I'm on board with the Guinness. Relatives emerged from the Gorbals and prospered. Your knowledge of Scotland is probably superior to my knowledge of Amsterdam and I lived there for a year (working too close to MediaMarkt for my own good :)).
The rapid transition from well respected genius to an ex genius reminds me of the Tinder mentality. I've rarely been into brand love - technology evolves quickly. To expect a loved brand to get it right all the time is a touch naive. One brand you can always trust is your own ears.
There's been a trend on this forum for "unexpectedly" musical equipment to emerge from the pro music sector. The Gigaport DAC was followed by the JBLs (respect to Jajo). Looking at pro subwoofers it's clear that the inputs and outputs are higher spec than the typical home theatre subwoofer for the same or less money. The pro subwoofers are designed to allow monitors to be connected in series from the subwoofer (there are typically more controls too).
My good fortune with pro equipment went further this weekend when comparing a pro USB audio interface to my Linn preamp. The interface was less than £100 and contains a phono stage and pre amp. I haven't tested the phono stage but the preamp is on a par with my Linn preamp for musicality. I forgot I owned the USB audio interface (I bought it with the intention of recording vinyl as flac but it never was used for that). My secondary system now has a preamp and JBL 305Ps.
Peter Walker of Quad seems to merit addition to list started by Spannko.