audio research sells out good or bad ?

It doesn't sound like a good thing to me. I agree that when big suits are watching the bottom line, sonics and service tend to be the first cuts.
Mondial selling the Aragon line to Klipsch, Classe selling to B&W, and Madrigal selling the Mark Levinson line to Harmon International are prime examples.
As with all things in life though, when one door closes, another door opens. Who knows, maybe this will help some of the new smaller manufacturers like Dodd, Audio Horizons, Doshi, and others.

It will be interesting to see what effect this has on the Audio Research products on the used market.

Cheers,
John

For me at least, the high end is about passion and vision by a designer with a mission, or a small committed group (cottage industry? even the "big" ones are pretty small). No matter what they say, I doubt ARC will ever be the same again (for good or bad). I know I won't feel the same about them; which does not mean they won't be terribly successful.

they lasted longer than most...mac still rules, but they are still made in ny.

ARC is one of the best run companies and I hope they maintain the level of customer service. The reality is while we love two channel audio they might not be able to survive into the future without some synergy with home theater and high end loudspeakers and the added worldwide distribution into the very profitable overseas markets could be great for them. Our gear is a bargin with the tanking dollar.

Mr. Tiger,

In my opinion Mac has never been better, after all these years I went out and bought some. I am very pleased and you won't be seeing any of my Mac gear for sale on Audiogon, any time soon.

Whats wrong with McIntosh, since they were taken over the people involved are the same. Yes some have retired. I think the components they make sound way better than the past and the cabinets the components are in look better and are made better.