I think it's naive to believe that the high-end began with the introduction of a single component... Probably a better question would have been: "Who were some of the early pioneers of high-end audio?"
When I think "vintage," I think of names like Fisher, Scott, Klipsch, JBL, Marantz, and McIntosh. And I'm sure there were quite a few before those. One of my friend's dads had a nice console when I was about 12, which had an Ampex tube reel-to-reel tape deck, Fisher tube amp and tuner, and he also had a cool Rek-O-Kut turntable, I think it had a Fairchild arm.
My own foray into higher performance audio began with solid-state gear from Layfayette Radio in the late '60s, and a little later I bought the original AR turntable with a Grado cartridge, a Dynaco ST-120 amp and PAT-4 preamp and some AR 3A speakers. I had a pair of AR 2Ax speakers as rear surrounds in an early pseudo-quad setup. It was kind of cool at the time. Later I got into tubes, electrostatic speakers, Stax headphones, and all types of other gear.
When I think "vintage," I think of names like Fisher, Scott, Klipsch, JBL, Marantz, and McIntosh. And I'm sure there were quite a few before those. One of my friend's dads had a nice console when I was about 12, which had an Ampex tube reel-to-reel tape deck, Fisher tube amp and tuner, and he also had a cool Rek-O-Kut turntable, I think it had a Fairchild arm.
My own foray into higher performance audio began with solid-state gear from Layfayette Radio in the late '60s, and a little later I bought the original AR turntable with a Grado cartridge, a Dynaco ST-120 amp and PAT-4 preamp and some AR 3A speakers. I had a pair of AR 2Ax speakers as rear surrounds in an early pseudo-quad setup. It was kind of cool at the time. Later I got into tubes, electrostatic speakers, Stax headphones, and all types of other gear.