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DNM. About as far from typical "high end" as it's possible to get—but the sound is totally first rate.

AMC tube gear.

Marsh P2000 preamp.

Has to be Sonique—a small Australian manufacturer of loudspeakers and subwoofers. World-class sound, quality, and construction! Well done, guys!

Antique Audio. This company makes really good head amps and phono stages. The power amps and preamps are also good. This stuff is all tube.

VMPS loudspeakers. Outstanding value and sound quality far surpassing many competitors including the ones getting awards and rave reviews.

BRYSTON is still the only brand which can offer a solid 20 years of warranty.Anyone else out there who trust their products so much and offers such an unbelievable warranty period to its customers?

The amazing Zerostat static buster.

virtual dynamics

Sony

Blockers RF absorbers, the first and the best

My Zerostat, which I've had seemingly forever.

I think everything I own was at one time mentioned in your magazine. I feel ... well left out somehow...

Probably some of my best times with this hobby were building the Heathkit, Dynakit, and Knight-Kit (Allied Radio) products in the sixties. It was great fun to unpack a box full of weird-looking parts and transform it into a working audio product. It's too bad most of you will not be able to experience this kind of fun and satisfaction. Times change.

When I am spending large sums of money on audiophile-grade equipment, I won't take a chance on an obscure company.

Castle Loudspeakers. They're from Britain and not obscure there, of course, but I don't recall ever seeing them featured in Stereophile.

Luxman. Made great affordable stuff back in the late 80's. Dawn of remote controls, and very ergonomic.

supratek

I like my new Audio Mirror DAC. It isn't built to rigid specifications, but I prefer the CD layer on my hybrid SACDs over it, compared to my Sony XA777ES. Go figure.

My Michaelson & Austin amplifier continues to perform without trouble after 25+ years.

Korsun, OEM of Vincent & RRM, Original OEM of Theta DaVinci. Chinese audio is getting good.

Bottlehead.

DK Design.

Klyne: Great phono preamp with lots of internal flexibility, made by hand in very limited quantities.

Canary Audio. I have the 300B push-pull amp and am planning to get the preamp.

True High End Salon's in all states and cities across the USA! Was a time you could go see all the pretties in most major cities in any state but now it's just not feasible. If you can't make it to a CES then you may never see anydream gear up close!

To most people, everybody but Sony is obscure. When I talk about having a MacIntosh amplifier to most people, they think I"m talking about my computer.

I just have to go with that ultimate of snake oil, the "Harmonix dots". Not because they work nor could they work in THIS WORLD'S rules of physics, but because every time I contemplate them they make me laugh my ass off WAY HARD. Good ol' P.T. Barnum had it right, a fool is born every minute and a fool and his money are soon separated. Gotta laugh!

Not sure if Anthony Gallo's brand is obscure anymore, but those speakers rock! They are by far the best sounding (extremely) small speakers I have heard. They are coherent, musical, sonically invisible, and offer an excellent soundstage. But they're not so obscure anymore.

I have a Lazarus preamp and GTA-SE40. Too bad they refused to charge for all those milspec caps and wirewound resistors. They might still be with us. Cheerio