I met Eva Manley

I met her at CES a couple of years ago, and I agree with your assessment of her entirely.

(I would put Ken Stevens of CAT fame in the same category.)

And somewhat surprisingly, I don't own a piece of equipment from either one of them, although I wish I did!

I've never met Eva, so I cannot offer any further insight.
However, I have met a few equipment designers, and a couple that stand out are Lloyd Walker of Walker Audio and Kevin Hayes of VAC.

Lloyd, in paticular, was very impressive, and invited me into his home to listen to music with his wife Felicia. Both came off as very down to earth and really genuine people.

Cheers,
John

Maybe If the dealers were like her their business would be doing much better.

LOL, Maybe if she had to sell retail and deal directly with the general public she would end up no different than the dealers you have dealt with.... LOL....

Kurt_tank - you must have met Ken Stevens on a good day!

LOL, I got a kick out of reading this thread on AA today.
I think it fits right in.....
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/14/142796.html

Peter_s,

I guess so. (Why, is he usually not so nice?)

Ken Stevens didn't know me from Adam, and yet when I discussed my setup with him @ CES, he was very supportive of the choices I made, and why I did not chose his preamp, (given my requirement of having a remote control, which meant that his unit was not going to fit the bill. I wanted a full function preamp, with a great phono section, and it came down to the CAT SL preamp or the Ayre K-1xe, and the Ayre had a remote, so that was the winner.)

And this next part might interest you, Jea48:

Because we then went on to discuss the merits of the Ayre remote control (as I own the Ayre K-1xe preamp), and how Charles Hansen had given him the remote control mechanism to try out in his preamps. (Apparently he and Charlie are friends, and they have helped each other out many times by sharing different subcomponent designs.)

Charlie (and company), have helped me out several times, with answers to questions, and with upgrades.

So, it seems to me as if both Ken and Charlie are both really nice guys!

Kurt_tank,
Don't know Ken but I have always found Mr. Hansen to be a great helpful guy on AA. I personally have asked him questions and he has always been of help.

As for Eva Manley, though I have not interacted with her on AA or DIY I have read many of her posts on the two forums. She also is always willing to help answer questions.

In Fact I have learned a lot about audio from reading what the two of them have had to say.

I thought the AA post of Mr. Hansen's was funny as hell. I thought he hit the nail on the head with his comments about emails.
================

My responses to the OP were directed at the second part of the post.....

Maybe If the dealers were like her their business would be doing much better.

There is a big difference when it comes to running a wholesale business compared to owning and operating a retail business.
.

Always had good luck with Ayre customer service. I don't know the Charles was being condescending. Sounded like he was just trying to figure out the best way to support the guy. In any case, anytime you call Ayre with Serial # they can tell you all about the piece. Good record-keeping there. It's great that he'll get on AA and answer questions. I would buy from Ayre anytime.

Wireless200, Funny that you should state: "It's great that he'll get on AA and answer questions.", because someguy named AbeCollins at AA is apparently trying to get him kicked off the asylums and shoved into a manufacturer's forum.

Interesting thread about Ayre on AA

I agree with you that having Charles available and willing to discuss his products in an open environment is a great asset to the Audio Community.