In my opinion Brooklyn, NY based Bache Audio's "boutique" offerings represent an extraordinary value in truly high end speakers. I sold my Merlin VSM's and bought Bache Metro 001's which Greg Belman customized for me with a 3/4" bamboo cabinet instead of mdf, and the crossover parts from his top of the line model. The benefits of a wideband driver covering from 500hz to 10,000 hz, augmented by an 8" woofer and an air motion transformer super tweeter, were easy to hear. My super resolving Merlins sounded great with the very best recordings but were so "revealing" that the flaws in less than superb recordings were often spotlighted. By comparison to the Bache the Merlins were etched, analytical, and altogether less fun to listen to on most of my music collection. And while some might read this as the Bache speakers having less detail than the Merlins, long term listening has revealed that not to be the case. All of the detail is there, it just isn't spotlighted. The other Brooklyn based speaker maker of course is Devore Fidelity, which was once "boutique" but now is a major player. I listened to Devore speakers extensively before buying Bache, and while I particularly liked the Gibbon Nine I did not find it clearly superior to the Bache offerings, which it needed to be at 3x the price of my Metro 001's.
No affiliation with Bache - just a satisfied customer who frankly was shocked at how much I got for my money with the Bache speakers. I should note too that Greg Belman keeps improving his speakers, and lets customers know to bring them in for an upgrade.
No affiliation with Bache - just a satisfied customer who frankly was shocked at how much I got for my money with the Bache speakers. I should note too that Greg Belman keeps improving his speakers, and lets customers know to bring them in for an upgrade.