Is the big sound from the big names?

I own a pair of Harmonic Precision Caravelles. You can read the review. They are made by Starsound Technologies. A little company, just like you spoke of. Beautiful quality top to bottom with sound to die for. The best darn monitors these tympanics have ever heard..and I've heard oodles. Not inexpensive, but delivers big time, and considering the price of the Jmlab Micro Bes: a steal. The Micros were the best monitor speakers I had ever heard until the Caravelles. peace, warren

Look up the thread in the archives started by Sean, "Current trends in multi-thousand dollar speakers."
If you think a big company or a high price buys better, you might want to rethink that position.
Some of the long standing companies offer some very good speakers for the money. Many companies put 60%+ of their costs into the cabinet. I'm sure that beautiful cabinet makes them sound so much better! Some just flat out lie about their product.
They're still a FEW honest designers out there that care about the sound and keep costs under control.

The best values in high fidelity products come from the large corporate entities (Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Yamaha, etc.). I base this statement upon a combination of sonics, reliability, features, price and availability. These companies typically don't court the audiophile market and instead target the mass market, but audiophiles would be foolish to ignore the tremendous value of a Sony $250 CD/DVD or a $350 Panasonic receiver.

The large corporation are also the source of the major advances in music reproduction. Their large research capabilities coupled with their marketing clout are responsible for FM radio, reel to reel tape, long playing vinyl, stereo, CD, DVD and hi-rez digital.

Small to mid-sized companies excel in refining and perfecting existing technology. They target the audiophile market and regularly demonstrate that they can substantially improve upon the sonics offered by mass market oriented manufacturers. When taken to extremes these manufacturers are capable of producing state of the art sonics, but usually at extreme costs.`

All of my comments are generalizations and there are any number of exceptions.

Warren,

I am sure you love your speakers. In fact, I am sure ALL of us know you do. But just in case anybody missed it, what speakers do you own and how do you feel about them?.........just once more.....please......pretty please.

there is is no thread that ties the size of a company to the quality of its products...however, companies which have survived for many years have done so with consistant quality,customer service, and ultimately a better long-term product.