High-End Audio Designers

[MylesBAstor]

It is always interesting to me that in any poll of "great" audio designers, rarely are the names Lew Johnson or Bill Conrad mentioned. Names that always appear on such as list and deservedly so, are Bill Johnson, Arnie Nudell, Mark Levinson, Sid Smith, Dick Sequerra, etc.

Yet, cj is one of the "elders," including ARC, Magnepan, VPI, Linn, Quad, McIntosh, etc., of the high end industry and many of their designs have stood the test of time. The ART preamplifier, remains over twelve years later and three updates, one of the finest preamps around. The Premier 1 was a classic large wattage tube amplifier in its day (amazing sound, just soft in the upper octaves but great bass). Hmmm...what gives? Why doesn't this duo get their due?

[Steve Williams]

That is an excellent question as I agree with you on their preamp

[JackD201]

CJ's well earned reputation as a company validates their work. It's just always difficult to heap honors on duos. I guess it's because most folks don't really know who does what in most pairings. Are Lew and Bill like John and Paul or are they more Hall and Oates?

[es347]

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[MylesBAstor]

CJ's well earned reputation as a company validates their work. It's just always difficult to heap honors on duos. I guess it's because most folks don't really know who does what in most pairings. Are Lew and Bill like John and Paul or are they more Hall and Oates?

I've taken some time to ponder your response Jack. And it's awfully hard to come up with too many companies where two people collaborated on design. One that comes to mind is Ron Sutherland and Gayle Sanders in designing the early Martin Logan speakers. Another is Arnie Nudell and Bascom King in designing the early Infinity speakers. I'm sure there are others but can't come with them. Anybody care to chime in?

And yes, it's probably like two players on the same team splitting the votes for the league MVP

[mep]

Please someone correct me if I am wrong here (and I am positive someone will), but maybe the reason no one names Lew Johnson and Bill Conrad as great designers is because they are not electrical engineers, they are accountants who happen to own an audio company that made some good products. The pair of them may have never designed a damn thing together. I am sure they had input on the looks of the products and input on the final sound by giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down to the person who actually designed the circuits for them. But somehow I doubt that either of them has the background and training required to design a circuit for any audio component. So, if someone knows that Lew and Bill can really sit down at a table together and draw a schematic for any of their products, do tell. And before anyone gets their feathers ruffled, I don't mean this as a knock to Lew Johnson or Bill Conrad. There are plenty of successful people who own companies that build products that they couldn't personally engineer. You have the vision and hire the talent. And you make sure the talent builds what you like and want you want to sell. And I think that describes Conrad Johnson. And if I am right, that would explain why no one has nominated them as great designers. By contrast, William Zane Johnson actually designed many of that company's products over the years. That man understands electronics and knows how to draw a schematic.

Mark

[MylesBAstor]

Please someone correct me if I am wrong here (and I am positive someone will), but maybe the reason no one names Lew Johnson and Bill Conrad as great designers is because they are not electrical engineers, they are accountants who happen to own an audio company that made some good products. The pair of them may have never designed a damn thing together. I am sure they had input on the looks of the products and input on the final sound by giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down to the person who actually designed the circuits for them. But somehow I doubt that either of them has the background and training required to design a circuit for any audio component. So, if someone knows that Lew and Bill can really sit down at a table together and draw a schematic for any of their products, do tell. And before anyone gets their feathers ruffled, I don't mean this as a knock to Lew Johnson or Bill Conrad. There are plenty of successful people who own companies that build products that they couldn't personally engineer. You have the vision and hire the talent. And you make sure the talent builds what you like and want you want to sell. And I think that describes Conrad Johnson. And if I am right, that would explain why no one has nominated them as great designers. By contrast, William Zane Johnson actually designed many of that company's products over the years. That man understands electronics and knows how to draw a schematic.

Mark

Well knowing the duo, I'd have to totally disagre with you (and I know Bill Johnson also and respect his contributions too). Lew and Bill are two brilliant people who decided on economics/math as a career but have always been involved in electronics. You know that many high end designers started out in other careers. Harry Weisfeld started in AC and sheet metal work. Alan Perkins started out in another totally different field and is arguably one of the best tt designers out there. His latest deck really has impressed me. You know what I find schooling does: it should teach you how to research and learn an area. And we can argue that there are only so many tube circuit designs out there and everything is derived from them. Kinda like the embellishment that goes on in folk music.

And I think that the way that many high-end audio designers work nowadays is that they come up with the concept of how they want the circuit to look--and then give it to other people to implement their ideas. That's true at ARC, Krell and most other high end companies. (And actually you should see the collection of rebuilt Victrolas in Lew Johnson's basement ).

[mep]

So Myles-are you saying that both Conrad and Johnson have actually designed their own circuits? Being "involved" with electronics is much different than possessing the knowledge and ability to understand how circuits work and have the ability to sit down with pen and paper and actually design a circuit and draw the schematic for what you have conceived. If you know this to be true, then hats off to the team of Conrad and Johnson. You can't come up with a concept of how you want the circuit to look if you don't understand circuit design. You can come up with a concept of a product for a certain market segment, what tubes you want it to use, what it is going to look like, and what it will sell for (oh, let's say you want to have a $2K tube amp that uses EL-34s), and you don't have to have any knowledge of electronics to do that. I am trying to draw the distinction between developing a concept for a product vice actually engineering the product.

Mark

[MylesBAstor]

So Myles-are you saying that both Conrad and Johnson have actually designed their own circuits? Being "involved" with electronics is much different than possessing the knowledge and ability to understand how circuits work and have the ability to sit down with pen and paper and actually design a circuit and draw the schematic for what you have conceived. If you know this to be true, then hats off to the team of Conrad and Johnson. You can't come up with a concept of how you want the circuit to look if you don't understand circuit design. You can come up with a concept of a product for a certain market segment, what tubes you want it to use, what it is going to look like, and what it will sell for (oh, let's say you want to have a $2K tube amp that uses EL-34s), and you don't have to have any knowledge of electronics to do that. I am trying to draw the distinction between developing a concept for a product vice actually engineering the product.

Mark

Yes. And early on starting using CAD to lay out the circuit boards.

[mep]

OK-hats off to Conrad and Johnson. Back to your original question-why hasn't someone nominated the dynamic duo for being outstanding designers? I don't know, but I really don't care either. I still haven't gotten over that Counterpoint thing.

Mark