2. amps-preamps
  3. 1399557710

Service from Audio Research

I recently brought a pair of ARC Reference 250 from a authorized dealer in Hong Kong. After one week, I noticed one of the mono blocks has problem turning on once it was switched off. It took at least a few hours, sometimes overnight before it can be turn on again.

The amp has been returned to the dealer for more one week and they have no idea what goes wrong. I tried to email to service@audioresearch.com asking for help. They don't even bother to reply. This is very disappointing and bad after sale service.

I wonder if any member has similar experience with ARC?
tli
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Stephanovitch ... I have no information about ARC's finances and cannot validate or dispute anything you just posted. All I can say is that I hope you are misinformed.

When I was a young'in back in the 70s, ARC stood for something ... uncompromised quality. It would pain me to learn that a new generation of young turks denigrated a great company.
stefanovitch
64 posts
 
I do not want to push the edge, but Kalvin Dahl is repsosible for service calls.

He said that my products are around 30 years old and the company is doing the best to keep those parts avaialble.

Due to the fact the costs for the inventory for all of their products to high they stopped selling and producing parts mianly for the older models.

The volume pot for the SP series of preamps is no longer available as well.

The list is countless!

Audio Research stood for the worlds best, but they are no longer the company they were back before.
dchang1981
66 posts
 
Sad to hear, like my ARC stuff, planned to keep it forever and just get it serviced. Guess that's not gonna happen
knghifi
1,668 posts
 
Audio Research was bankrupt and was sold to the Fine Sounds Group. Bill Johnsons goal was always to keep parts available no matter when their amps were designed, but due to the fact Bill Johnson is no longer there and they were also in heay debut with the Fine Sounds Group Audio Research stopped selling spare parts mainly for equipment designed by Bill Johnson.
Well, maybe the GOAL contributed to the bankruptcy? When you have dead capital tied up with low ROI, company cannot survive.

I'm glad ARC is now run as a company so they can continue releasing excellent products. Passion alone doesn't pay the bills.

Companies have to evolve and adapt to changing business environments. I'm not aware of any successful companies having the same operation as 30 years ago? Well maybe in land of oz.
More to discover