Dan D Agistino for pioneering american solid state,Mathew Bond of taralabs for his contributions for cables. |
Jim Strickland
Brian Cheney
I've always wanted to hear VMPS speakers. They're a little too expensive for me, though.
Is VMPS an acronym and if so, what does it stand for? |
I have a list... Lincoln Walsh, Peter Snell, Jon Dahlquist, Irving Fried, Paul W. Klipsch, Roy Allison, Edgar Villchur, Kevin Voecks, Scott Bagby, Paul Barton, Brian Cheyney, Andy Payor, Tom Colangelo and Paul Jayson, John Curl, Frank McIntosh, Saul Marantz, Sidney Harman, Tim DeParavicini, Steve McCormack, Nelson Pass, David Hafler, The artist responsible for Luxman's C-1000f, and B-1000f amplifiers. |
I will definitely add Paul Weitzel of TRL (Tube Research Labs)...his designs, build execution and personal attention to his lucky customers is the epitomy of high end audio at its finest. His products will invariably outlast the lifetime of first owners, and then some. Truly "Final purchase" caliber, and simply amazing.
I'll also add Leo Speigel and Jason Bloom of Apogee Acoustics fame...products so far ahead of the curve they are still competing with and exceeding today's highest contenders. |
Leopold Stowkowski..In 1934, Stokowski was conductor of the
Philadelphia Orchestra, he was pissed off at the poor playback quality of 78 rpm records of the Orchestra recorded by CBS/Columbia Records. He went to Columbia records in New York in 1934 and demanded better quality recordings. His complaining and protesting resulted in Columbia Records inventing that year two channel stereo which did not become fully utillized until the late 1950's by RCA even though Columbia invented and produced the first 33-1/3 rpm vinyl record in 1948. |
Giovanni Mariani, of Graaf fame, should definitely be on this list.
Anyone with the balls to design a 32 driver tube OTL amp like the GM200 has got to have a place on the Designer Hall of Fame!
Nothing quite like it from an audio performance, sheer lust factor, and complete audio insanity point of view! |
I realize Saul Marantz and Jon Dahlquist have already been mentioned, but I'd like to share a little anecdote regarding them. When I was a salesman @ Midwest Hi-Fi in Mad City (MSN, WI) on State St. they came to visit. We were not a 'full-fledged" high-end store, but a college store that in our day our only Best Buy/internet threat was the students, a large portion of our base, would go to the mail-order catalogues of the time and order there after wasting hours of our time demonstrating audio for them. We called them Knobs, cuz all they wanted to do was play with the knobs on the equip and then buy off the catalogues.
I was very young then, under 25, when they came to see us. Saul was playing Front Man for Superscope, a division of Sony that he had sold his interest in Marantz to, that line we carried (mostly crap). I think we were hoping to get the Dahlquist line of speakers, not so much for our market, but because I really lusted over owning a pair and I sure wanted the employee discount that most manufacturers offered to sales staff - 50% off! Well, we never got Dahlquist, of course Saul had no influence over quality control, but that's not what this is about. I was lucky enough to go to dinner with the pair, my boss was "too good" to come along, as I recall - leaving that kind of "dirty work" to us. What a fool! I think the real reason he didn't come is he owed Superscope too much money and didn't want to show his face. But a couple other salesman accompanied us.
That evening was, of course, going to very memorable on those facts alone, but what really struck me about the pair was twofold. They got along so very well, obviously Saul had relished working on the DQ-10's and Jon was very appreciative. But what really got me was how incredibly humble the pair were. No pretention at all! In my mind at the time, Saul was the most noticeable guy in Hi-Fi at the time for although the argument could be made that McIntosh had always held an edge over his equip (not all!) his name was on that paragon of audio quality from our American past and I had expected a guy a bit too big for his britches, not at all. They both looked like refugees from the eastern front during WWII, not dressed up at all! What a delight, what gentleman and oh so patient to listen to our stupid questions and answered them as true gentlemen.
