small companies making today's best products

when all he needed was a few grand in footers and tuning gear

That's all?

I sure didn't get that Elizabeth was anti-dealer. I do applaud her posts. Elizabeth makes good points about longevity as far as being able to get equipment fixed, replacement parts etc from a well established company. The fact a company is around for a long time IS NOT evidence that the company is bad or makes bad products, quite the contrary. To each their own. Fail to see how she insulted anyone, kind of the other way around.

"The larger companies I prefer once were small companies"

Now where would those companies be if the ones that did support their products from the begining be if they chose to all have Elizabeths Altitude on this and not support them till they were a large brand name. They would not be here to enjoy now.

To widen the scope of thought if many of these "once were small companies" and the innovative products they produced never materialized then with that loss would be the loss of all the inspiration it gave the ones that followed.

I agree that waiting till you feel safe that the brand has become large enough to ease ones fears may be prudent, but it certainly cannot support the very thing your waiting for if everyone shared that point of view.

That is where I see the insult. Let everyone else take the early adoption of the little guy, wait until they support and make a company grow then critisize the very people who support and build the new crop of little guys.

It should also be noted that some of the better gear out there came from small guys starting out who worked for years with the big companies and struck out on their own knowing they could build and design better products and did so with great success as the little guy.

It is not ones choice of equipment that is insulting at all. That is ones personal choice for their own reasons. However it cannot be taken as anything less than insulting with generalizations that the little guy lacks innovation and are technologically inferior. Then again maybe it is more blinded thought than insightfull insult or critisizm.
The first two paragraphs in response to Inna confirm you know why these larger companies you choose are here. Then a statement like "allow someone on the edge of buying a tinkers dream to think:"maybe i'll buy a real product with some actual engineering behind it that I can depend on the maker servicing it next year...in stead of hoping a few word of mouth mentions in posts where no one can tell if it is just an info-mercial." Makes little sense thus the insult label.

Your choice for bryston gear certainly is no issue here. Properly matched with the right gear just like any other gear has to be, they deliver just like a hundred others will.

You need to get out more now that its getting nicer and sit in the sun. Might clear up that nose grease problem.
Cheers

Well the best example I can think of a small company making todays best products is The David Berning Company in business since 1974. One might think that a company that has the owner's name is making a personal testament to the quality of the product he sells. David Berning takes it one step further, he designs and builds every single product he has ever sold himself, one at a time. Legendary reliability, cutting edge design and performance, efficient and user friendly designs, esoteric but simple at the same time. I can't think of a better example than this all hype aside. This guy is one of the true originals of high end audio.