Pioneers in the history of higher end/accurate sounding components....and you..


Not a contest, just what good people that made good sounding "gear" helped you on your journey?

Mine would be Henry Kloss, Tom Holman, Saul Marantz, and some very, very good people representing those and other companies.  In going to the early CES shows in Chicago, and events in NYC and other cities, some of my best education, experiences and "times" were with some of the "other" people that worked for those companies that were not the big names.  When the store I worked at was a major Advent speaker dealer I/we spent time at the Drake Hotel in Chicago with some simply great, helpful and wise people from Advent. 


whatjd
A very firm yes to Mr. Vandersteen.  In the last 20+ years perhaps the biggest speaker influence to introducing people to "real" fidelity.  The 1, 1B, 1C. 1Ci....and the bigger models, but the one series must be the modern day "welcome to high fidelity" that the original Advent was for many of a slightly older generation.  Mr. Kloss and Mr. Vandersteen were/are as an album was once titled, "Twin Sons of Different Mothers".
Now, these were not "entry level" but Jim Thiel and his company made beautiful music with their speakers.  I will need to write down my "audio gear" history...but either Thiel or Magnepan will probably be the most owned speaker brands of mine. 
Ours is a very small part of what is consumed for music playback.  I would guess there are some boombox models that sold more than most high end speaker models.  In my youth through my middle age, I realized that many have a jukebox in a bar for their "reference" point for the sound they desire....which is fine, but does not have much to do with most of us on AudiogoN. 

tvad, I fondly recall when Larry (larsky) was  somewhat regularly posting here. He possesed a very obvious good soul to me. 
«With no head and no a.. i am only a wave of sound, free to disguise myself, and i own more content than the equation that stand for me in some books....» -Groucho Marx reading Floyd Toole