The year was 1975, and American protectionism was in full swing, more so even than today. We all bought Jap products because, generally speaking, they made the lion's share of the best contemporary affordable equip on the market and a great deal of it was the best in category. Yet we all longed for owning American equip that we could honestly state was the best of its class. Not so Superscope, but for me and thousands of others across the country, there was no doubt that American speakers were the best and Dahlquist DQ-10's at 400 a side, could not be competed with! Well, I never got my discount and although at two bucks an hour, it nearly killed me to lay out $800. I still have a relish my DQ-10's. I'll say that Regnar, the present owner of rights to the Dahlquist line of speakers, but not the name, have some great up-grades for them. I wish I could recommend their quality in detail, but I can't (they arrived home w/ parts of the X-over not secured, the fuses don't seat snuggly in the fuse holders, so I keep losing L, R or both speakers (gotta fix that one), they did a poor job prepping and re-staining the rails on the edges of my speakers, but all in all - must say if you have a year and a half to be w/o your speakers (YEAH, IT TOOK THAT LONG!) the upgrade is well worth it for only $2,800 (ONLY?). Now theyÂ’re $3,600 speakers, but some of that work was due to age and much would have come in the original 800 if it were available back then.
So, let's hear it for Saul and Jon! Thanks for your indulgence. Saul had to have been about 110 then, so I'm sure he's passed, RIP. I don't know what Jon may be up to now, anyone? |
I have to give another shout out Bob Carver. He is not known for just one particular design. He has designed innovative SS and tube electronics and speakers. As with many innovative designers, he stirred up a lot of controversy in high end...for the good IMO. The marketing of his products is somewhat questionable (eg, Amazing Loudspeaker and Sonic Holography), but who in audio hasn't been guilty of gimmicky names. Most of his designs were for the masses and thus affordable and not given much credit by audiophiles unfortunately. I would have given a limb to listen to his monster Silver Seven Tube amplifier. |
I think John Atkinson was mentioned as a joke. AFIK, he was never a designer of anything in audio that is notable...just a reviewer with technical knowledge. As for Audiozen's claims about reviewing, that's another whole contested topic in highend audio for discussion. |
At this moment I think I would like to mention:
David Berning
James Bongiorno
Nelson Pass
The guy from JuicyMusic (designed the Paragon preamps also, and others)..I forget his name now. |
Has anyone mentioned Roy Allison yet? I am a major fanboy of his. His speakers are amazing. He really pushed the envelope by trying different things IMO. I wish the new Allison had managed thru this Deprecession. |
John Atkinson..give me a break. He became the very creature
that J. Gordon Holt detested. Around 1961 J. Gordon worked for High Fidelity magazine and was instructed to favor and write false reviews praising audio products from companies that had the largest annual advertising contracts in the magazine. Out of protest, he quit High Fidelity and founded Stereophile in 1962. During the 1990's, Vandersteen Speakers had the largest annual advertising contract in Stereophile with full size ads taking up the entire back cover every month. Yet during that time period Vandersteen speakers were absolute junk with cheap $ 26.00 tweeters cheap midrange and woofer drivers, cheap internal wire and cheap crossover networks. The speakers had loose bass, muddy midrange and would stress when pushed too hard. Vandersteens are better today but back in the 90's they were junk speakers geared towards budding audiophiles. John Atkinson wrote great reviews on their models and always listed them in recommended components. He portrayed a false image of Vandersteen to the public to maintain his large annual ad contract with Richard Vandersteen. Give Atkinson a big check and a large annual ad contract and more than likely your tin can with copper wire will make it to the "A" recommended components list in Stereophile as one of the best speakers of the year. |
PHASE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY in Florida..another game changer.. they never get credit or acknowledged for inventing the worlds first ferrous oxide fluid filled tweeter in the late 1970's. The tweeter took speakers to a higher lever and vastly improved high frequency performance. |
Additional info on Edgar Villchur mentioned in this thread who invented the worlds first moving piston acoustic suspension speaker in 1952 which allowed lower bass frequencies down to 35hz. His patents were issued up through 1957 but in 1958, his patents were challenged by an electronics company in Federal Court since one of the
parts in the acoustic suspension speaker belonged to this company and was not designed or manufactured by Acoustic Research. Vilchur's patents were denied. He got burned. He got so depressed that he left the speaker business and made a fortune designing and manufacturing hearing aids. His three remaining partner's in Acoustic Research, Kloss, Lowe, and Hoffman, took the first initial of their last names and founded K.L.H. |
Manuel Huber-FM Acoustics |
Bob Carver would be on my short list |
Paul Grzybek of Tube Audio Design, of the famed TAD-1000, TAD-60, and TAD-150 among other great products including his signature Fisher restorations, has died. The world lost a great, talented, and kind person and the audio designing world is one less today for he left us on March 20, 2012. He was 48. He is dearly missed.
