Are these damned brands or not good speakers?

Compared to starting an automobile manufacturing firm or a nuclear power generating company the barriers to entry for starting a loudspeaker company are very small. As a result there are plenty of small companies entering the field. There is absolutely no reason that a small boutique firm cannot produce and outstanding product. The technical knowledge of loudspeaker design is fairly well understood and in the public domain. There are multiple sources of high quality drivers. Plus any decent woodwork shop can build a high quality cabinet. If the boutique designer has a good ear and takes the time and effort to refine his product it can be competitive with the products from larger manufacturers.

Sometimes the boutique firm's product is higher priced than the bigger firms' offerings because of poor economies of scale resulting from limited production runs. Other times the boutique firm can offer comparable performance for a lower price because it doesn't have an advertising budget, doesn't maintain a large inventory, much smaller staffing requirements, no big production and warehousing costs and eliminating multiple middlemen by selling direct to the customer. It's wrong to paint small manufacturers with a broad brush. As consumers we must do our homework and find those firms that offer excellent performance and high value. They could just as easily be a large or small firm.