Speaker Designers.. These guys make products worth building a system around

A

Akustic

Super Member
There are a ton of so-so, okay speakers and speaker brands... they occasionally make a really good sounding speaker, but only occasionally, and they're usually colored or inaccurate in some way.
But there are a few speaker designers who, regardless of brand, just keep making good neutral sounding speakers that are mostly limited only by the quality of the rest of your system.

Who are those guys ??

After 50 years of messing with this gear my short list is ..

Jim Theil .. Theil ..
Jim Winey ... Magnepan
Richard Vandersteen ..Vandersteen
Peter Snell .. Snell

Winslow Burhoe ..EPI, Epicure, Burhoe
Henry Kloss .. AR, KLH, Advent, Cambridge Audio, Tivoli

They're just the go-to's that consistently make a good enough product that it will reflect what it's fed.
You might as well concentrate some serious time, money, and energy on the source and electronics of your system because what they're fed is what you'll hear ..

Who else is out there ??
Who should be removed from this list ??
 
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Akustic said:
There are a ton of so-so, okay speakers and speaker brands... they occasionally make a really good sounding speaker, but only occasionally, and they're usually colored or inaccurate in some way.
But there are a few speaker designers who, regardless of brand, just keep making good neutral sounding speakers that are mostly limited only by the quality of the rest of your system.

Who are those guys ??

After 50 years of messing with this gear my short list is ..

Jim Theil .. Theil ..
Jim Winey ... Magnepan
Richard Vandersteen ..Vandersteen
Peter Snell .. Snell

Winslow Burhoe ..EPI, Epicure, Burhoe
Henry Kloss .. AR, KLH, Advent

They're just the go-to's that consistently make a good enough product that it will reflect what it's fed.
You might as well concentrate some serious time, money, and energy on the source and electronics of your system because what they're fed is what you'll hear ..

Who else is out there ??
Who should be removed from this list ??
Click to expand...

I forgot Arnie Nudell .. Infinity ..
 
teal'c said:
Gene Czerwinski - Cerwin Vega
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Innovation.. I'm totally with you..

But I don't know about products that I'd want to build my system around ..
If I were a pure electronic music Rock and Roller, that would be a different story ..
 
Some current designers that might fly under the radar, and they do contract design for other companies.

Phillip Bamberg Bamberg Audio

Danny Ritchie G&R Research

Jim Salk Salk Audio

John Inlow Inlow Audio

Bill Chapman Chapman Audio

Interesting how many of the companies names are the designers last name. LOL.
 
botrytis said:
There are so many.

Jim Salk designs speaker boxes really, which are amazing. He uses the brain behind GR research to pick the drivers and design the crossovers.
Click to expand...

Everything I have seen indicates Dennis Murphy designs the x-o.
Drivers can be something from Jim/Dennis or customer requests.
 
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Don't forget Aldred Von Schweikert, and his protege, Leif Swanson. Probably some of the most significant advances in crossover theory and design, have come from them.

And reaching way back- Guy Fountain of Tannoy. The whole concept of the dual-concentric driver, pretty much was made practical by him and his team.

Speaking of Shearer, Lansing and Hilliard- don't forget Robert Stephens. He was a big factor in the success of the Shearer Horn project, as well as doing his own design work later.

Also, a list like this cannot be complete, without Dr. Godehard Guenther of ADS, Stuart Hegeman (of his own eponymously named speakers, and his work at Harman) and Dr. Floyd Toole of Harman/JBL.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
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