What's your favorite boutique speaker maker

Chapman Audio in Washington state: https://chapmanaudiosystems.com/

Interesting. I get an early Vandersteen vibe from that lineup. Would like to hear them.

Yes, the look is certainly early Vandersteen, but the sound is wonderful. 

I too!!!... would second the vote (of  nonoise) for Tony Minasian’s G6 stand mount speakers. They are my favorite (best kept secret) for musical bliss! Transparency, fast, neutral, sensitive, and what I might call, emotional musicality.  Since my purchase, it’s become very difficult to pull myself away from the sweet spot, quite addictive!

So far it’s been US companies. Here are three of my favourite from the rest of the world.


The Swiss company Boenicke make speakers which are elegant hand-made beauties, all made from solid wood. They look and sound like no other speaker, so musical and with a wonderful sense of air and space, and massive depth. Without a doubt my favourite speakers. https://boenicke-audio.ch

The British company Wilson Benesch are another great boutique company, run by a British family. They make speakers with high tech materials and they sound very impressive - fast and detailed and very transparent. http://wilson-benesch.com

From Taiwan Lawrence Audio make quirky looking speakers which have a superb rich sound.
http://www.lawrenceaudio.com

An observation: from looking at the recommendations in this thread it seems the US boutique speakers are mostly very much conventional rectangular boxes. The European and Asian boutique makers seem to be more open to pushing speaker design into something more attractive whilst still keeping the sound as a priority.

Generation 4s by Watkins Stereo
They are made in Kingsport, TN by Mr Bill Watkins Jr. Bill and his father, now passed away, have been building speakers for over 40 years. Bill Sr said he couldn't build a better speaker than the Gen 4s. Amazing sound for the price. 

I, too, wondered about what defines "boutique".
Janszen qualifies if we're referring to factors such as small production numbers, products built-to-order, distinctive design features, and direct involvement of the owner/CEO in the production and sales processes. Oh, and relatively high prices. $5K (or so) and up?

Janszen offers 30-day trials and only sells direct.  I don't think Devore offers in-home trials (or maybe it depends on the dealer).

I don't know if you would consider them exactly "boutique" since they have been around so long, but Magnepan makes actual speakers.  The rest are having fun, I am sure, but if you want to hear only what you put into a transducer, try them.

Cheers!

MAGICO Q3s,M2s,M3s and M6s the best.

Treynold , the alnico are great speakers, musically transparent, the 3i do have PRAT characteristics, tubes is the way to go on most omega speakers.

Caintuck Audio. All open baffles, single full range drivers offered in 8", 8" Alnico, 12" and 15". He even has 12" and 15" open baffle subs. I heard a pair of his 8" Betsy open baffles hooked up to a 2 watt set amp. They sounded stupidly good. Imaging and soundstage were fantastic. I was floored. I got to meet Randy the owner. It is a one man show. All of his speakers are under $1k/pair.

www.caintuckaudio.com

Watkins would be another for monitors.

Burmester, followed by Canton and ELAC.
M. 🇿🇦 

Sanders Sound

Verdant Audio.  I have had the Nightshades for a little more than a month and I like them more every time I listen to them

I understand that when someone discovers HiFi, and they move from a box store item to a HiFi speaker, they likely think they have a "boutique" speaker. My perspective is as an insider, reviewer, so my judgement of what a boutique speaker is will vary significantly from many. 

Magico, Magnepan, Canton, ELAC, Rockport, Egglestonworks,  and the like I do not consider boutique. Specialized, and in some cases customized, i.e. HiFi, but imo not boutique. Maybe when they were first getting started, but now they are major players. When you kick out dozens to hundreds of speakers a year, imo you are not boutique- you are a factory with an established product. 

Imo, "boutique" is way closer to unique. Once production scales, it's farther from boutique. (Of course, companies will potentially wish to market themselves as offering boutique products if that is advantageous to them, even though mass produced.) 

