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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
jtwrace's avatar
jtwrace
443 posts
 
Wilson Shen-Clayton Audio
thom_s
11 posts
 
surprised no-one mentioned him ...
peteraudio7
13 posts
 
Not sure if anyone has mentioned:
Brian Cheney (VMPS)
Paul Grzybek (Tube Audio Design)
somut
82 posts
 
1. A.J. Conti and Associates -- Basis Audio, Inc.: Ovation, 2500/2800 Series, and Debut tt's;

2. Henry O. Wolcott for implementing distortionless amplifier designs used in mission critical laboratory applications for Uncle Sam and converting these designs to a more user-friendly consumer version of his Presence Monoblocks;

3. Dr. Rogers of Sound Lab and Dr. Sanders of Sanders Sound Systems(subsequent to his leadership at Innersound) for their electrostatic innovations;

4. Michael Elliott of Aria Audio (Founder of Counterpoint Systems) for his hybrid preamp./amp circuitry;

5. Nelson Pass for his eternal engineering feats while working for Threshold, Inc.
somut
82 posts
 
Please allow me to also credit the following:

William Firebaugh (Ford Aerospace, Inc.) and Andy Payor (Rockport Technologies) for their innovative carbon fiber tonearm with viscuous damping design -- integrated on the Well Tempered Super Classic and Reference tt's.

"... this pivoting arm has no pivots. For all intents and purposes, the 'pivoting' is absolutely frictionless. ... viscous damping is still the best system that has been devised for stabilizing tonearm behavior." (Holt & Various, Pars. III and IV.)

. . .

"The result is frictionless anti-skate bias." (Par. V.)

See, J. Gordon Holt & Various, "The Well-Tempered Arm." Stereophile April 1985 P. 1. Source Interlink Companies, Inc., 261 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016. Friday, May 30, 2008 6:21:10 AM. .

Thank you.
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