Brand Longevity

Zd-542,

I should of not said boutique brands. I meant I do not like to buy products from companies that are a one man band. Not because the products aren't good (Sometimes they are better than the mainstream gear)It's because if that designer gets hit by a bus more than likely the company won't be around anymore and I can't afford to get stuck with a 10k to 20k preamp that can't be serviced or no parts are available.

With the passing of Brian Cheney recently, got me thinking that most of these company founders are getting up there. Then again, so are their customers. The next generation of audio might be more about the software than the hardware.

I still have one old ARC amp that I bought new in the mid-70's and quite a bit of old Quad gear, both electronics as well as speakers. All of it can be readily repaired, either by the factory (ARC, which even sent me new barrier strip terminals and sheet metal screws for the tube cage) or aftermarket (Quad, notably, has a number of non-affiliated repair centers here in the US). I've also owned the odd piece of McIntosh gear over the years and still use their gear for my home theatre. And though McIntosh is apparently thriving, which is good, there's that shop that resells Mc gear- Classic Audio, i think it is called, that also has a good reputation- I've bought things from them over the years as well, with nary a problem and assume they do repairs as well.
The 'one man band' gear is an issue- I have several pieces in my main system that are from such manufacturers- Lamm, Allnic, etc. It is a fair question. I don't trade in gear constantly, and if I like a piece, I will live with it for a long time. Presumably, a competent repair tech could fix it- interestingly, in the case of Allnic, there is such a shop near Philadelphia that is authorized by Allnic. Lamm is another matter since as far as I know, he doesn't publish any schematics and doesn't authorize anyone to repair his gear. That said, I'd imagine a competent tech could figure it out. I was concerned about correct matching of the big tubes on my ML 2, because one serves as a power tube and the other for voltage regulation. Lamm cautions against switching those tubes- and claims that the replacements he supplies are matched to each amp.

Here is the link to the McIntosh story on CBS....in case you missed it:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57564456/mcintosh-made-in-the-u.s.a/

I liked the old days when you could call Leonard at Audio research and ask him a question. The last couple times I called you had to leave a message and hoped they would call back. If ARC doesn't stay consistent with their service I think they will lose customers. Even though I really like their gear I would not stay loyal to them if their customer service goes down hill.