What's more important; sound or brand name?

BOTH.
Ecpecially for the brand names that don't have overpriced and unreliable units.
Manufacturers and dealers at CES should realy hide their equipment behind the curtain to let visitors to audition blindly. It's entertaining as well!
At the end of CES you get "Answers" what were in particular "blind" room.

For better or worse, brand name also translates into marketability. For those who are concerned about resale value or simply the ability to unload equipment in the future, brand name can be an important feature.

Sony is not well known as a speaker builder in the U.S., so their first thought is (sony speakers?). It's not just sony, the same thing can happen with any of the big mass market companys. I saw a Denon amp for sale the other day ($17,000 used), you don't see many of those for sale in the U.S., these companys build high end products, most people on this side of the world just don't know it and look down their nose and figure it must be mid-fi if it's a sony. Sony has built speaker systems that sold for around $8,000 at one time, I did not get a chance to listen to them but did read a review on them that stated they were very good speakers. A lot of audiophiles start out as music lovers and then transform into gear lovers, when this happens all the fun goes out of it, they wake up and go to sleep thinking about cables, power cords, tubes, tweaks, ect. ect., you have to beware while they are in this state of mind, never tell them you have sony speakers, If they ask or if you must tell, change the letters around (noys) so you won't have to lie, they will want to hear these noys speakers so invite them over and help them get back to listening to music for a change. I always hide my krell amps before they come over so that they don't know how brite my system sounds. Before I started this practice, they would always run out of the house with their hands over their ears, works every time.

Agree with all above who suggest that some larger companies also provide larger service and a better resale market. Would I buy a no-name? Absolutely not -- unless it is inexpensive (so it doesn't hurt to throw it away if it's bad) or if there is a trial period so I can hear it in my home. Buying a no-name is hard to do. You'd have to literally stumble across it at a dealership (used equipment section) or a friend's house since a true no-name has no formal or reliable informal reviews.

Apart from the servicing and resale, another advantage of known products is that you can find more reviews and advice about them (e.g., here on A'gon). For either initial ownership or longer term ownership, those are valuable.

I could not care less about brand names, there are in fact well known products with lots of prestige, which I don't consider particularly musical and would never buy. I buy, set up and tweak solely by ear and according to my personal taste, which has been largely educated by live music itself. So I would agree with Nrchy, I think.