Last fall I went to the audio show in suburban DC, and I enjoy it (although pointing out to my friend who accompanied that audio is an old man’s game). I went into the many hotel rooms where speaker vendors were demonstrating their wares. A lot of fun actually, but what struck me is that with few exceptions that price had nothing to do with the quality of the sound coming from the speakers.
Moreover, it was pretty clear that to distinguish themselves, speaker makers resort to outlandish physical designs to stand out in the crowd. And when I say "outlandish", it means "ugly".
Finally, my observation is that most of these speaker makers won’t be around in 3-5 years, but more will spring up in their place, as long as people are willing to pay for them. It seems you don’t need a lot of capital to get into the speaker business.