His obituary:
PAUL A. GRZYBEK
Paul A. Grzybek, 48, of Wheaton, passed away March 20, 2012, loving husband of Kathy, nee Huttenhoff; beloved son of Joseph and the late Anne Grzybek; dear brother of Maria Grzybek; fond uncle of many nieces and nephews. Visitation Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. at Williams-Kampp Funeral Home, 430 E. Roosevelt Rd. (one blk E. of Naperville Rd.), Wheaton. Funeral Mass Monday, 10 a.m. at St. Daniel the Prophet, 101 W. Loop Dr., Wheaton. Please meet at church. Interment Assumption Cemetery Wheaton. In lieu of flowers, donations appreciated to the charity of your choice in Paul's name. Info at www.williams-kampp.com or 630-668-0016.
Published in Chicago Tribune on March 23, 2012 |
Billy Woodman-ATC
Chris Russell-Bryston |
Israel Blume
Dan Wright
Phil Jones (loudspeaker designer v.g. Soliloquy)
To name a few to start with... |
Sid Smith designer of most early Marantz's |
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Daniel von Recklinghausen, the head engineer at H.H. Scott. |
Did Ed Vilchur recently pass away? Sure did influence the audio marketplace. |
Yes include David Hafler in the Designer Hall of Fame. He was an early pioneer in his own right. Price points for his products were within the budgets of more people. David wanted quality at an affordable price. |
Leonardo da vinci should be mentioned regarding history and then thomas edison, benjamin franklin and of course, GEORG OHM, the german physicist in 1827 who came up with ohm's law! Dr. oskar heil, I like bob carver, conrad johnson, nelson pass, Jim winey, bruce thigpen |
I scanned the responses, but, to my surprise, did not see my nomination for the Designer Hall of Fame:
Richard Vandersteen |
Jim Winey - Magnepan
John Curl - Mark Levinson, Parasound other |
Three manufacturers of great British tube amps.
Arthur Radford designed probably the best ever push pull amplifier made, the STA15 in the 1960s.
Graham Tricker (TRON) and Gary Dews (Border Patrol - ok,Gary now lives in the MD, USA) are two of the best tube amplifier designers around today. |
Bwcanuck,
Great music has always been linked to great equipment. The old blues players that everyone are crazy about would've had more fun if their guitars weren't garbage. Imagine the "Flight of The Bumblebee" on an old wine jug. |
What five in the writer/reviewer's Hall of Fame - after JGH and HP? |
Apologies if I missed it and this is a repeat but my top of the list would be Prof, Keith Johnson and Rick Freyer of Spectral Audio, Reference Recordings and Pacific Microsonics and possibly Michael Ritter of Berekeley Audio Designs belongs in that same group. There work makes up much of my system and brings me great great joy, many thanks gentleman. |
Imagine having to pick just 5 for the inaugural selection:) |
In NO particular order...
Jon Dahlquist, Saul Marantz, Jim Winey, Matti Otala-Per Abrahamsen, Tom Colangelo, James Bongiorno, Nelson Pass, Boothroyd & Stewart, Ray Dolby, Rob Watts, Stewart Hegeman, Peter Walker, John Curl, G.A. Briggs, Harold Beveridge, Amar Bose, David Reich, Decca London (yes I know...), Julius Futterman, Ed Meitner, Stefan Kudelsky, Stan Curtis and the one without whom nothing would never have been at all possible: Nikola Tesla.
My two cents... |
Tom Collangelo of Cello... |
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I've come to find many of these "legends" really aren't that inventive or particularly blessed with good hearing. Nelson Pass thinks the Lowther DX and other fullrangers sound good. He felt the one was "a tad grainy on the very top". The drivers are complete ringing aluminum above 6kHz and sound like crinkling metal, apparently he cannot hear the highs, and instead is content with not deliberating any form of correction for the 6dB rise in HF response. Mids are good but high hats sound like pink noise instead of the instruments they are supposed to be.
His amps have been dissected repeatedly and only recently have people finally had the courage to admit it- they aren't particularly good. The "guru" status is awarded to whoever gets the reviews and who's products have the looks.
There are fantastic designers out there who are completely unrecognized for their efforts in many a fine piece of audio gear. Throwing titles at company CEOs like these is like Pharaoh Ramsey getting the credit for building cities in Egypt when it was the slaves who did the work.
