Traditional Brands vs. "Audiophile" Brands

I've visited some traditional brands websites and seen items like Yamaha A-S700, Denon DRA-CX3, Onkyo A-5VL, Onkyo A-9555, Sony STR-DA1500ES, etc.

These are all around $500 and up (MSRP).

Then you have more "audiophile" brands like Cambridge Audio, Marantz, NAD, Music Hall, Adcom, with their own integrated amps in a similar price range.

Questions to ponder:

So what is the difference here?

Can one assume that an audiophile brand of more or less the same price is superior to these "traditional" brands?

Are there advantages in scale, such as say, access to latest technologies before smaller manufacturers, that the traditional guys have?

If units from audiophile group aren't always better, what makes them "audiophile," or are they even that (or just my mis-categorization)?

Your cogitations welcome.