The People: Part 1 (January 8-9)

Products and the rooms those products are set up in tell part of the story. Behind these things are the people who make it all happen. This gallery features some of the key players in the industry.

Ole Christensen is the chief designer at Amphion, a well-known loudspeaker manufacturer based in Finland. We featured Ole in two videos that we shot last spring in Munich at High End 2008 for SoundStage! V (Part 1, Part 2).

Heinz Lichtenegger is the president of Pro-Ject Audio Systems, which is located in Austria. Pro-Ject is the world's largest turntable manufacturer. We also featured Heinz in a SoundStage! V video that we shot at High End 2008 in Munich.

You're looking at a guy who is world famous, and not for being arrested. Tyll is the president of HeadRoom Corporation, one of the largest suppliers of headphones and headphone-related products in North America. He's a reknowned expert on headphones and how to get the best sound for your money. What's more, there's also a little story about Tyll that few people know. Doug Schneider tells it in his January 9 Daily Feature installment. [www.headphone.com]

Paul Barton of PSB Speakers is one of the best-known and most respected speaker designers in the world. He started designing speakers about 35 years ago and is still going strong. His Imagine- and Synchrony-series speakers have recently won a whole slew of awards. [www.psbspeakers.com]

Like Paul Barton, Richard Vandersteen has been designing speakers since the 1970s and is one of the most revered figures in the industry. Richard poses with his wife, Eneke, and his most ambitious speaker to date: the Seven ($45,000 per pair).