’s doors are closed for business. 

aberyclark

I’ve had an AR VSI 60 for 10 or 12 years. It can be a touch cold, but it’s transparent, 3D, and has strong and fast bass compared to other tube amps (in my experience.)

I’m so gun shy from the all the problems with this amp over the years, I rarely hook it up. It’s expensive to get repaired and KT120s are hard to come by these days.

I didn’t even consider Audio Research, before I bought a Primaluna EVO 300 last year. If a tube goes bad with that amp, a light comes on. If a tube goes bad on the AR, the amp burns up internal parts that have to be replaced.

This is my second Primaluna, I have an original Dialogue Premium that’s never had any issues. The AR sounds a little more HiFi, but I trust the primalunas and enjoy rolling tubes.

There has to be lots of people out there with similar stories. My VSI 60 wasn’t designed to be dependable. (My opinion) That’s not a recipe for success.

 

@randybrinkman: Some ARC owners get defensive about their favorite brand of electronics, but your experience is not atypical. The ARC decision to not fuse their output tubes---using :"sacrificial" parts in their place---leads to amp repairs being required every time a tube goes bad. And output tubes in ARC amps going bad is a frequent occurrence (1,000 hours in typical); the tubes are driven hard. That amplifier design is akin to building a car which, when a tire blows, the car's suspension is taken out with it.

Here's what ARC stands for now: "AS Receivership Continues" Now that's not funny because it's probably true!

It is true.  There are two pending ARC legal cases; one is a collection action by the secured bank lender and the other is a state court receivership under which the court appointed receiver is trying to sell the company as a going concern.  On May 22 the court granted the receiver a stay of all creditor legal actions, including the bank's, through August 1 to give the receiver more time to try to get a deal done. As of this writing, nothing had been filed since then in either case so there is no deal yet.  The next hearing in the receivership case is scheduled for June 20.