the oldest manufacturers of high end audio equipment still in operation . they were pioneers at advancing the state of the art for audio reproduction in the seventies re introducing the vacuum tube as the primary active amplification device . audio research prefers the class a amplifier design . with the help of audiophile publications such as stereophile and the absolute sound they solidified their position as one of the most well respected audio manufacturers . many industry observers consider the president and founder william z. johnson as one of the true originators of the entire concept of high end audio as it exists today . history edit the company was founded by william z. johnson in 1970 and is located in plymouth minnesota . johnson began designing custom audio electronics in the early 1950s and operated a specialty audio retail store until the mid 1960s . in 2008 audio research was acquired by fine sounds spa a subsidiary of italian private equity fund quadrivio which also owns several other highly esteemed high end audio companies including mcintosh sonus faber wadia and sumiko . 1 references edit quadrivio sgr fine sounds group . retrieved 2013 04 23 . external links edit official arc homepage retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title audio research & oldid 710755449 categories companies established in 1970audio equipment manufacturersaudio amplifier manufacturerselectronics companies of the united statescompanies based in minnesota navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 18 march 2016 at 21 37 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view