Obscure brands worth considering

http://www.audiokinesis.com/   dont forget old Duke 

Classic Audio is not very well known either, I thnk.

Absolutely!

2 or 3 that compete with the "high-priced spread" at a fraction of the price are these:

Wavetouch Audio Grand Teton's / Antero's
Linkwitz Orion's or LX521's
AudioKinesis Dream Maker's / Jazz Module's
Lahave Audio Mela's

All of these have incredible sound quality that compete with the best available.  

However, because they are "obscure," they are more difficult to resell than the big brand names.

I'm not sure I would buy from "obscure" company again.  Hyperion Sound, I bought speakers from, went bankrupt (very poor marketing) and now I cannot replace drivers or Xover if necessary.  Drivers are "exotic" to make it worse.

Every company will disappear sooner or later or become something that is not worth paying attention to, especially when the founder is gone one way or another. There are always risks, replacing speakers every decade or so is not a big problem unless they are unique or/and cost too much. $100k masterpiece is supposed to last longer.