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Designer Hall of Fame

There are many great designers out there, and especially in the lore from the golden age, but I'm not to familiar with them. I thought it might be interesting to discuss some of the great designers for engineering skill and knowledge, business integrity, and ultimatley quality of their products. My short list a "hall of fame" if you will of designers working today are:

Nelson Pass, Pass Labs
Charles Hansen, Ayre
Roger Modjeski, Music Reference
Ken Stevens, Convergent Audio Technolgy (CAT)
Kevin Hayes, VAC

and how could I leave Jeff Rowland off? Well it is a short list. Who would you nominate?
pubul57
oblgny's avatar
oblgny
848 posts
 
Jim Thiel.
realdeal
63 posts
 
OV,who designed tube rectified OTL,using DHT tube as an OPT or any of the 7ac based tubes.Make it possible for kt66/88 or any 7ac based tube directly plugged into a 4 pin socket of a 6A3 single ended amp without amplifier mod.
holygrailaudio
94 posts
 
As a dealer who found one of the best amps and preamps at any price I would say Dave Belles.

I instigated the creation of the first 350=A mono blocks, in A/B comparison listening at my place and customer's homes I had guys trade me for several of the big gun mono block amps, which I would use for a few months for comparison demo work. I took Pass labs XL600's, Krell, Levinsons, Marantz in trade.

Because the amps and preamps were so good I used cables costing more than the equipment. If you would use a $3500 power cord on $20k amps why wouldn't you use a cord like that on an amp that actually outperforms them even though they are only $4000 each? The comparison I did was showing the more expensive amps with the good power cord, then the Belles with the same quality power cord, no contest.

People put too much credence into what something costs.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Anybody have any idea who OV is?
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Just a guess. Ollie Voil?
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