small companies making today's best products

The money large companies spend on R&D gives them a real advantage , Also the more units a company makes the cheaper it becomes .
When you see the Revel factory and how things are done it's easy to see why there a leader in the industry , very impressive .

I suspect if a reliable and comprehensive study were conducted by experts between small and larger high end audio companies, the results would be a draw in terms of which can deliver the best sounding solution and larger companies would win statistically in terms of providing higher quality and value overall and offering lower risk overall for most.

The caveat would be I think if small companies from the far east, like mhdt for example, were properly included, teh smaller companies would do better in terms of value but still present a risk in that finding the good smaller companies can be a challenge to find reliably.

Also I think results might skew somewhat more back towards smaller vendors if the scope were limited to those vendors who break the norm and deliver solutions geared around high efficiency speakers and smaller amps, often tube based.

the advantage of some small companies is that they are willing to modify their designs. try asking mcintosh, audio research or cj if they will replace a capacitor, or change the tube compliment.

small companies may be more oriented to pleasing the customer by altering the design slightly to suit the nedds and taste of their customers.

Why is it that audiophiles are perpetually striving to define and pidgeonhole everything in their midst. Company size has no certain impact on value or reliability.
My wooden horns have no moving parts and will likely prove to be heirlooms but they come from a one man shop with thirty plus years of experience designing these things.
By the same token, I have a $78 Sony HD tuner that works well enough but I suspect any day could be its last, even though it has never given me any trouble. OPPO is a company that might confuse these arguments. Jeff Rowland makes what are probably the best constructed products on the market out of a 5 person factory. His name is certainly big but the operation is not. Would anyone here shy away from Rowland gear because the company is small?
I think, in truth, that you have to consider every company and every product on its own merit and avoid the childish tendency to make categorical rules of acceptability. Amen!

snip
I think, in truth, that you have to consider every company and every product on its own merit and avoid the childish tendency to make categorical rules of acceptability. Amen!

Well said, Macrojack.