Not one of these famous gurus has actually designed an accurate speaker or audio device. Yet we are so quick to quote them like Gods, live by their words and buy as much of their product as we can.
The original goal of audio is almost lost- To produce a replication of the original event. To do this, we need a speaker and gear accurate to the signal, at least within the boundaries of human perception and threshold. Because non has been made, the recording cannot ever be produced properly.
We're hearing the speaker and electronics in the way.
Audiophiles are in great shape- their constantly jumping to the wrong conclusions. But lets face it, that's what audiophilia has become with all of the flash and glamour victim products hitting the boutique shop floors. It's a sad day in audio when we hail the designers of tools and forget those who actually made the music. That's what it used to be about, the music and composition, not the gear or pseudo legends in design. |
oskar heil, inventor of the ESS transducer, lincoln walsh the designer of the original OHM A and F sound cylinder or later known as CLS or coherent line source, bruce thigpen, inventor of eminent technology of the push/pull electrostatic design without the use of a transformer and his unique tonearm and subwoofer design that uses primarily air with no cone drivers. Last but most noteable, the genius BOB CARVER of then phase linear, carver corporation and sunfire. Inventor of solid state amps sounding like tubes, sonic holography, various ribbon loudspeakers and high powered subs with the downtracking amps and developer of tube amps the power of high powered solid state, and famous for the stereophile challenge of developing the T series in the 80's over night od matching or exceeding the top of the line highly regarded CONRAD JOHNSON. |
That's very true, you don't see that kind of protean talent very often, perhaps Nelson Pass comes closest to that across the board talent. Not only across product categories, but the incredible number of circuit approaches - the man is unbelievably creative. I would love to hear a Class A, 30-60 watt tube amp designed by Nelson Pass - would be interesting to see what he could do if he chose to immerse himself in tube design. |
Israel Blume,
His Coincident speakers, power amplifiers, linestage,phonostage and cables are all top tier world class products. This is a remarkable achievement by one person. |
There seem to be many, many folks that we admire and have made contributions to the art/science of audio. But since the Hall does not exist (yet), try to think of it as having to select 5 for the inaugural inductees - truly the best of the best. Who belongs into the top 5 of conetmprary folks, and the top 5 of those who have unfortunately passed on per were critical when the audio business started (A Veterans Commitee vote if you will). So if you pick someone, would you really place them in the top 5? There are obviously many that would be included for future consideration. They really should do this in the real world at RMAF, that would be a very fun gathering, and a nice way to honor those that have contributed to the hobby. |
Hope I spell this right....what about James Borgino from SAE,GAS? |
Please no ridicule(but if you must,go ahead). Although I am not a fan, I believe Amar Bose is one.....Yes I said it.... |
without Ed Meitner we would probably still be listening to records because digital would be horrible! He was a brilliant man. |
The number 1 Digital man? |
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Mr. Israel Blume of Coincident Technogy. This man designs are the best that the high end offers and at performance and prices that undercut similar products. His high efficiency speakers are all excellent at their various preice points. Then he comes out with amplifiers, such as the Frankenstein and the Dragons which blows the doors off of similarly priced competitors. And then he adds to that with the best Linestage at $5,000, which can embarrass many of those with prices of over $10,000. And his new phono stage is unbeatable at its price point.
Mr. Blume is clearly a man of all seasons in high end audio.
Greg
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Agree with the respondents...I've only observed Alan Hill/Plasmatronics enumerated once, sooo I'll second it :-)
-Sam
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Friedrich Schaefer of ASR Emitter fame...
Whether or not you think his products are overhyped...
The results speak for themselves to those privledged to have owned and used them. |
David Reich's Class'e audio designs were wonderful. I had a DR-2 or DR-7 which were class A bias. Anyone know of he has designed any new? |
My sense of great design has little to do with manufacturing efficiency, which is a laudable trait, but not the sort of thing I meant by design, but rather original thinking related to circuit design - the sort of thinking that goes into Nelson Pass' First Watt amp experiments - the genius of originality and a new way of thinking that leads to better music recording and reproduction. Yet, there is something to be said for those that can build a product with high QC and consistency that saounds good and is affordable - but if the bulk of that low cost is accomplished predominantly with low wages, that seems like a rather blunt way of building something good that sell for "little". I prefer a clever design that uses just the part it needs and no more, that sounds very good and is not very expensive, something like the $760 Mapletree Audio linestage handmade in Canada. |
