I do like adventure and trying out brands that are maybe off the beaten path. But that has always been rewarding in my experience. Not that there is anything wrong with more mainstream stuff in some cases.
For example I feel like Dynaudio has enough expertise and capabilities to make world class speakers. Can a DIY team make a better speaker in their garage? Not likely, but they may well still come up with a truly enjoyable speaker anyway.
Cables (and to a lesser degree, audio streamers/servers) seem like a different thing though, were the DIY team actually has a good chance of matching or exceeding the big guys. At least that has been my experience with those. But cables are so easy to demo for such low stakes (assuming a good return policy) that I figure why not?