Bill Johnson founded Audio Research in Minnesota in 1970 with one goal, which the company still states plainly: to advance the state of the art in music reproduction. He was working with vacuum tubes at the moment the industry had decided they were finished. More than fifty years later, the argument looks settled in his favor.
Johnson's standard is worth quoting, because it explains the products better than any description of them: "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." That belief is built into the company. Every new product and every serviced piece is listened to by one person, Warren Gehl, who has held the role of Chief Sonic Evaluator for thirty years, before it is allowed to ship.
The current range runs from the Reference 330M — the finest amplifier the company has built — through the Reference and LS preamplifiers, the D-80 and the Reference power amplifiers, to the I/55 and I/70 integrated amplifiers and the Reference Phono stages. Tubes remain the heart of it, with auto-bias, tube monitoring, and hour metering to take the maintenance anxiety out of owning them, and the trademark GhostMeter showing the tubes at work behind the face. A solid-state line now runs alongside, in the S-100 and S-200 amplifiers.
Everything is built by hand in the Minnesota facility, and every design comes from Audio Research engineers rather than outside contractors. The company also stocks parts to repair and restore most of what it has made across its history — which is the sort of commitment that changes what a purchase means.
Tube amplification asks for the right loudspeaker — hear Audio Research with Sonus faber or the high-sensitivity horns from Ø Audio, and arrange a listening session around the record you know best.