Soon I will have a demo of a speaker made by a man at his home, literally., who has been building speakers for 15 years. He actually makes the ribbon drivers in his speakers, and it takes 6-8 weeks to make the speaker. That is an example of what I would call a boutique speaker, not mass-produced products, or ones that use off the shelf drivers, potentially with average internals (Not suggesting all the companies mentioned above do so, but some may cut corners and diminish their sound quality).  

I am reviewing a DAC that I would still consider in terms of design and production to be closer to boutique than produced in larger quantities. It's unusual, hand assembled, and comes from a smallish operation. I'm sure someone else would consider a Bryston or Benchmark DAC to be boutique. 

Responses to this will be all over the board. What I find interesting is that there is no sure way to determine whether a mass produced product will outperform the boutique product, except by actual comparison. All the rest is puffery. 

“Boutique” IMO is the type of company, firstly, that does not have their items within a dealer network. From there, I’d say it a company that builds after you order (or place a down payment) and does not have a stock of units, and the type of company when you call you get the owner, but that’s not a necessity, but the first one should be a prerequisite imo. 

/* Disclosure:  Manufacturer */
Have been following this really interesting discussion.  We have been trying to understand both the current audio market and where it is going in positioning ourselves.  We feel like we are in an undefined space - we have boutique aspects such as small production, direct to customer, and some configuration options (cross-over and connectors).  But we also are working on economies of scale and repeatable production processes to offer more approachable prices, 15-day trials, limited configuration choices, etc.  Ideally we hope to reach newer entrants to the 'audiophile' world... maybe as they progress to more expensive/esoteric offerings.  Fantastic world that we live in where there is a spectrum of products to choose from.

Continuing to listen in on this discussion. Selfishly I am getting a lot of insight hearing this communities thoughts.  If you care to share about your personal progression from 'mainstream' to interest in boutique offerings that would be really interesting. 

CheersJB

Magico
 
 Game-Changer !

End-Game Speakers !

Does Faberge make speakers? 

Devore 

@jayctoy, I had a tube setup for a while but I run my stereo almost around the clock since I've been working home with the pandemic. I switched to a Mcintosh MHA100 that I bought NOS from Audio Classics and it mates very nicely with the 95db Omegas. Swapped out a very nice streamer and dac for their MB50 too. I'm pleasantly surprised with the results. I'd still love to hear them through a Decware though ; ) 

Boutique, well in my case the owner who is a one man show dropped off a pair of his speakers at my office to try out. We later discussed what I liked and didn't like about those particular ones and we discussed and planned out the appropriate model including upgrades. I not only picked out the veneer, I picked the specific lot number...there was a big difference. I feel I have truly one of a kind speakers. The link in my OP was taken by him and posted on his Instagram page. I don't have a camera that could do them justice. 

So many great names tossed out here, many I already knew, lots I didn't. Thanks for all the great posts. 

 

ostinatospeaker: Are you the "refugee from the corporate world"? lol
Best of luck with your new venture, hopefully years from now your name will be on a list like this. 

Personal progression to a boutique speaker? I've had the big names my whole life, B&W, Kef etc. and just wanted something different and unique. Speakers are truly a part of the room's decor and yes of course they've got to sound great but I was simply ready for that something special aesthetically. 

Sonner Audio.  Fantastic speakers.  To my ears, his standmount Allegro was the best in show at the NY Audio Show a couple years back.  Gunny is also a great guy.

+1 @douglas_schroeder , @jriggy 
The word "boutique" has a pretty standard meaning which may or may not align with high quality. Like the local one-of-a-kind restaurant in your neighborhood, it may or may not be good, but it is not mass-production, mass-market. Caveat emptor still applies, and the same criteria for decent sound (whatever those are for you) still apply.

As for this one:

Magnepan makes actual speakers

It's not a bad slogan, except for what it implies about everyone else.

Legacy Audio and Spatial. The Legacy and Spatial rooms took took me by surprise at AXPONA.

