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
From the Netherlands:

Aalt-Jouk van den Hul (needles, cartridges and cables)
Charles van Oosterum (Kharma)
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.
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.
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.