[rustneversleeps]

I promised to post the top 50 audio legends, so here they are, I've narrowed down the list, however, due to laziness. I read the magazine again, it's called the HIFI News. The qualification of being on the list is pretty much have to be "influential".

British

Ivor Tiefenbrun #50---founder of LINN
John Bowers #45------founder of B & W
Arthur Bailey #39------inventor of Transmissionline speaker
Raymond Cooke #37---founder of KEF
Arthur Radford #38------made transformers
Michael Gerzon #28-----audio math professor (here it is, a professor)
Spencer Huges #27-----founder of Spendor speaker.
D.E.C. Shorter #25------BBC engineer
Arthur Charles Haddy #22----Decca records
J. Robert Stuart #29-----founder of Meridian Group
Alec Reeves #24--------Inventor of PCM (pulse code modulation, pioneer of CD, I guess)
Alastair Robertson-Aikman #19-----founder of SME tonearm
D.T.N. Williamson #15------audio tube circuit, I think. Pioneer of all these push-pull tube circuit
Peter Walker #13------founder of QUAD
Gilbert Brigg #11-------founder of Wharfedale
Stanley Kelly #06-------engineer, designer, after designing radar to beat the Nazi during WWII, he was into audio.
Akio Morita #5---------not British, Japanese, founder of Sony, made lots of Walkman


American

Amar Bose #46-------founder of Bose
Dick Burwen #48------TNE-7000 Transient noise eliminator
Paul Klipsch #46-------founder of Klipsch
Noel Lee#49---------founder of Monster Cable, who started the cable black magic craze, then the wooden audio magic blocks
Nelson Pass #40-----founder of Threshold
Benjamin Bauer #35----Shure, then CBS Lab
Joseph Grado #24-----Grado
H.H. Scott #32-------Scott
William Johnson #31----founder of Audio Research, here, a guy from Minnesota, if Frank's amp sounds better than his, then Frank should have taken his place

J. Gordon Holt #15-----founder of Stereophile
Mark Levinson #17-----founder of Levinson, maker of mega buck amp
Saul Marantz #16-------Marantz
Edwin Armstrong #12-----founder of FM
David Hafler #08---------founder of Dynaco
Ray Dolby #03----------founder of Dolby noise reduction, I never used it, because it cuts the treble as well, makes the music sound dull
Avery Fisher #07-------founder of Fisher
Henry Kloss #04--------with AR, founder of KLH, and Advent, basically make hi end audio affordable
Peter Goldmark #2------CBS director of research, #2!!!!, but what did he do?
Edgar Villchur #1---------founder of AR, we all know who he is, remember those AR turntables?

So there you have it. I think Frank deserves a place there, but what would be the justification?

[lonewolfny42]

Peter Goldmark #2------CBS director of research, #2!!!!, but what did he do?

Peter Carl Goldmark was instrumental in developing the long-playing (LP) microgroove 33-1/3 rpm vinyl phonograph discs which defined home audio for two generations.

Link....

[rustneversleeps]

You are right about Goldmark, he introduced the 33 1/3 rpm record.

I typed this list based on the note that I took from the magazine, somehow I missed this note. Thank you.

[dB Cooper]

What, no Crazy Eddie?

[rustneversleeps]

Ahem, a *personage* like Noel Lee next to a genuine contributor like Paul Klipsch?

Where's a my bright yellow "BS" button?   
 

Well, Noel Lee is #49, but he still beats Ivor Tiefenbrun #50 being the founder of LINN. they even have picture of Noel Lee with a reel of Monster cable in his office in the magazine.

Where is Rudy Bozak and Jim Winey?

The authur claimed to have more names, but he had to consolidate the list down to the Top 50, Rudy Bozak and Jim Winey weren't on the list in any case.

The authur also regreted that there were no women on his list.

Don't tell me about that lady Eva whatever from Manley, she's a marketer.

Zheeeem corrected my spelling of Jim Winey instead of Wiley. Thanks

[dB Cooper]

Where's a my bright yellow "BS" button? 

Will this be sufficient?

[Zheeeem]

Howard Anthony who took over Heath after WW2 and introduced Heathkits deserves to be in there - probably in the top 10.  I'd also put Jim Winey of magnepan in there somewhere.  And maybe, instead of listing a bunch of speaker designers, some thought should be given to adding one or more XO engineer like Steven Butterworth.

I also think Harry has been more influential than Gordon, for better or worse.

Hafler is higher than #8
Klipsch is higher than #46
Bowers is higher than #45

Some of the names don't belong there at all ...

[Wayner]

No Avery Fisher
No Roy Allison
No Roy Hall (Music Hall)
No FRANK VAN ALSTINE
No James B. Lansing

Who was the L and H in KLH?

Just a few more.

[DustyC]

I agree with most of the top choices. They came up with an idea or new product that changed the industry or started a new category. Looks like a lot of them were engineers. People who put a twist on a market segment (Bose) are located much lower on the list.
The poster above mentioned HP from the Absolute Sound and I'm surprised he isn't on the list, BUT, he didn't start the subjective review magazine, Holt did.

[dB Cooper]

Well, Avery Fisher is there, Wayner (#7). Good points though on the other names you bring up.

Was the Spendor speaker really such a big deal?

Who was Stanley Kelly and what did he do? (Is that Frank's cat?)

[Wayner]

Good list there Rusty. Fun to think about some of these guys and products I use to have from the past.

