Obscure companies making excellent speakers?

Great list Duke

I would add Rethm and your own designs of course to the list

North Creek Music.

Kits and systems. Unique designs (near-wall specific monitors, ribbons). Fanatically high-grade crossovers. Innovative work copied by others. Very rare to find any North Creek speakers used.

http://www.northcreekmusic.com/

I think the open baffle designs from Emerald Physics are very interesting...I have and am quite impressed with the
C-2 for a $3000 speaker.

DEVORE seems to be left out.KP

Outwardly the speaker is so understated that it looks more at home in a pawn shop than a high-end boutique.

Amfibius,

I agree - they are plain and ugly looking. They make only a few models - basically different box sizes and limited by the fact they use their own drivers (apart from tweeters which are often of a cheaper variety). Rather than spend money on cabinetry they seem to devote their energy to transducer R&D and active designs that change only once in a blue moon. In essence one of their strengths is the sound barely changes between small to large models (just gets progressively louder/greater dynamics) and from one decade to the next (making the same transducers for 20+ years). They certainly make it difficult for a reviewer to get excited about a new product!

I think ATC was fair game for "obscure". About as bizarre as it gets in an audiophile world which seems to be a constant sea of change; where companies come and go and seem to either completely change designs every few years or offer hundreds of choices which often sound very different....clearly a fashion/aesthetics driven world in which ATC, with a handful of staff, is very much out of place.

I agree with Duke that they may not be obscure enough in the sense that was perhaps intended on the thread (meaning relativley unknown) - they certainly have amassed a loyal following which allows them to behave with relative impunity towards industry norms (aesthetics/marketing/dealer networks/attractive price point usually being quite a bit more important than the actual sound...although their newest consumer range looks like an assault at a lower price point for better value).