What's your favorite boutique speaker maker

Verdant Audio.  I have had the Nightshades for a little more than a month and I like them more every time I listen to them

I understand that when someone discovers HiFi, and they move from a box store item to a HiFi speaker, they likely think they have a "boutique" speaker. My perspective is as an insider, reviewer, so my judgement of what a boutique speaker is will vary significantly from many. 

Magico, Magnepan, Canton, ELAC, Rockport, Egglestonworks,  and the like I do not consider boutique. Specialized, and in some cases customized, i.e. HiFi, but imo not boutique. Maybe when they were first getting started, but now they are major players. When you kick out dozens to hundreds of speakers a year, imo you are not boutique- you are a factory with an established product. 

Imo, "boutique" is way closer to unique. Once production scales, it's farther from boutique. (Of course, companies will potentially wish to market themselves as offering boutique products if that is advantageous to them, even though mass produced.) 

Soon I will have a demo of a speaker made by a man at his home, literally., who has been building speakers for 15 years. He actually makes the ribbon drivers in his speakers, and it takes 6-8 weeks to make the speaker. That is an example of what I would call a boutique speaker, not mass-produced products, or ones that use off the shelf drivers, potentially with average internals (Not suggesting all the companies mentioned above do so, but some may cut corners and diminish their sound quality).  

I am reviewing a DAC that I would still consider in terms of design and production to be closer to boutique than produced in larger quantities. It's unusual, hand assembled, and comes from a smallish operation. I'm sure someone else would consider a Bryston or Benchmark DAC to be boutique. 

Responses to this will be all over the board. What I find interesting is that there is no sure way to determine whether a mass produced product will outperform the boutique product, except by actual comparison. All the rest is puffery. 

“Boutique” IMO is the type of company, firstly, that does not have their items within a dealer network. From there, I’d say it a company that builds after you order (or place a down payment) and does not have a stock of units, and the type of company when you call you get the owner, but that’s not a necessity, but the first one should be a prerequisite imo. 

/* Disclosure:  Manufacturer */
Have been following this really interesting discussion.  We have been trying to understand both the current audio market and where it is going in positioning ourselves.  We feel like we are in an undefined space - we have boutique aspects such as small production, direct to customer, and some configuration options (cross-over and connectors).  But we also are working on economies of scale and repeatable production processes to offer more approachable prices, 15-day trials, limited configuration choices, etc.  Ideally we hope to reach newer entrants to the 'audiophile' world... maybe as they progress to more expensive/esoteric offerings.  Fantastic world that we live in where there is a spectrum of products to choose from.

Continuing to listen in on this discussion. Selfishly I am getting a lot of insight hearing this communities thoughts.  If you care to share about your personal progression from 'mainstream' to interest in boutique offerings that would be really interesting. 

CheersJB

Magico
 
 Game-Changer !

End-Game Speakers !