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A vote for the little guy suppliers

Over the years, either by desire or luck, I've managed to gravitate to small volume gear suppliers, most of whom have extensive engineering degrees and operate without advertising or retail entanglements.

I think I have found (with much help from forums like this) the pieces I will be retiring with and I couldn't be happier or more content with my system.  Other than one final turntable change which I promised myself at retirement, I'm done.  

My speakers, phono stage, cartridge SUT, preamp, amp, and cables are all from individual designers, all made in the USA.  I have either met in person or have had multiple phone and email encounters with all of them.  I really like this approach and I'm convinced that great equipment at reasonable pricing can be had this way.  I've had to endure longer wait periods after ordering due to each of them not having factories behind them to mass-produce the gear.  None of them inventory product and most of the gear is really a custom order.  

Only my current TT/cartridge and SACD/CD player are from well known large firms.   

Anyone else like having relationships with their suppliers?  In case anyone is curious:

     Speakers      - JansZen Valentina/zA2.1 hybrid ESL

     Phono stage - custom build by Don Sachs

     SUT              - Bob Devices SKY 20

     Preamp         - Linear Tube Audio MZ2-S

     Amp              - Linear Tube Audio ZOTL40

     Cables          - Cerious Technologies Graphine Extreme speaker, power, and interconnects

My sources are both Marantz units.  The new TT will likely be Technics 1200G.  Current primary cart is a Lyra Delos

jsm71
jim_hodgson
11 posts
 
@bullitt5094 said:

If you can get the principals on the phone when you call, that's what's important to me.

And I completely agree.  Jeff Korneff, George Wright, A.J. Conti, Nelson Pass, and Paul McGowan have all been incredibly generous with their personal time -- and have all seemed to be answering a much higher calling than mere short-term retail success.

I've been particularly impressed with Paul McGowan's accessibility and level of personal interest.  I wouldn't call PS Audio a "little guy supplier" as in the title of this thread -- at least not compared to some of these other names.  But my experience has been that it's pretty typical for Paul to answer an e-mail within hours, take on a personal issue as his own, suggest a better-than-hoped-for solution, and assign a very capable member of his team to implement it.

jl35
3,918 posts
 
If we include you can talk to the boss. Michael Kelly. Richard Vandersteen. Jeff Rowland. 
willsw
22 posts
 
A goal of ours is to fill our listening room only with components that not only sound great, but are made by people we know personally. 
Anytime I want to, I know I can easily have a lengthy conversation with Gary (Border Patrol), Joe (Wolf Audio Systems), Chris (Fern & Roby), Clayton (Spatial Audio), Mark (Evoke Loudspeakers), Louis (Omega Loudspeakers), Jiun (MHDT Labs), Zack (ZMF Headphones), Dan (MrSpeakers), Eric (Tekton Design), Brian (Belleson Regulators), or several more people, and I know they'd be just as willing to chat with people they don't work with professionally. 
jpsreno
75 posts
 
I'm a big fan of VanL speakerworks just outside of Chicago.  John is a brilliant speaker artist and Mark does wonders with electronics.

They might take a little longer than some to customize things for you but the quality is top notch
halc-76
3 posts
 
Little-guy suppliers are a never-ending source of interesting options to explore in this audio hobby.  I grew up in the do-it-yourself age of hi-fi and have always enjoyed both the discussions and solutions from smaller suppliers - from speakers, to amplifiers, to turntables - not just the final solutions, but the underlying concepts and components.  My latest encounter has been with Anvil Turntables, a mass-oriented design that works well and costs a third of anything comparable.  While Bruce will set up a complete LP player, I went the route of assembling my system from other components:  Origin Live Enterprise tonearm and EMT cartridge both sourced used from small shops that still talk to their customers.  The list is long of little-guys with which I have engaged over a lifetime of participating in this hobby, I will not try to list them all [some of which have, unfortunately gone out of business from retirement or market changes].  I will vote with other responding to this thread and encourage engagement with little-guys to extend the experience of good audio to participation in the community.
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