Are these damned brands or not good speakers?

Newly:

It's like anything else ... purchase from a well known or at least better known company and have access to product, service, support, predictability, reputation, R&D; etc. or purchase from a boutique company and get possibly better or more custom product and best effort with everything else. Surrounding this realtionship is the consumer's appetite for risk (which is the reality) and state of the art performance (which may be the myth).

As a consumer, I stay away from the real boutique products, no matter how well touted they are because product reliability and corporate predictability, are as important to me as product performance. Having a component in the service shop even occasionally is not for me. If I were a dealer, I would feel the same way for the same reasons.

I shake my head when I read reviews of the real boutique items because invariably they cost a load of cash; are handled by only a handful of dealers (none are ever near me); are as quirky as any other product out there; and to top it off, the reviewer rarely has the product in his possession for more than a few weeks ... so how can you predict reliability?

To answer your question ... they probably are all good speakers, but how would you ever know and who would take the chance?

Regards, Rich

Rar1: Good points, we all remember the (possibly justified) hype around and then implosion of companies like Audio Alchemy, but what in your opinion qualifies a company to be called a "boutique"?

I have a pr of Caravelles that i bought used,and am very happy with them,very well built,sound great too!there is a couple reviews in the product review section ,also reviews for Green Mountain speakers,,they sound better to me than some of the well known highly regarded speakers ive heard at high end shops that cost as much and more than the Caravelles retail for,,,i dont feel the need to upgrade,im satisfied!