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
Hall of Fame or simply a Who's Who?

Anybody who takes that precarious plunge into the business that is Audio deserves recognition. The majority of designers and manufactures mentioned have some degree of notoriety and business success which makes them more recognizable from those who actually provided us with a substantial advancement yet were only able to market a few products before becoming victims of trends and economics.

At my advanced age these advancements are mostly small tweaks to a conventional technology within the audio chain while the few truly giant step advancements are the very few who've developed new or improved media.
Recording an LP onto an 8 track and being able to play it in your car was huge. He's not mentioned here. Or the corporations who developed the Compact Cassette, Compact Disk, and for now, the iPod. For us these medias were mostly giant steps backwards in fidelity but, along with Playboy Magazine, they helped to bring the average schmuck into the hobby.

For me the de Vinci of audio, and many other things electric, is NIKOLA TESLA who's many idea's and innovations have yet to come to fruition. Designers who actually helped me with their products and ideas are: SAUL MARANTZ who's 7C/8B were my first upgrade from my Fisher receiver which powered EDGAR VILLCHUR'S / H. Kloss AR-1's. CHARLES HANSEN and NEIL PATEL for taking the idea of an acoustic suspension speaker and making a speaker, and one of the few, that can actually play music with their Avalon Eclipse.

Aside from an Italian violin maker who died over 170 years ago ANDREW SCHNITZER's Contra (Double) Bass craftsmanship is becoming Masterful very quickly. On the musician side of audio JAMES BUNGIORNO and GENE CZERWINSKI's work in developing and producing high powered solid state amplification at an affordable price and an 18" driver that actually went bellow 30Hz changed the audio quality of the live performance as we know it today. I used the 18" Cerwin-Vega driver in a modified JBL 4530 Scoop enclosure. The first loud deep bass rig I'd ever used. This rig was quickly over shadowed by the now legendary, and as yet never surpassed, 200 watt folded horn "acoustic Control 360 Bass Amplifier" designed by RUSS ALLEE. Of all the electronic equipment I've bought and sold the 360 is my most regrettable loss.
Lincoln Walsh, who lived from 1903 to 1971, and whose Brook Amplifier Company produced legendary high quality 300B and 2A3 amplifiers in the early 1950's. Brook amplifiers are now highly collectible, btw, and command extremely high prices on the rare occasions when they appear for sale.

He also developed the Walsh driver, which was further developed and marketed by Ohm Acoustics.

Regards,
-- Al
Brian Cheney - VMPS Audio

While well known for their low end response, VMPS speakers have the most natural (neutral) sounding midrange of any product my ears have laid eyes on. They shine with demanding material (female voices / piano).
Victor Khomenko and BAT for making simple harder to build circuits with minimal gain stages and no global feedback. My system is 600 watts per channel and has 3 gain stages per channel, well four including the gain stage in source I suppose. That is keeping to the basics of what is best for circuits IMO keeping a short signal path and keeping it straight forward. Too many companies are putting multiple gain stages and feedback in there equipment and when you hear one without all that you realize how much timing, detail, and just raw quick power is affected.