small companies making today's best products


i think the audio research, conrad johnson, rolamd, mcintosh, monster cable, esoteric, etc., are superseded in sound quality by many small independent companies which operate direct to the consumer.

most of the comments praising components of different types seem to mention small companies, who do not have dealer networks. why ?

perhaps innovation with out marketing or other constraints enables creativity and thinking outside the box to flourish.

when i consider my own system, i own cables from small companies, digital components from a medium sized and well known company, and an amplifier from a well known company as well as another amp and preamp designed by a retired professor from canada.
mrtennis

Showing 3 responses by hotmailjbc

harmon is big and makes good products. i enjoy buying from small companies tho.
large companies gave/pushed quad 4 channel, 8 tracks, elcassette, laserdisc, minidiscs, cds, sacds, hdcds,dvd/bluray 2.1 thru 11.1, various video formats, vhs vs beta vcrs, tiny satellite speakers theatre in a box systems, they gave no support to audio stores because circuit city type stores was the future. i could go on because i,m sure i left something out. to say i want gear from a big company because they will be around in 10 years is a reach. i want my gear from companies that make a value added product that perform. and just to be argumentative...there arn't many "big" companies on the lists on this thread or we would all get rid of our gear and buy sony, denon, hitachi,bose,panasonic etc.
many "big" companies ship containers full of product that they know will have a 15 percent failure rate. if anyone thinks there is security in this go buy some mass produced crap and hang onto your warranty papers linus. or go to a local warranty/repair shop and see the mountain of mass produced crap not worth fixing in the dumpster. many products made by small companies work, work for a long time and are fixeable. they also increase in value.