@ostinatospeakers
My purchasing history spans Bose, Totem, and Janszen speakers. Clearly, Bose is mass market. I don't consider Totem "boutique", even though you'll never see a Totem Acoustics shoppe next to Bose in your local factory outlet mall. 

To buy Janszen loudspeakers, there is no dealer network. You call owner/CEO David Janszen. With the Valentina model, you choose active vs. passive, ash/cherry/walnut/maple/painted baffles, standard or custom painted finish for the surrounds, carpet spikes/rubber/other feet, Cardas (4-way, no bananas) vs. 5-way binding posts, dual/bi-wire bindings. When I mentioned my concern about cats using the front panel as a scratching post. David suggested maybe they could come up with a cat-resistant grill material.  You can pay by credit card or else get a discount for direct-wire to the company account. 

Then, you wait. For me the build process took almost a month. They've sold about 40 pairs of the model I ordered in the year or so since they came out. AFAIK their hybrid electrostatic speaker design is almost unique. It derives from a patent by Arthur Janszen (David's father) in the mid-1950s. Both the bass and the tweeters are tunable using controls on the backs of the speaker cabinets. After setup, I sent David a copy of my room-frequency response graphs (which already were about as close to flat from 20-15000 Hz as I've seen). He said they looked good, but suggested I should move the speakers closer to the front wall.

This is what I consider "boutique". Will the product necessarily sound better than an off-the-rack alternative? No (although every review I've read has raved about it ). 

@hilde45 Thank-you. You got it, and no disrespect to the many wonderful designers of old and today. They are dedicated, hard-working people trying their best (for the most part) to produce superb products that are both accurate and able to be sold to customers who own infinite configurations of hardware in infinite rooms, so a tough job, obviously. An anechoic chamber is a nice place to check your product, but no one has one in their home.

My preference for Magnepan products comes from owning a shop and having the unique opportunity to listen to pretty much every popular speaker for extended periods of time (years) with pretty much every high-end product available to drive them. Given this opportunity, I was AMAZED at how bad my judgement was at the time. Even though I played in bands, I was not aware of the sound of the band to the audience (this was before cordless instrument electronics so I could not wander out 30 feet from the band and listen to the noise!).

Once we brought instruments--electric, brass, percussion, etc.--into the shop and played them live while/before/after listening to the recordings, we learned a lot about not only recording engineering but also spatial dynamics, microphones, mixing, etc.

The bottom line is that, while there were some real jokes--Bose 901, for example--and real popular if pretty bad ones--large Advent’s--the ONLY box we found even close to accurate was designed and built by Bob Fulton. Nothing against Mr. Kloss--a true pioneer and super guy--but other than the Fulton box, every other box and electrostatic speaker sounded artificial when compared to the Magnepans.

Lesson learned. Today, many new engineers and inventors are making very good box speakers, and they sell quite well to discerning customers. That is great, IMO. However, I have yet to find anything that is as transparent as Magnepans, which, when set up correctly, reproduce what you send them, thus revealing the quality of the electronics, recording, etc.

Finally, and yes, a bit snarky, I find it interesting that almost all the "better" speakers today are about 6’ high. Wonder where they got THAT idea, eh?

Cheers!

Locally a pair of John Kalinowski built KCS backloaded horn speakers powered with 98dB sensitivity Fostex FE206ES-R Limited Edition 8" drivers are for sale. Is anyone familiar with this creator and what should I expect from this set? I’m more than curious and assume these would be considered boutique since they are custom or one off made...My current reference system is Monitor Audio Gold floor speakers (Ribbon Tweeter) that I find absolutely amazing, powered by Oulaw audio monoblocks and a Anthem AVM 60. So not quite audiophile grade but maybe a step above consumer level. I have been researching Klipsch and the horn sound probably led me to these.

SALK Audio makes the best speakers for the money  Paradigm also makes some really good sounding speakers.

My favorite is Sound Labs ESL. They are the most beautiful sounding speakers I have heard and has  great customer service.

