Great post. I'd say that there a couple of missing names in my opinion including:

Nelson Pass of Threshold and Pass Labs fame to name just two.

Jim Thiel of Thiel loudspeaker fame. He's done more for time and phase coherent speakers than probably anyone else. Not to mention his use of a SHORT voice coil and a LONG gap to reduce the inherent distortion of dynamic drivers.

Good list. Would add:

Paul Klipsch (US). The folded horn loud speaker.
Incredible bass dynamics.

Peter Walker (UK). The Quad electrostat speaker. Still going strong today.

Bob Carver (US). Ushered in high power amps with Phase Linear. Put out 1 cubic foot subwoofers that play deeply & loudly - shocking all others at the time. Now a ribbon satellite speaker that you can hold in your hand

Rober Fulton (US). Designed speakers with tweeter crossovers above 20K! Oh yeah also started the whole wire makes a difference industry with the Fulton Gold speaker wire. Speaker & interconnects were in 57" multiple lengths.

Joe Grado (US). Invented many cartridges including moving coils (then didn't use them).

Sao Win ( Asia?). Strain gauge phono cartridge. A coaxial planar speaker.

Oscar Heil ( ?). Air motion transformer tweeter. Also a woofer that moved up & down on their expensive, see thru speaker.

Sure there are others
thanks
barondla

Henry Kloss and the rest of the Cambridge MA folks.

http://stereophile.com/news/11260/

Also, Amar Bose. Much to the dismay of many readers.

And indeed, Dr Sydney Harman and Bernard Kardon.

Bill Johnson
Y Sugano
Richard Vandersteen
Roger West
Peter Forsell

I don't need to explain do I?

James B. Lansing, Hiroyasu Kondo, Sidney Smith, J. C. Verdier, Gordon Rankin...

Emile Berliner!

Hopefully I haven't overlooked it and I thought he would have been mentioned by now.

John Curl

For all he has done to bring high quality affordable sound to the masses.

RG

John Eargle...utter genius!

(look him up if youve never heard of him)

Legendary speaker designer, recording engineer, technical guru extraordinaire...

* Don Morrison (Canada)

I'll add Morrison Audio to the list. Building on the concepts of the late Stewart Hegeman, the Morrison Audio speakers have been in continuous production since the late 1970's.

The speakers are based on the point source omni directional method of signal launch (rather than conventional front firing). Morrison is an innovator, and the design of the speakers continue to evolve. The line began with the Model 1, and is currently at the Model 11.

Quote:
John Eargle...utter genius!

(look him up if youve never heard of him)

Legendary speaker designer, recording engineer, technical guru extraordinaire...

I was not aware of his work in loud speaker design. Which speakers?

Quote:
John Eargle...utter genius!

(look him up if youve never heard of him)

Legendary speaker designer, recording engineer, technical guru extraordinaire...

And (*&(*& good practitioner of recordings. I miss him greatly. I got to work with him at a recording session that never saw the light of day (thank you, musician's union) that we recorded in both 2 and 5 channel.

Sadly, not even excerpts of that can be presently played anywhere.

Fred Sanford.

Quote:

Quote:
John Eargle...utter genius!

(look him up if youve never heard of him)

Legendary speaker designer, recording engineer, technical guru extraordinaire...

I was not aware of his work in loud speaker design. Which speakers?

He championed the concept of flat power response in sound reinforcement applications,
and conceived of the application of the Bi-Radial

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:
John Eargle...utter genius!

(look him up if youve never heard of him)

Legendary speaker designer, recording engineer, technical guru extraordinaire...

I was not aware of his work in loud speaker design. Which speakers?

He championed the concept of flat power response in sound reinforcement applications,
and conceived of the application of the Bi-Radial

Benjamin Franklin