Notable very small loudspeaker companies (other than Tekton!)

Most definitely as others have mentioned is Joseph audio for sure for his crazy good designs,customer service,and is just a genuinely passionate great dude.

I would also like to add,Lawrence Audio and Silverline Audio,
I own Speakers from each and without question they are both long term keepers for me.

More to follow,and to the OP thanks for starting this None Tekton thread,
Kenny.

I would like to reinforce Legacy Audio and Bill Dudleston,
I’ve been contemplating the Aeris and I had several questions to ask Bill,It took a couple of days and through a weekend but he called me back early that Monday and took the time to completely answer my questions and also provided me more info related to that speaker.

Just a super nice guy that’s very smart as well but still talk in simple terms that the average aphile can understand.I’m sure he has always worn many hats in his company.

Enjoy,
Kenny.

I took a look at the Kyron brand,as mentioned earlier,and their Kronos looks bad to the bone.If you are interested in a Open Baffle speaker,

http://www.kyronaudio.com.au/kronos.html

Enjoy,
Kenny.

“So the questions remains, how do many of these tiny companies rival and sometimes surpass the likes Revel, B&W and others? Is it the genius of the individual designer? A speaker "auteur", rather than a gaggle of cooks.”

I will answer this question,after many yrs in this hobby and seeing many small companies come and go.It’s almost always the “genius”
and extreme passion that drive these individuals to design and build something different but also something very good as well.

The ones that truly make a name for themselves and sustain for the long haul make the difference with solid engineering and go to extreme’s in customer service to make sure every customer is a happy camper.

Most that sustain don’t overwhelm their customers with multiple designs that look basically the same and are based on so-called hype and over the top statements and marketing.
They only concentrate their efforts on a couple of designs at a time and they nail their design in overall Implementation before they start selling them,meaning that every customer that buys a pair gets the same as the next guy and they aren’t producing just some kind of work in progress speaker that the buying public foots the bill for.

Then as they build a solid customer base they may come out with new and different models that exceed their previous efforts and they do this while being truthful to their customers and not over promising a delivery timeframe that will never be achieved.

You can generally tell when a company isn’t going to make it in their own country,especially the USA,is when they concentrate their marketing strategies in other countries such as Europe and Asia and their sales drop tremendously in the USA.

Enjoy,
Kenny.

Here’s one that their speakers aren’t well known and almost classify for this thread,because from what I’ve read about them,one guy has designed them all.
They also make a whole series of different drivers,sold individually or to other speaker manufacturers which is bigger and separate from their speakers.

Here’s a link that lists them all with current USA pricing,

https://www.audiophile-direct.com/products/m103se-pu?variant=7141600005

Enjoy,
Kenny.

The OP already mentioned Vaughn Loudspeakers,but I would like to add that I’ve been recently looking at a couple of his designs and talking to him about a possible custom built speaker that uses the Dukane plasma tweeter’s that he rebuilds and modify’s the pwr supplies.I mainly want something similar to his signature speaker but I don’t want any drivers on the back of the speaker that operate as bipolar’s.

Anyhow he has recently retired from his main gig of owning and managing a flooring business in California and he’s moving back to his home state and going to concentrate his time to building speakers full time.

He’s just a super passionate fellow and just a true gentlemen to deal with and he has some new ideas going fwd.

https://www.vaughnloudspeakers.com

If any member would like his his current contact info just pm me,I don’t believe he has updated his website yet.

Enjoy,
Kenny.

Silverline Yeah,
I’m presently enjoying my Bolero Supremes kicked up with Jupiter copper foils on the Esotar,All Duelund internal wire,and more and better damping material everywhere.

Very nice and just so darn Musical,
Kenny.

The Volti’s do look interesting for a modern take on some classic horn designs Implemented with some carefully chosen drivers and “Tunable” crossovers for folks that venture past just plug and play.

The rival would be the only one that I was interested in but unfortunately,Greg doesn’t allow any in home demos anymore.

It did strike me rather oddly that even though the builder owner makes 3 different speaker designs he prefers something else for his own personal listening.

The X2 from Spatial Audio with the modified Beyma tweeter and the big boy woofer would make a great open baffle speaker for folks that like them and have the room for them.

Enjoy,
Kenny.

“Living Voice OBX RW speakers have a simply magical sound that slowly and insidiously places you into a musical spell.”

Wow that is most definitely quite a description.

Kenny.

Excellent,so nice to have some user feedback on these very interesting designs.I like the ability to customize to your liking and the overall personal service you received.
I would definitely say this new small company has a promising future for sure.

Enjoy those new speakers,
Kenny.