What's your favorite boutique speaker maker

whatjd,
I'm not deciding anything for anyone sir. I think most members will agree that these brands sold by far enough product as well as spent enough advertising dollars that they would not be considered boutique manufacturers.

Everything in the high end is boutique.  What is sold at Wal-Mart, the local TV/hardware store and the rest of the chains is what most  people use to play "their music".  Where most people get their
 boombox type of thing is also the place you can buy a toaster and a snow shovel.  

High end audio is a very small part of electronics sales in this country.....Not much in the way of  "high-end" comes from Taiwan or Wal-Mart. 

Even whatever Sony makes that could be  considered "high-end" is a very small part of their business.

Yamaha is first a music company, but the average American thinks of them as a motorcycle makers.

"The company was originally named Nippon Gakki, which translated means 'Japan musical instruments'. It was changed to Yamaha Corporation in 1987. In 1887 Torakusu Yamaha created his own version of the reed organ before starting his own business in Hamasatsu."

If you look at the logo on the side of a Yamaha motorcycle there is a symbol with three crossed tuning forks. 





  

whatjd,
All very interesting, (and common knowledge). You are STILL wrong about Magnepan and Thiel. In the small world of the high end, they would still be considered big players.

+1 Devore Fidelity