The larger companies are trying to offer products that will appeal to the greatest number of people, while using their purchasing power to offer a huge variety of features at different price points. The boutique companies will never compete on that level, and leaves them free to tailor their products to their vision of what the best sound is for the price point they are offering that meets what they feel their market audience is. Many times you will not find as many features thrown in, but offering higher quality components, richer sound, or better level of controls on the features they hone in on as most important. Others ( I’ll use Trinnov as an example here) May offer industry best standards.
Advantages of owning equipment from major audio brands vs. boutique shops?
As someone new to home audio, the many brands of equipment is overwhelming. I learn about a new brand almost daily. Today it was Valvet and their A4 MKII monoblocks. Is it correct to assume that advantage to owning equipment from the major players is a result of the dollars they invest in R&D and the company stability, translating to piece of mind via their warranty, and the ability to get a component repaired? I would think resale value also plays a factor.
Because the small shops often sell direct, cutting out layers of profit, there appear to be some good deals on well performing kit. Other than price, are there advantages to investing in boutique brand equipment? It seems the offset to a better price might be their instability in the market, resulting in possibly owning a very heavy, expensive paper weight should they close their doors and your component need service, and a lessor resale value.