Despite other comments here, I'm as happy as ever with Ars, and I've been reading it for many years. They're the only tech news site I read anymore (besides here of course).
I've generally seen people get on the wagon of bashing Ars then not having anything better as a replacement suggestion. Like yeah I know the actual blog source is better but I don't know every tech blog on the internet.
No. Absolutely not. After they were acquired by Conde Nast, it has been downhill at an amazing pace.
They were downhill well before Conde Nast. Almost every article they ever did on LEDs was horribly out of date, using information that was true maybe a decade ago.
Eh, it's been a long time since I read it. Maybe it was for the better.
I have always found Ars to have relevant and well written content. Conde Nast has a lot of good writers at their various properties.