audio research sells out good or bad ?

Very sad indeed. Look what happened to Aragon when Klipsch bought them out. Same deal when Saul sold Marantz and Fisher sold out to Sanyo. Anyway I'm not suggesting that Klipsch is a bad company but buy-outs in audio don't usually result in better new products for the consumer especially since their original designers are not included in the sale. One exception comes to mind where McCormack audio was bought out by Conrad Johnson and CJ kept on Steve McCormack as the principle designer of McCormack audio products, a very excellent marriage of two well respected companies and the results speak for themselves!

My wife, who is an executive at a major bank, very quickly pointed out the sale to an investment firm is not necessarily a bad thing. Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) is a good example of investment firm that very, very carefully chooses good companies to invest in and keeps the team in place that made the company worth buying in the first place. Sure, we can all try to look into the crystal ball and predict, but I don't think I'd be afraid to buy ARC just because of this.

To all the naysayers in this thread ... take it from me, the employees at ARC are totally dedicated people. The new "owner" is leaving them alone to continue producing that great ARC gear. The attitude of the new owner is (In an Italian accent): "Hey, you guys know what you're doing, so just keep doing it." Sales are going really well, new equipment is on the horizon, and the service will remain great too. Personally, I think we can all continue to enjoy ARC gear for a very long time.