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i think the audio research, conrad johnson, rolamd, mcintosh, monster cable, esoteric, etc., are superseded in sound quality by many small independent companies which operate direct to the consumer.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
Do we want a small company to built an amp to our specs ?
Hand building and wiring an amp from scratch must be time consuming and costly .
Not I. Gordon Rankin certainly does not need my advice to improve his designs.
I would certainly want to have a custom LAMM. What would I want to improve on stock? I would discuss it with Vladimir. Perhaps best to my taste tubes and even better some other parts, a bit more current and power, something else. More expensive? Sure. But if I am prepared to pay this kind of money additional $10k or so should not be a problem. And I would probably keep that thing forever.
Inna, I hope that extra $10k doesn't come out of your prostitute budget. ie: "So, what DONT you spend money on"? thread 3/12/11 sorry, I couldn't resist :)