Tubes in the 21st century

When Audio Research was founded in 1970 by Bill Johnson, he had one goal in mind: to advance the state-of-the-art in music reproduction. Today, Audio Research remains true to its roots as a performance-oriented company driven by proven philosophies and superior design. Many industry observers consider Audio Research one of the true originators of the concept of “high-end” audio, offering an unsurpassed level of performance that can easily be heard and appreciated by all.

Over its first half-century, Audio Research has grown from a small operation in the back of Bill’s shop to a modern, self-contained factory with dedicated R&D, testing, manufacturing, quality control, and listening facilities. Manufacturing is done by hand in-house, from the ground up, in our Minnesota facility. (Contact us for a tour if you are near Minneapolis, it’s fascinating to meet the people and see the process in action.)

330M Monoblocks
Launched May 2024

ARC's Exceptional service

A core tenet of Audio Research remains our exceptional service. We take pride in stocking a vast array of electronic parts and components necessary to repair, refurbish or restore to original performance most products manufactured during our 50+ year history.

We have a talented crew of service technicians to keep Audio Research products sounding their best. Our designs continue to provide exceptional musical enjoyment daily in music systems around the world. They are not discarded; they are passed on to the next proud owner. These pieces are workhorses, not museum pieces.

The Genesis of the Ghost Meter

Design studies showing the genesis of the Ghost Meter®, front panel incorporating the meter and open chassis with exposed tubes. For an Audio Research lover, transparency is not just a physical effect – it’s a fundamental audio concept. Audio Research products are famous for their transparent sound, so adding transparency to the background of the meter not only succeeded in our intention to glorify the tubes in the background, it also created another level of connection between the look and the spirit of the product. And that will remain our credo.

After all these years, Audio Research is privately held, passionately carrying forward the legacy upon which our company was founded. The passing decades have seen the company’s methodology and engineering progress to embrace new developments and to address ever-changing customer needs.

Audio Research TEAM 2008

THE ARC TEAM

With pure analogue accommodating digital, solid-state additions, and power tubes transitioning from 6550 to KT120 to KT150 to KT170. What has remained unchanged is the passion and devotion of the people in our family, many of whom have been with us for well over twenty years.

PRESENT DAY

Our founder did not believe in using tubes exclusively, he believed in using the best device for a particular circuit, at a given price point, whether tube or solid-state. He said “…with an all-out design effort, vacuum tubes will win.” Tube circuits are typically more expensive to build properly.

Why tubes?

Harmonic integrity, for one: a vacuum-tube in a properly designed circuit mimics the natural even-order harmonic structure of acoustic instruments. Not so for solid-state, with its odd-order harmonics. A second attribute of well-designed vacuum-tube products is the ability to recreate a natural cushion or air around a performer or ensemble: Real performers in a real space that ebbs and flows with the music.

All of our designs are created by Audio Research engineers, not outside contractors, to assure consistency and the quality of our designs, working with an embedded base of knowledge and experience.

Each successive ARC product generation is all about capturing more of the desirable qualities of both tubes & transistors

FOR NEARLY HALF OF THE COMPANY’S EXISTENCE, ONE PAIR OF EARS HAS BEEN THE FINAL ARBITER OF THE SOUND OF EVERY AUDIO RESEARCH PRODUCT

As Chief Sonic Evaluator for Audio Research in all phases of listening – from prototype development to product listening – one person listens to every new product and every service piece before it can shipped to the customer. Bill Johnson said, “If it measures badly it isn’t going to sound good. But the simple fact that it measures well doesn’t assure it will sound good.” For 30 years, Warren Gehl has been the advocated pushing to advance and leverage every bit of Audio Research’s accumulated knowledge. Turning this into music you can’t ignore has been his goal; and making sure that each product is consistent without varying—it has to fit through a small sonic window.

Warren came to audio Research as the Assistant Sonic Evaluator, under the mentorship of Jack Hjelm, an engineer who was one of Bill’s closest friends.