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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
peterb
108 posts
 
From the Netherlands:

Aalt-Jouk van den Hul (needles, cartridges and cables)
Charles van Oosterum (Kharma)
farmdoc
45 posts
 
I agree 300 % with Richard Brown. A individual in a herd of individuals who walked his own path, avoided the collective thinking of the day, and probably died poor but with purity of a man who walked his own path and made a simple, musical amplifier, which costs far too little.
duane
189 posts
 
Interesting Thread.

There are several listed that I don't believe belong. Others that were geniuses but made bad sounding equipment that do belong, and a group that stole their ideas from others.

My short list but not complete list is:

Peter Snell
David Berning
Dale Pitcher of Essence and Intuitive Design
Alex from FMS
Dr. Hill of Hill Plasma
John Hillig of Musical Design, Rockford, Hafler
And last but not least our Military where several designs came from.
tef8568
25 posts
 
Whoever is in charge of design for Focal / JM Lab. They design and produce absolutely great speakers. The same goes for Sonus Faber and Usher. Also, Kevin Voecks at Revel as of now. While I don't care for the sound of his products, some of them are models of engineering excellence.
apollo66
13 posts
 
As long as this has become a list of practically everyone associated with the development and maturation of high-end audio, I've got to add Michael Kelly of Aerial Acoustics. He combines true design talent with marketing savy.

And IMO he played a big part in directing high-end speaker companies into multichannel. I know some of you think that was a giant step backwards, but it surely helped establish that audiophile quality sound was an essential part of good home theater.
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