My vote is for Nelson Pass. His work on amplifiers is incredible and he has contributed many of his designs and plans for DIYs. When I was in college, I came up with the idea of using a cascode configuration in the output stage. I had just started the design when I tripped across an article by Nelson Pass on that very topic. Soon afterward, he moved on to SE designs, followed by stasis ones, and so on, all along providing a template for those that wanted to do it themselves. I still have an original Threshold preamp and a Pass Labs SE. Years after I had bought the preamp, they had me ship it back to have all the connectors replaced because they felt that they were not holding up to their standards. That's customer service. He's moved on from Threshold and now runs Pass Laboratories to carry on his work in audio excellence.