W

[rustneversleeps]

I omitted some names from the list, I'll post all of them when I have time.

The L and H in KLH were Malcolm Low and J Anton Hoffman, I am not sure exactly what they did, but I think one of them was an accountant, book keeper, or someone who provided financial help for the company. I still have their Model 8 FM table radio, very good sounding radio. I run it once a month just to keep it working, have several sets of spare tubes for it, and I will baby it as long as I can.

Mark Levinson should not have made the list, Ray Dolby didn't deserve to be #3, James Lansing, and Bozak should have made the list.

As you can see, the founders of most of the British Audio companies made the list.

[rustneversleeps]

First, there's a typo on the list, they listed two #46s, Amar Bose and Paul Klipsch. I double checked the magazine, it is indeed a misprint. I think Paul Klipsch should have been #44.

Here are the rest:

#47 Richard Sequerra---designer of the world's finest tuners, also hold a patent for a miniture vacuum tube.

#43 James Moir--------acoustician Extraordinaire, he writes books on audio.

#42 Doug Rife-------creator of MLSSA. Created DRA Lab's Maximum-Length Sequence System Analyzer for measuring loudspeakers' acoustic behavior.

#41 Jean Hiraga-----Audio journalist famed for rocking the boat.

#36 Harry Olson----Author of audio textbooks.

#33 H.A. Hartley----Term-coining speaker maker. Made flared driver for his Boffle speaker enclosure.

#30 Paul Gustavus Adolphus Helmuth Voigt (what a name)------Owner/director of Voigt Patents Ltd. Designer of English Edison Bell a series of unique microphones, loudspeakers, disc cutter and amplifiers.

#26 Thomas Stockham-------Inventor of the Soundstream digital recorder.

#23 Richard Heyser------Famous for think outside of the box. Inventor of Time Delay Spectrometry, also wrote speaker reviews for the Audio magazine.

#21 Guy Fountain------Founder of Tannoy Loudspeakers.

#20 Ralph West-------Educative Reviewer

#14 Cecil Watts-------Groove consultant, involved in direct disc recording, supply cutting machine to BBC, also lacquer blanks. He likes to study groove behavior in records, and stylus wear.

#10 Peter James Baxandall------Inventor of "proper tone controls", the famous Baxandall Tone Control circuit. And was copied by manufacturers worldwide. Did Frank copy his circuit???????????

#9 Percy Wilson---A man for all sonic seasons. Contributed a vital thesis on arm geometry to the Gramophone.


That's all folks, all 50 of them.

[TjMV3]

I guess because the main basis for this list lies in " The Most Influential"  is the reason we're seeing some names mentioned that we would never include,     even if we created a list of Top 1000 All-Time Significant Audio Designers/Engineers.

Just seeing Noel lee and Bose on the list,  makes my stomach turn.  Even knowing the theme of this list.

[rustneversleeps]

I think Hollywood bought into Noel Lee's fancy cable idea and use the Monster cable on some movie projects. Mr. Lee just happens to be at the right place at the right time, so his business takes off, now Monster Cable makes cable for everything, even computer games.

In the early days of HiFi, they were for engineers and technicians, they built Heathkit in school and built their own speakers. HiFi back then was like computer networking today, an highly technical hobby.

The following article describes how the Japanese overran the American audio market in the late 60's to the late 70's, destroyed the golden age of audio. Hope you enjoy the article.

http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/tinyhistory1.html

[WGH]

I promised to post the top 50 audio legends, so here they are, I've narrowed down the list, however, due to laziness. I read the magazine again, it's called the HIFI News. The qualification of being on the list is pretty much have to be "influential".

.....................

Edwin Armstrong #12-----founder of FM

....................

I just came across Lawrence Lessing's (he's not the Internet Lessig) 1956 biography about Edwin Howard Armstrong, "Man of High Fidelity".

The book is out of print but the complete text is available at the Internet Archive Universal Library.
http://www.archive.org/details/manofhighfidelit002474mbp

"Edwin Howard Armstrong, the uber-electrical genius who invented just about everything upon which modern radio is based. Most famously, he conceived FM as a static-free alternative to amplitude modulation. But he also patented the regenerative, superheterodyne, and superregenerative receivers. (That middle one has been the basis for all modern radios, starting with the famous "all-American 5" vacuum-tube receiver of the 1930s, through to the integrated-circuit models of the present day.)

"In Armstrong's case, his nemesis was RCA impresario David Sarnoff. Sarnoff also was a genius in his own right, who paved a mass market for radio, media networks (NBC), and color TV. (You can think of him as a kind of Steve Jobs of the pre-computer age.)

"RCA -- along with Westinghouse and a host of other companies -- infringed Amstrong's patents for years. He committed suicide by walking out of a hotel window in 1954. Armstrong's vindication came only after his death, when his widow continued to pursue -- and eventually won -- his patent cases." - Alexander Wolfe


Wayne

[EDS_]

How the hell is Nelson Pass only number 40?  Grado ahead of Pass?  Negative.

[TheChairGuy]

A fair number of those fella's are dead...I think that Frank would take the tradeoff in sleight 

John

[Bob in St. Louis]

What about a couple Aussies named Thiele and Small.
I'd think they should be pretty darned high on this list.

Bob

[Se7en]

I'm surprised not to see Sidney Harman or Bernard Kardon on the list.

The integrated first stereo reciever.