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Top Audio Designers Of All Time?

We have all had fun and world of info have spilled forth from Audiogon members. Lets give ourselves a round of applause. From me a sincere "Well Done" to all members that have participated. I have learned a great deal. In this thread,which may be a little esoteric for some,lets hear from members that support certain designers. After all if not for their dedication and genius,we would not have the topic or equipment. Ill start the thread for the inventor Thomas Alva Edison.For it was his revolution,that we now find ourselves here. In the more contemporary era I vote for Nelson Pass. His white paper on Cascode/Stasis toplogy was and is truly ground breaking. In my opinion since 1975,other designs are a variation on a theme of Pass.
ferrari
maxgain
526 posts
 
William Zane Johnson!
sean
6,231 posts
 
Nobody can argue with the fact that Nelson Pass has given us MANY, MANY excellent products and done tons of research to all of our benefit. Nonetheless, i think we owe far more to John Curl than to any other audio designer that is currently with us. After all, he was the one that gave us the first TRUE dual mono stereo amplifier along with many other design innovations that are too numerous to list. He's also done more work at pushing the envelope from BOTH ends of the spectrum ( both affordable AND dream gear) more than any other designer. Who else can you name that has done work for the likes of Levinson, Gale, Citation, etc.. AND brought us products like Vendetta Research, J.C. Audio Labs, CTC, etc... AND has come full circle with "trickle down" design technology for Parasound. I think you get the idea. As to others, I think that Edgar Vilchur and Henry Kloss deserve a mention. Without them, we might still be stuck listening to sloppy mud that many people call "bass". While you might not like his products, you also have to hand it to Bob Carver. He is an innovative genius who's always working on something new and different or trying to address the specific problems that we deal with as audiophiles. Sean >
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Dr. William "Conrad" & Dr. Lewis "Johnson"
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
For great affordable equipment Michael Creek.
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mryan
24 posts
 
Tom Colangelo - Cello, Ltd., for the Audio Palette, the Audio Suite, and the Performance II monoblocks, among others. Cello (Mark Levinson) gave Tom the freedom to design without a price point (although I suppose that "inexpensive," "reasonable," and even "very expensive" were taken off the table) - his circuits are therefore big, bold, tough as tanks, and suffer from very few, if any, compromises. The Performance II, for example, is powered by a dual-choke supply capable of sinking 1000W into 1 ohm, yet the amp is not just a solid-state brute - it is also delicate and very, very fast. Cello equipment is not much in the mainstream, but for pushing old-style, analog (all adjectives of praise) audio to its sweetest limits, Tom is the man.
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