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Boutique or Big Brand?

Good evening everyone! I am looking at new speakers in the $5k, maybe $6k range. My electronics and room dimensions are on "my system" posted on my profile so I won't repeat them here. I currently have Tekton Impact Monitors, but feel they do not have a good low end (I posted my review on another post so won't bore everyone here). That said, they were the best I could afford at the time and above 40Hz sound good to me.

Now I am ready to upgrade and am faced with a decision... Do I go boutique with a bigger pair of Tektons, or maybe the Salk Song3 A or BeAts; or something from Zu or Devore? Or do I go with a Big Brand like the Sonus faber Sonetto V, B&W 702, or Focal Arias?

I have heard the Tekton, Sonetto V, and B&W 8-series (not the 7 in my price range). I want a slim tower because I feel a lot of them have the same footprint as a pair of standmounters and have better bass extension.

So, what are the benefits of boutique over big brand and vice-versa? It seems in my price range boutique may be the way to go? Thoughts? Any other recommendations?

Because of the pandemic I had to move to a place that doesn't have the audio stores that N.Y.C. and Columbus, Oh. did when I lived there, so I am asking your opinions. Please keep it positive and constructive, thank you.

l1975r

Showing 1 response by kingdeezie

kingdeezie
92 posts
 

I came in to the hobby in the late 2000s and was heavily invested in boutique brands. They seemed to offer more performance for the same or less money.

While this may or may not be true subjectively, boutique brands come with what I now consider unacceptable risks IMO. 

1.) They usually are small operations that are one incident away from ruin. When this occurs support for the product disappears and anyone that had money invested towards a product is usually out of luck. Many online occurrences of deposits or payment lost when a small company goes under. 

2.) Because boutique brands are smaller in size their purchasing power, man power capabilities, and output can become significantly limited quickly. Again, if you look around there are a lot of instances of product taking many months or years to ship. Right now is crazy for everyone because of the pandemic and the supply chain. I doubt in 2017 many people were waiting 12-24 months for common speakers from Magico or Wilson. Nor do I think that any one person at either of those companies would bring shipments grinding to an extended halt. 

3.) Resale value is, IME, much worse for boutique brands, especially if the company has gone under. 

That being said I had a great experience with Salk when I ordered a pair of speakers back in 2015.          

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