Commonly mentioned speaker brands?

This site definitely has some esoteric  biases. I would not rely exclusively on what products get the most buzz here at the time. Stick with products that have long successful histories and lots of people all over who like them.

I have found myself gravitating not so much to the brands that get mentioned the most often, but the ones which get mentioned enough that I realized there was something of quality there. Add to that that there is very little debate about these less-mentioned but not obscure brands and that indicates -- to me -- that there is something flying "under the radar." 

Examples:

Salk, Fritz, Silverline in speakers (as opposed to the biggies, such as Focal); Audio Mirror Tubador or Mojo DACs; deHavilland, Herron, Supratek for preamps; Allnic, Atmasphere, Quicksilver for amps. 

These are just examples, but they hit a sweet spot of value -- there's not much chance it's *just* their name getting them touted by people. (Not that, say, Focal fans are only taken in by the name, of course, but some really do get swamped by the marketing/buzz around brands with big distributions.)

Harbeth,neat. 

Mostly the favorites and very few I would actually own. Magico is one that lives up to the hype but overpriced. Of course I’m an outlier here I prefer speakers designed to be very revealing with smooth off axis and flat FR. Probably why I've drifted to listening to studio monitors.

Cannot go wrong with Tannoy, Wharfedale, Spendor, and Harbeth. These are the brands I’ve owned and some I still own. I’m partial to British speakers, just don’t like much of anything made here. In fact, most of my system is now comprised of UK built components. The only exception is the several Marantz components I own, such as the Sacd and CD players. However, in use presently is my newly acquired Cyrus cdt. There is a certain allure about the British stuff that I can’t explain. Maybe I was a Brit in a previous life...😄