Whither the Great Designers?

Excellent responses, guys. By "etc." I in addition meant, of course, people like Nelson Pass, etc. Unfortunately, Karsten, Weisfield, both Mike Sanders, Rowland, etc. have all been around for more than 20 years. I think Go and Dan Wright might be good examples but only because I've seen their pics in the last couple years - they look more than a bit younger than me! Can't speak for the rest of those mentioned but I'll check their websites. Just for curiosity's sake!

Michael Elliot at altavistaaudio,real good,Bob

some of my favorite younger designers (some older but i can't resist to mention):

Vladimir Lamm (US)
EveAnna Manley (US)
Jeff Rowland (US)
Dan Babineau of Running Springs Audio (US)
Alvin Lloyd of Grand Prix Audio (US)

Hiroyasu Kondo San of Audio Note Japan (Japan)
Kazutoshi Yamada of Zanden (Japan)
Kazou Kiuchi of Harmonix Reimyo (Japan)
Junji Kimura of 47 Lab (Japan)

André Calmettes of Jadis (France)

as i was writing, i felt like i was taking a test of my knowledge of audio gear, which i have spent hundreds of hours learning in the past 2 years into this hobby. i just realized that i have never spent so much time and effort learning anything else (besides going through high school and college) ^ o ^

but i still think i am a newbie!

Ralph Karsten of Atma-sphere
Lloyd Walker of Walker Audio
Mick Maloney of Supratek
Harry Weisfeld of VPI

These gentlemen all get my vote as world class designers with a lot of great ideas and future products yet to be seen.

Keith Herron is certainly making a strong case for himself. He has a ways to go, but he's off to a great start.

Would these qualify?

Alex Peychel (APL), John Tucker (Exemplar), Dan Wright (Modwright), Ric Schultz, Henry Ho (H20), Josh Stippich(Electronluv), Terry Cain, Ron Welborne, George Wright, Chris Brady (Teres), Mike Sanders (Quicksilver, Jim Wang (Harmonic Technology), Emmanuel Go (First Sound), Duevel...and a number of others whose names I fail to recall at this moment.

Only time will tell which of these names are mentioned alongside the CJ's & Paul Klipsch's of the audio world, but I think there is a lot of startling innovation happening right here.

Maybe I'll catch some heat for this because he's been a commercial success and not just a tweaky designer, but what about Bob Carver in the listing of great designers.
The Phase linear 400, 700, Carver amazings and tube pres and amps, and Sunfire with the heat-less amps have shown that he is probably the most talented overall designer out there. Who else has had such a long and diverse record of interesting products?
Gayle Sanders? Recent shots have shown he's got more gray than me (yea), and he has to be celebrated for bringing fine technology to the market at reasonable prices.

So - to respond to your question - where is the next crop coming from? Hmmm - maybe Eldartford's on to something re: China, but you've got a point that there doesn't seem to be any young whipper-snapper coming to mind just yet.

I'm not sure if "younger" is the proper term here, but, Radomir Bozovich sure captures my interest.

They are all listening to MP3 files!

Probably in China.

I think you left off your list of all time great designers, Mr. Nelson Pass, who has made a major impact through the years with his designs and Threshold/Pass Labs companies. Many of his designs/amps are considered classics and still sound great compared with current gear.