Do you buy equipment based on looks? (poll too)*

I keep my stereo in the living room. I want it to sound great but I am not interested in ugly gear. I want it to sound and look great too. It adds to the pleasure for me. If it was in the garage, I'd probably feel exactly the same!

 

I think aesthetics and physical appearance is always something to deeply consider. I understand well the importance of sound, but it needs to look good too.

 

Just like my first wife; I was drawn by appearances but as soon as I realized she had no soul, I saw divorce on the horizon.

 

Well said.....I feel the same way.
Kinda like when a car/truck is freshly cleaned up.....just seems to drive better.

 

Never. But I will pick specific colors / finishes that are offered on the component I target.

 

No. It's nice when the looks match or complement each other, but my purchases are made on what I can afford that sounds good to me. That's it.

 

Looks aren't a dealbreaker for me but I appreciate a stylish component. I'm looking right now at a system that currently includes components ranging from spartan black boxes to stylized black boxes to quirky steampunkish charm to clean, minimalist elegance to outright drop-dead gorgeous. Not including the speakers, the components are in three different colours. A bit eclectic but it sounds righteous.

D.D.

 

Yep...design and style definitely count for me.

 

Yeah, this is a tough one to answer. I could say yes, but with an asterisk.

I love the look of my Fisher 800C, and it goes visually-well with my Wharfedale W90's. Both have that furniture look to them for sure. However, the big reason I wanted the Fisher had to do with synergy. The Fisher and Wharfedales are an excellent sonic match for each other, and I wanted something that would really make the W90's shine.

Put it this way. If the Fisher didn't do it for me sonically, all the good looks in the world ain't gonna' be enough to get it into my living room.

 

I would never buy ugly stuff... many products look like they were built in a garage, particulary speakers and tube design.

 

Looks are the icing on the cake.
I would love to be enjoying the tunes and looking across at this at the same time.

This is the Artisan 300B, made by Earle Weston of Weston Acoustics, Victoria Australia.

And no ...... I can't afford one !

 

Looks are the icing on the cake.
I would love to be enjoying the tunes and looking across at this at the same time.

This is the Artisan 300B, made by Earle Weston of Weston Acoustics, Victoria Australia.

And no ...... I can't afford one !

 

I remember buying a B&O turntable wholesale for $600 back in the late 70's...looked really cool...but at the end of the day it was a nice looking piece of crap!...my $78 AR turntable was way better!

 

Those are the most lovely to me, though.

 

Looks are not a high priority, but there is so much good sounding stuff out there that i dont think you have to settle for something thats ugly.

 

The wife isn't an issue. She made sure I keep the big stereo in my own room and does care what goes in there.

For me, great sound and system matching comes before what looks best. Of course, I think my equipment looks nice, and it was made to look nice, but my equipment doesn't match up perfectly like an all McIntosh system would. I did want my components to all have silver faces but because of certain money saving deals I had to settle for black on some components and silver for others. So I guess that puts me in the no category.

 

My budget doesn't allow looks to factor into the equation. My speakers, for example, have paint scuffs and missing badges and generally look beat up but when you can score the sound quality that they put out for £70 secondhand, well I can put up with them being a bit fugly. Luckily I love vintage gear which, in my eyes, looks pretty darned cool. If I had loads of money though, maybe my answer would change

 

If you're looking at your equipment while the music is playing? Then the equipment is not good enough.

Great sounding equipment makes you forget the equipment is there.

 

Looks are down the list but I have to admit they are a factor.
Something truly ugly would probably be out.

 

Pretty much, never.

I actually have kept and do keep equipment in my system despite how it looks and despite how much it may need cosmetic refurbishment because of how it sounds. That kind of thing is very low on my list. It's not off my list; just at the bottom.

 

The sound has always been most important to me. However if something was really ugly and had to be visible in the room I'd choose something else.

 

My stuff has always been pretty ugly. These Magnepans sitting in front of me look like ironing boards. Everything is in a dedicated room away from the general public.

 

A little bit of both.

In my younger days, home audio gear, was not that important to me and I did not buy matching equipment, I was more on the pro-sound side of the fence.

The past five years, I have some what endeavored to put together a home audio system that looks nice, since people walk though my office at the motel and I have guests over to watch movies and listen to tunes.

To that extent I have some nice towers on either side of a 60" TV that sits on a stand $99 Home Depot). There are two pair of switchable towers two on each side of the TV. I usually do not like the grill covers off home stereo components. I think they look nicer, more refined with the grills on.

Before the current pair. I had a pair of Polk RTi-A9's, with the grills off, they look horrible, with the sort of silver rim'd cone speakers, that look like something better off in a pawn shop window. Couldn't even leave them off for a novelty. Next them sat smaller Era D14's in rosewood veneers, these had grills on also.

I switched out the A9's, for Stunning looking LSiM707's, very classy with the grills on. I acquired a pair of Zu Omen Definitions, they are black with silver rim speaker rims and an aluminum tweeter between the two 10" cone drivers. To match, I removed the grills from the 707's. (and put them carefully away).

There are two shelves below the TV. The center channel speaker is on the top shelf, next to the Oppo.

On the bottom shelf, on the left I have the Emotiva proesser on top of the Emotiva center channel amp (would do it the other way, but the amp is deeper than the processor). To the right is a Emotiva XPA2 SS amp about the same height as the two units on its left side.

Here, I think it is nice to have matching equipment. It would look like crap otherwise. But I choose, the equipment line that I wanted to use first, not based on looks. The Emotiva gear is not fancy, just basic black with blue lights and matching cases.

I have two Rogue M-150 tube monoblocks, which is my most expensive electronic component(s), hidden behind the TV, there are fine there. They serve a purpose, it is not important for them to be a show piece.

There are some shelving units behind one couch (they were there before the couch), with a couple of nice looking Peachtree units on a stand, so they can be reached over top of the back of the couch. The Dual TT is sitting on top of an older TT and is below the back of the couch (I plan on placing it on a taller shelf past one end ot the couch). There is a tube preamp on another shelf behind the couch, it sticks out over the top. the SS rear amp sits next to it.

Klipsch rear towers sit on credenza's, for the rear speakers.

Then I have my favorite speakers, which I will never part with, that are in grey painted plywood cabinets, with 23" wide horns on top. They are nicely restored, very retro. Next to one cabinet, sits a commercial sub that is almost as tall as the speaker cabinet next to it. It has a black metal grill and is covered in carpet.

All in all, it makes for an eclectic mix, but it does have some sense of balance, enough matching, that it works as a whole. Not WAF approved however.

It;s still first and foremost, all about SQ, then about, everything else.

Long live audio!

 

That thing is one seriously-stunning amplifier. Dig the fully-independent channels. If it's an ultra-low-watter, then that's probably overkill, but still, ... Damn, that thing is sexy.

Sound always comes first, but great looks are a nice bonus. My 30wpc Fisher tuber has nice, big trannies and the best-sounding headphone input I've ever heard (It runs off the power tubes somehow, just like the speakers), and it does a fantastic job of powering my tube-era speakers, but it certainly helps that it looks decent as well. But the looks wouldn't make diddley-squat of a difference if it didn't have the sonics to back it up.

 

I seriously-considered going with a Sherwood model when I was looking at tube receivers, as they are known for their excellent-sounding amps and receivers from the '60's and '70's, but I just couldn't get past the look of their tube-era models (Thankfully, they learned their lesson by the early '70's, but these old Sherwood tube receivers are pretty-hideous... I had an opportunity to buy one just like the one below, but I know I made the right choice going with a Fisher instead... Man, that thing gives me the shivers).