Obscure companies making excellent speakers?

Ascend Acoustic is another company that doesn't advertise and follows the sound quality over looks philosophy. They concentrate on the budget market with their most expensive offering being their Sierra 1 monitor that is under $1K. The Sierra 1 is likely the first consumer price level bamboo cabinet speaker. I know Escalante uses bamboo cabinets too but wouldn't consider them to be consumer priced.

Escalante should make this list too. Very neutral and balanced sound.

Duke,Well said as always:

Salk speakers,beautiful sound,beautilful looks,great value.

yes i'm biased because I own a pair.

Tonian Acoustics is one of the very best yet least known companys in audio land.

I would like to propose a suggestion to the off the radar small companies making speakers:
The one way audiophiles meet and share ideas and do some listening together is through the local audiophile societies dispersed throughout the country.
Maybe a program can be developed through a concerted effort between the speaker(or other manufacturers) companies and audio clubs, and distribute on loan for a fee to all the audiophile societies for a set amount of time. It can be a rotating system that goes from one a. society to another. And in a years time 12 different brands will be heard in each of these clubs.
And as a bonus, each club can descibe their experience using the equipment at hand to point out which equipment matches best with the different speakers.
What do the manufacturers think on this idea?
I purchased my speakers after hearing them in someone's house, I didn't have any intentions of buying speakers at the time.