Thinking about speakers in particular, when you deal with small boutique shops you often can deal with the owner directly. Think of Legacy, Salk or Daedalus. They will work with you to find just the right speaker for your particular situation. I had the opportunity to tour the Salk facility and meet with Jim himself who is just a fantastic guy. While there, he told me how a guy sent a year old speaker in with a blown out tweeter. It was obviously over driven but Jim replaced it at no charge. Good luck getting that type of service from some of the big companies.
Advantages of owning equipment from major audio brands vs. boutique shops?
As someone new to home audio, the many brands of equipment is overwhelming. I learn about a new brand almost daily. Today it was Valvet and their A4 MKII monoblocks. Is it correct to assume that advantage to owning equipment from the major players is a result of the dollars they invest in R&D and the company stability, translating to piece of mind via their warranty, and the ability to get a component repaired? I would think resale value also plays a factor.
Because the small shops often sell direct, cutting out layers of profit, there appear to be some good deals on well performing kit. Other than price, are there advantages to investing in boutique brand equipment? It seems the offset to a better price might be their instability in the market, resulting in possibly owning a very heavy, expensive paper weight should they close their doors and your component need service, and a lessor resale value.