Final? ARC Chapter...

Hopefully ARC thrives and continues to expand its great product line.  In addition,  it would be nice if they could offer a more affordable model line like they used to so people can eventually move up the food chain.  

If anyone is interested in listening to an upgraded suite of ARC Ref CD9 and LS10/D240? PM me if you want to talk. These units are great examples of the classic ARC sound with transparency and musicality at the fore.

Good news. Mr. Cora is a good guy, and yes, I have always seen his products driven by Audio Research (although I read he used VAC gear at Axpona). 

We may see some AR equipments starting to rolling in Jay Audio’s house sometime next year?

I'd say ARC is a really high end Mid Fi. The build quality is outstanding on the older stuff. In the world of hand built gear It's a mass produced product. 

An ARC ex-employee told me the McIntosh days there were awful. Bad morale and boring non-innovation with lots of re-branding.

It was really WZ Johnson's baby and when he got too ill to work the momentum slowed and so did the quality. 

I think the stuff is overpriced when new but the used market has good value. 15K for a ref 750 is a good deal. 3K for a SP-10 is a good deal. 5K for a CD9 is a fair deal. Basically wait 2 years and the stuff can be bought for 1/2 of retail which is honest fair market price equilibrium.