Most Respected Amplifier Designers

[Tuckia]

Not in order

David Berning
Kevin Hayes (Valve Amplification Company)
Nelson Pass

Currently own two of the three, but have owned all three. All quite different. In rotation they cover all the bases, at least the ones I know about.

 

[tdh888]

William Z. Johnson of ARC .
Sydney Corderman of Mcintosh

 

[bazelio]

Two no-brainer names would be David Hafler and Nelson Pass. John Curl comes to mind, and of course the inspiration for so many circuits still today, Douglass Self.

 

[bazelio]

Scott Frankland - Wavestream Kinetics; The Audio Archive; MFA (Moore, Frankland, Associates).

Scott's great, and has repaired a fair amount of gear for me. I recently acquired a new fixer upper for fun, and was meaning to give him a call today but forgot. I love having this guy local to me.

 

[IanG-UK]

Peter Walker of Quad - Quad II valve, Quad 303 triples, Quad 405 current dumping (as well as his electrostatics)

 

[IanG-UK]

Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel - inventor of ADH amplification

 

[Alrainbow]

Matti Otara
Kevin hays
Dr leach
Basecom king before ps audio lol.

 

[Alrainbow]

A more compete list of who I think were mile stone inventors in amps
Some I had too.
Bascom King before ps audio
Dr Matti Otala ( Harmon )
Dr Leach
Mile Nestorovic ( Mcintosh )
Tom Colangelo ( Cello and Viola amps)
Dick Berwin
Michael Elliot ( counter point Hybrid toobs )
David Hafler

 

[Gregadd]

Let's not forget the P.T. Barnum of audio Robert W. Carver.

 

[analogsa]

Let's not forget the P.T. Barnum of audio Robert W. Carver.

He already got an honorary mention in post#4.

This thread reminds me of that other one about the prettiest amp. Even the ugliest sounding amp is pretty in someone's eyes

 

[analogsa]

and of course the inspiration for so many circuits still today, Douglass Self.

Really? Which ones?

 

[twitch]

Mark O'Brien - Rogue Audio

 

[bazelio]

Really? Which ones?

His books are referenced often in the DIY community.

 

[rockhopper]

Tim de Paravicini of EAR should be considered

 

[rockhopper]

If looking for respect shown to an amp designer perhaps the original designer of the Wetern Electric 91A 300B amp in approx 1936 should also be considered.

 

[Gregadd]

He already got an honorary mention in post#4.

Not like mine. Smile.

 

[Ron Resnick]

. . . The JC1 is the best SS amp available for under 10K.

. . .

Hello,

Why do you believe this?

 

[marty]

Matti Otala has been twice named. Otala was considered by many to be a major bellwether of modern amplifier design 50 years ago. Prior to Otala, amp designers all mostly sought to reduce distortion, particularly transient IM distortion, by employing negative feedback. Otala advocated open loop bandwidth designs that he thought was the key to good (and better) sounding amplification even though their distortion products might be numerically higher than global feedback designs. Non-feedback designs with broad open loop bandwidth flourished as a result. His designs thus pioneered a major new trend in amplifier design that continues even to this day.

 

[ketcham]

Kang Su Park - Allnic Audio
Bascom King
Vincent Brient - TotalDac

 

[analogsa]

he thought was the key to good (and better) sounding amplification even though their distortion products might be numerically higher than global feedback designs.

The Otala designs do employ global negative feedback. Just not so much as other amps at the time.