Owners of speakers by obscure companies chime in

Rgs92, I communicated with one of The Absolute Sound's reviewers, and the sticking point really was not advertising. The sticking point was my lack of a dealer network. TAS is at the top of the food chain (along with Stereophile), and as such their job is to review products that their readers have a reasonable chance of finding for an audition. There are several other magazines, some online only, who play the extremely valuable (and often more exciting) role of unearthing the underground gems.

MrTennis, congrats on your Sanders Sound solution!

Duke

Thanks Duke! Well, hooray for the Web I guess. Good luck.

I own speakers from North Creek Audio the Manifest only about 12 were ever made . I think many people missed a great speaker but it was a leap of faith to buy when you could not here them first. I took a chance and glad I did they are a extraordinary speaker very musical but take a large room to work and are very sensitive to set up . The speakers are also sensitive to cables I guess most are . I know North Creek has made many other speaker kits that have sold in the 100's or 1000's and you see very few for sale that may say something or not ? I traded up from Alon 5's and never looked back the Manifest is a huge step up from the Alon's even with the all alnico drivers I put in them. The Alon's now collect dust in the corner and I have owned 4 of Carl's speakers before and liked them very much but the Manifest is so much more musical there is no contest at all . I have listened to many of todays great speakers and many are great but when I get home I sure have a smile on my face and am glad I found the North Creek Manifest a world class speaker . Marc

I now own Penaudio speakers myself, but if you are looking for obscure "unsung" heroes in the industry, take a look at some of the manufacturers that Greece has to offer. To my knowledge there are more than six of them, the most popular being Audio Spectrum. They use first rate components throughout and some of their speakers (ie the Aeolos standmount or the Orpheus Floorstander) are up there with the very, very best. Fantastic sounding speakers in every respect. No bargains to be had however, as either of these models costs more than 4500 euros; still good value considering what they have to offer.

I've got Camber 3s, large front ported two way (8" woofer, silk dome tweeter) standmounters by a Canadian company in Ottawa, that were badged "Rega" before Rega started making their own speakers. They are maybe from 1980, and sound wonderful. I got them from Jean Nantais of Lenco fame. He done right by me.