Price Increase

[W9TR]

Under Fine Sounds there was a move to consolidate electrical and mechanical component purchases with McIntosh to gain economies of scale. The idea was to save money on component buys and keep prices stable. It never really took off for a lot of reasons.

Audio Research has always been and remains a very small boutique company with limited resources. For example they outsourced their digital designs to a friend and co-worker of mine. He is a great engineer who really knows his stuff. But they couldn’t afford to (or chose not to) hire him full time.

I don’t know what they are doing today as I moved from Minneapolis 5 years ago.

I wish them nothing but the best!

Tom

[tima]

Two losses: Livio Cucuzza, Italian industrial designer, whom ARC most likely won't miss and Ward Fiebiger, ARC's Managing Director of Engineering and Bill Johnson's right-hand-man, whom they miss very much. Ties to the original innovative company grow more tenuous with time. There are great people still with the company, Dave Gordon and Warren Gehl to name two. Appearance and user interface may change with time and someone's perceived need to be 'current', but the key. imo, is for ARC to hold on to their sonic heritage.

[W9TR]

Ward is sorely missed. May he Rest In Peace.

[lem321]

Originally Posted by tima

Two losses: Livio Cucuzza, Italian industrial designer, whom ARC most likely won't miss and Ward Fiebiger, ARC's Managing Director of Engineering and Bill Johnson's right-hand-man, whom they miss very much. Ties to the original innovative company grow more tenuous with time. There are great people still with the company, Dave Gordon and Warren Gehl to name two. Appearance and user interface may change with time and someone's perceived need to be 'current', but the key. imo, is for ARC to hold on to their sonic heritage.

Livio Cucuzza's redesign of ARC's classic "laboratory" look in their recent products was not universally praised although I kind of grew to admire his design choices. Are there other reasons you feel "ARC most likely won't miss (him)"? Could not agree with you more regarding ARC's need to retain their sonic heritage.

[triode12]

Originally Posted by lem321

Livio Cucuzza's redesign of ARC's classic "laboratory" look in their recent products was not universally praised although I kind of grew to admire his design choices. Are there other reasons you feel "ARC most likely won't miss (him)"? Could not agree with you more regarding ARC's need to retain their sonic heritage.

No offence meant to Livio, I am sure he is a nice chap in real life but I didn't like his new aesthetics and the subsequent lowering of material quality by ARC - flimsier sheet metal and cheaper binding posts. I hope they go back to the Lab look and beefier sheet metal for their new products.

[djcxxx]

The circuit designs are quite good, the sonic quality of the 160S and 6SE is superb, but the external design and materials need improvement. A small item, the ARC logo on the new equipment is unreadable. A larger logo up front and deletion of the numerous case logos would make more sense. The components could have been manufactured by anonymous from a distance. The meters really don’t work properly and are unequally illuminated. Return to updated analog meters or scrap the meters altogether. The front panels are thicker than they appear but the detail work gives the impression they are thin and flimsy. Return to the previous panel thickness and materials. The simplest route for ARC to take is to lightly refresh the old industrial design and adapt it to the new components. Existing units could also be returned to the fold as it were at cost to customer, naturally.

[metaphacts]

From an ARC post on the web
·
"Over the past few months, Audio Research has migrated the manufacturing of our GhostMeter™ into our factory. We made this decision to better control quality and production flow. In this photo, Barry is assembling a meter for a Ref 160M. The process is painstaking; each meter requires 2 hours to complete in our purpose-built meter room, designed to reduce airborne particulates."

[2fastdriving]

I didn't like the lab gear look, but I didn't like the Galileo stuff when Livio started working his magic. However, I grew to love it, and now I'd never want to go back. I hope they keep the current look (and meters!). It's just the right amount of "bling" without looking gaudy. And I don't think they are using cheap sheet metal any more than before...I used to have the Ref75 and it is just a cheap metal box with a nice faceplate. The newer stuff is at least as good (solid) as that!

[daveyf]

Like a lot of companies in the high end, it seems ARC believes that the path for survival lies with being able to sell less gear and at ever spiraling prices. Thereby maximizing profit per unit sale. There is a problem with this approach, IMO. That problem is shown in any number of fields where manufacturers of boutique gear followed this business plan--to their demise. The problem rears its head when the customer base has shrunk to such an extent that the number left is too small to support the business...This usually comes about because the cost to value equation is so out of balance that the customer base fails to the see the value anymore...!!
IMHO, we will be seeing a lot of this very real customer reserve in the high end industry in the very near future ( maybe we already are, and the manufacturers have not cottoned on to it yet??)

[cleeds]

Originally Posted by daveyf

Like a lot of companies in the high end, it seems ARC believes that the path for survival lies with being able to sell less gear and at ever spiraling prices ...

What makes you think that's ARC's plan? ARC equipment has always been pricey for its time.