small companies making today's best products

Small companies are for well educated adventurers with deep pockets. You never know what you might find, good or bad!

Larger established companies are safer if you want to hedge your bets and go with something that is more established and well known.

Truly innovative products generally start small, gain acceptance over time, and usually also become more affordable. You can be an early adapter (high risk, potentially high reward today) or a fast follower (low risk, also high reward, but you may have to wait a bit for the latest and greatest to establish itself better).

I'd advise against rookies being an early adapter...very high risk compared to likelihood of reward. You better really know what you are doing before testing these waters....

Most people will be better off as fast followers purchasing good products with a larger following from more well established vendors.

Audiogon can be a dangerous place to be if you allow your need for the greatest immediate gratification be your guide without being well versed in what goes into achieving your goals. You are at greater risk of spending a lot of money for little or no practical advantage than you might be going straight to a trustworthy and knowledgeable dealer who knows what they are doing.

If you must test the waters with a smaller companies product, I recommend doing it with less expensive products that appear to be good values to minimize risk.

Never jump into the deep waters if cannot swim. Rookies should avoid small companies touting the cost is no object best, unless you just want to throw money at the problem and nothing else matters.

I suspect if a reliable and comprehensive study were conducted by experts between small and larger high end audio companies, the results would be a draw in terms of which can deliver the best sounding solution and larger companies would win statistically in terms of providing higher quality and value overall and offering lower risk overall for most.

The caveat would be I think if small companies from the far east, like mhdt for example, were properly included, teh smaller companies would do better in terms of value but still present a risk in that finding the good smaller companies can be a challenge to find reliably.

Also I think results might skew somewhat more back towards smaller vendors if the scope were limited to those vendors who break the norm and deliver solutions geared around high efficiency speakers and smaller amps, often tube based.

Customizing is a nice option but not really needed by most.

Do we really need to design this stuff from scratch?

if nobody else has gotten it right so far, what makes anyone think they can? there are a lot of smart people out there and this stuff requires knowledge but is not rocket science.

Tekton, Zu and Decware are three I have come across recently that I would like to experience.

Also a fan of the Audiokinesis approach to things, though have not actually heard.

THough also have not heard, gotta give a plug for HHR Exotic Speakers as well for forging ahead with the Walsh speaker design and keeping costs manageable.

Did I forget OHM? Here's to John Strohbeen as well!

Audio Research....still the cornerstone of tube amp products?

mhdt systems: very good DACs for not much cost.

Bel Canto: I like this company's products and service a lot though there is tons of competition.

Dynaudio are they too big? A gold standard in modern speaker design I would say.

How about Triangle? Not up with their more recent products too much but like what I have heard.

Manley and Rogue....I like these two companies products that I have heard though I liked Manley's old price structure a lot better than the new.

Magnepan, not too big to mention, right?

Haven't heard Atmasphere but I suspect Ralph's tube amp products are quite exceptional.

I suspect Classic Audio Loudspeakers may have some of the better sounding speakers out there especially with use of their field coil drivers.

I heard charming and reasonably priced large horns from The Cathedral Speaker company a while back that caught the ears of many at a show in addition to myself.

I tend to levitate towards products that are unique or innovative relative to the norm. There are many small companies making good stuff out there.