I have a few favorite boutique speakers, but only 1 favorite boutique speaker builder.

Fritz, no question.

So far; I would say Eminent Technology.

Wolf Von Langa and Diesis Audio speakers!!!!

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.   

Salk for me. Love my HT3's and Center channel and sub. The quality of the drivers, the attention to detail and the furniture grade finishes just make a great all around product. Everyone who sees them comments about how nice they look even before they hear them. 

Tidal (if one can afford them )
Trenner &Friedl ( reasonably priced)
Daedalus
vanderstein 

I'm curious as to why no one has mentioned Tyler Acoustics. Have any of you owned a pair of his speakers? There are very few reviews out there for them and I would like to hear what the Audiogon community thinks.

a_shah,
Tidal (if one can afford them )
Trenner &Friedl ( reasonably priced)
Daedalus
vanderstein

The only one of those that might be considered boutique is Daedalus, and even that’s borderline.

Have cycled through tons of speakers. Now I swear by Dennis Murphy’s Phil-3. Mine are in beautiful red maple veneer. My cousing got a pair in curly maple blue. Cabinets were done by the great Jim Salk of Salksound. Dennis and Jim work together on projects. Salksound offers the fantastic BMRs (I have a pair).

http://philharmonicaudio.com/pa_archive/phil3.html

These go quite low and they are superb and I am pretty much done.Since I can’t leave things alone, just for the heck of it I added two SVS SB2000 subwoofers, one for each channel. Dennis suggested crossing over to the subs at 80Hz and wow!! I just can’t see needing anything better.

Totally agree, hard to define boutique. Personally I'm a big fan of Rosso Fiorentino. Certainly not well known, but I don't know if it's considered boutique either. And to an extent would could say anything ultra high end (say Rockport) is boutique because you can really only get their gear via their dealers... aka audio boutiques. By that measure brands like Tekton and Zu are decidedly not boutique if we're being technical. 

Tetra =-=

Magnepan and at one time Dahlquist and Thiel. 

Bache Audio in Brooklyn is about as small and boutique as you can get. Greg Belman is a one man operation who is very dedicated to his designs and his customers. I have owned speakers from Thiel, Verity, ProAc, Coincident, Rethm and a few others, and still have Quad ESLs, but my Tribeca’s are my favorite. Anyone in the NYC area looking for speakers should at least travel to Brooklyn for a listen.

Spatial is the best I've heard thus far in terms of value, outside of DIY. 

As a Swede I have to do a shout out for Lukase speakers. I heard them at a local show and the bass was overwhelming the small hotel room but the mid range was exceptional! 

The Oido Audio was also very good.

Search for the names in this text to read a bit more or go to their websites and use Google translate. Lukase says they deliver world wide if you have about $13k over.

https://www.the-ear.net/show-reports/stockholm-high-end-m%C3%A4ssan-2018

https://lukaseaudio.se/butik/audio/hogtalare/lukase-audio-golvhogtalare-raw-12h-par

https://www.oidoaudio.com/

It seems like a lifetime ago, but in the 1980’s it was John Fuselier, hands down one of the all time great speaker designer/builders. He is no longer with us, but for those of us who were fortunate enough to know him and own his speakers, it was simply a real treat!

Salk Sound

I have owned 3 different pairs of Omegas, Compact Hemp w/dual Deep Hemp Subs, Super 6 Monitors w/Deep Hemp subs, and XRS 8 Alnico w/Deep Hemp subs. As I moved up the line Louis had a trade up policy and was awesome to work with. I sold the XRS/Deep Hemp combo and now listen to a pair of Charney Audio Companions with Omega RS7 drivers. Charney Audio ia a one man boutique manufacturer located in central NJ. The Charneys have been in my system since Fall 2016, the longest of any speaker I have owned. They are a horn based on the tractrix theory with no box coloration's, no sub, and sound great on tube and SS gear. Hoping to unload these and move up the Charney line soon.http://charneyaudio.com/