I met Eva Manley

I met her at CES a couple of years ago, and I agree with your assessment of her entirely.

(I would put Ken Stevens of CAT fame in the same category.)

And somewhat surprisingly, I don't own a piece of equipment from either one of them, although I wish I did!

I've never met Eva, so I cannot offer any further insight.
However, I have met a few equipment designers, and a couple that stand out are Lloyd Walker of Walker Audio and Kevin Hayes of VAC.

Lloyd, in paticular, was very impressive, and invited me into his home to listen to music with his wife Felicia. Both came off as very down to earth and really genuine people.

Cheers,
John

Maybe If the dealers were like her their business would be doing much better.

LOL, Maybe if she had to sell retail and deal directly with the general public she would end up no different than the dealers you have dealt with.... LOL....

Kurt_tank - you must have met Ken Stevens on a good day!

LOL, I got a kick out of reading this thread on AA today.
I think it fits right in.....
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/14/142796.html