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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i think the audio research, conrad johnson, rolamd, mcintosh, monster cable, esoteric, etc., are superseded in sound quality by many small independent companies which operate direct to the consumer.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
roscoeiii's avatar
roscoeiii
1,155 posts
 
Wait, have we gotten this far without an Atma-sphere mention? What a great company and wonderful amps. They are there for customers with questions (especially nice since OTL amps are a bit of a different beast) and offer a number of options for upgrading their amps (power supply upgrades, capacitor upgrades, reduced gain, etc).

Hats off to Ralph and everyone working with him. A real bonus for my amp choice. Nice that an amp purchase can also come with this type of relationship with a manufacturer.
mrtennis OP
3,295 posts
 
do you think ralph will design an amp from scratch ?

how about roger madjeski ?
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,200 posts
 
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.
inna
7,296 posts
 
Designing probably no but highest quality custom parts yes.
And fine tuning. And fifty years warranty on parts with ten on labour.
I read here about Albert's Studer deck. He had custom head block installed to be able to play and record all kinds of tapes. I think the price was $20k or so.
mrtennis OP
3,295 posts
 
the purpose of designing to satisify the customer is to produce a product which is consistent with the tastes and preferences of the buyer. since no product is perfect, the idea is to build a component with a certain sonic signature.

those who think components should be as accurate as possible, need not consider this idea.

it's like telling a chef how you would like him to prepare a dish. very few will do this.

since all do not have the same idea as to what a stereo system should sound like, customizing a component as like getting a suit made for you.
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