Designer Hall of Fame

Bob Carver would be on my short list

Manuel Huber-FM Acoustics

Additional info on Edgar Villchur mentioned in this thread who invented the worlds first moving piston acoustic suspension speaker in 1952 which allowed lower bass frequencies down to 35hz. His patents were issued up through 1957 but in 1958, his patents were challenged by an electronics company in Federal Court since one of the
parts in the acoustic suspension speaker belonged to this company and was not designed or manufactured by Acoustic Research. Vilchur's patents were denied. He got burned. He got so depressed that he left the speaker business and made a fortune designing and manufacturing hearing aids. His three remaining partner's in Acoustic Research, Kloss, Lowe, and Hoffman, took the first initial of their last names and founded K.L.H.

PHASE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY in Florida..another game changer.. they never get credit or acknowledged for inventing the worlds first ferrous oxide fluid filled tweeter in the late 1970's. The tweeter took speakers to a higher lever and vastly improved high frequency performance.

John Atkinson..give me a break. He became the very creature
that J. Gordon Holt detested. Around 1961 J. Gordon worked for High Fidelity magazine and was instructed to favor and write false reviews praising audio products from companies that had the largest annual advertising contracts in the magazine. Out of protest, he quit High Fidelity and founded Stereophile in 1962. During the 1990's, Vandersteen Speakers had the largest annual advertising contract in Stereophile with full size ads taking up the entire back cover every month. Yet during that time period Vandersteen speakers were absolute junk with cheap $ 26.00 tweeters cheap midrange and woofer drivers, cheap internal wire and cheap crossover networks. The speakers had loose bass, muddy midrange and would stress when pushed too hard. Vandersteens are better today but back in the 90's they were junk speakers geared towards budding audiophiles. John Atkinson wrote great reviews on their models and always listed them in recommended components. He portrayed a false image of Vandersteen to the public to maintain his large annual ad contract with Richard Vandersteen. Give Atkinson a big check and a large annual ad contract and more than likely your tin can with copper wire will make it to the "A" recommended components list in Stereophile as one of the best speakers of the year.