Avalon Acoustics reputation

Small companies (which most audio makers are) often struggle to survive their founders' passing.  Even if they're not sold & gutted, the vision & passion that birthed the company is very difficult to sustain.  Sounds like Avalon could be going down that road.  It was founded by the late Charlie Hanson (Ayre).

It's disappointing. Their website indicates great products, and I heard a demo sound excellent, but this reputation puts me off. I also noticed another well known reviewer 'doubting' the perfection they claimed for their Tesseract. I did a double take one time when one of their promo ads claimed 'flat response to 100,000cps' since this is impossible with available materials and technology. Thought maybe just a typo? 

@petaluman . I agree with you. I believe there may be other small "boutique" exceptional quality manufacturers may be heading that way as Founders or chief technologist age out of working life. Any come to your mind? 

Over the years I have had five pairs of Avalons, including Diamond Eidolons.  They were great speakers, but I never had to use their customer service, other than an upgrade that went very well.  When I was with Wadia Digital, we used Avalon Eclipses to voice our products.

Avalon Eclipse 

what a beautiful sounding speakers.

i think it was the best model in their line up.