Who are the most underground high-end companies

+1 on Blue Circle as well as Decware and AVA

Also check out Almarro

For speakers, you can't touch Tyler Acoustics. They will blow the doors off Vandersteen's best at about one-fourth the price.
If you're into tubes and ballsy amps, have a look at Tube Nirvana.net.
Don Sachs in Nelson, B.C. builds a preamp to die for and also rehabs the legendary HK Citations.
I own all these products, have no financial interest in their makers, but you can save a ton of money. Don't look for their ads in the slick magazines. These are all hand-built in one- or two-man shops, for the pure joy of it.

So you are saying I can buy a speaker from Tyler Acoustics for 25 percent of the retail price of a Vandersteen and it will blow the Vandersteen away? 

Yep. I owned a pair of Vandersteen 5A carbons ($32k), replaced them with a pair of Tyler Acoustics D-12x speakers for $8k, and like them much better. Depends on your listening needs. The Vandies are great speaks but their "sweet spot" is about one foot wide dedicated. Tyler's Decade line, at least the D12xs, will open up the sound staging until you're tired of feeding the band. Ty's in Tennessee, just phone him up and talk to him. The D12xs use Class D amps in the woofer sections but unlike the Vandies, which use an AB amp in a sealed bottom, the Decades are a ported, transmission-line design. My other shout-out to Tylers is they are very efficient and give incredible detail at low volumes. Again, I'm not on his or anybody else's payroll. It's a word-of-mouth thing.

That is amazing that an 8k speaker can surpass a 32k Vandersteen. Especially considering Richard Vandersteen is considered one of the top speaker builders in the world.