Designer Hall of Fame

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.

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.

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.

David Hafler....RIP

Tom Collangelo of Cello...