How much stock do you put into the appearance?

Angelina Jolie always helps with the appearance.

 

Well I liked the change when I changed the grill cloth color in my office speakers from beige to black. And I always like the look of the Kenwood granite direct drive turntables.

 

To deliberately spend money on something that looks good and doesn't sound good is ridiculous to me. To accept diminished sound quality for the pleasure of looking at the piece of equipment that you just spent hard earned money for...I don't have polite words for it. But, if the best sounding equipment I can afford also happens to look nice, that's a bonus.

 

YEs, but I think that there so much great good look equipment out there that sounds really good, there is really no reason to buy ugly unless you are getting a specific used piece. Not sure why any company would go ugly on new gear. But I realize everyone has a different idea on beauty.

 

I was shocked when my wife came into my listening room, paused for a second, and said that the turntable was beautiful. She was referring to the plinth I made for the TD-124.

She is a well respected fine artist, so her opinion carries a lot of weight with me. Usually she’s either indifferent or dismissive of electronics’ visual appeal, so that was a big deal.

A lot of people have questionable taste.

 

Get the best in sound and appearance......McIntosh!

 

Chicks don’t dig ugly dudes.

I’m an authority

 

That's exactly what we're talking about!

 

First it has to sound good and if looks good that's just a Fat Red on top.

 

I now know why so many respect and like you - I could learn a lot from you - and vice versa.

What a refreshing internet experience.

 

That Coltrane mono box set makes my mouth water. The colour of your walls is the same I had when I lived with my family in the old house; that makes my eyes water.

 

Yes. Yes yes yes. Appearance matters.

I want to be enveloped in great sound, AND surrounded by beauty.

When I see a spectacular high end system, sitting on the ground, with a folding aluminum chair in the middle of an otherwise empty room (obligatory oriental rug not withstanding), I cringe. It just seems so ... single minded?

I like to think of my living space as "curated". Every piece carefully selected for form and function. Electronics, furniture, lamps, art, curios, rugs. Even a great spirit tastes better in a cut crystal glass. Putting it all together is a really hard thing to do (especially when you're married), and I would say I'm not exactly close to where I would like to be, but I'm working towards it.

Living well is the best revenge!

 

But not sound quality.

 

Yessir! The environment is just as important as what's coming out of the speakers as far as I'm concerned.

Sometimes I enjoy music upstairs in the bedroom more than from the main system. Even though the gear is indifferently placed on a dresser, with the speakers a few inches out from the wall, and I'm sitting on a bed, the environment is so pleasant that the music invariably sounds so relaxing.

 

Hard to argue with that! There's something about the McIntosh look that screams "quality" and "performance."

 

Function. The function of stereo equipment is to reproduce sound as accurately as possible.

 

You know, now you've got me thinking about if/when I build a new-and-improved plinth...

I have another tonearm, an early '60s Grado Laboratory Series woody, that I bought a couple of months ago. I sent it off to my friend, Marc Morin, who is going to fit some jeweled bearings in it and generally spruce it up.





Rather than swap armboards whenever I get the urge for something different, why not build a plinth for two tonearms? My Fisher tube amp has inputs for two turntables. Once I get it back from Marc, I'll have to check if the Grado arm will interfere with the Jelco arm (placement-wise) and vice versa. Mounting both arms on here would be pretty badass.

Something like this:

 

Apparently not much.

My system, cobbled together with mostly used components over the years with an eye for matching everything around a low-power SET amplifier, has turned into an outlandish and generally ugly affair that takes up much of my dining/living room area. It's usually shocking and/or comical for the casual unwary visitor to behold for the first time. It can be embarrassing.

 

It matters a little but not a lot to me. I can't be that picky when I'm on a budget for most components. Performance and bang for the buck matter a lot more to me.

 

None whatsoever

 

Are there actually any examples when someone's ended up with something they thought was properly butt-ugly (or very out of place with everything else) only because it sounded too good?

Such a range of choice, it seems an odd position to end up in.

 

I did not completely get it... are you talking about something like a "hot swappable" design where you could easily swap them out without much hassle? Then the plinth is wired for both, with separate out for each tonearm? So each tonearm is mounted to its own base, screwed in or attached to the plinth, so your plinth does not have to have a custom hole that only fits one tonearm? Maybe I just explained it to myself by typing ???

 

My thinking is keep the Grado arm on the armboard in the usual position (being wood, it needs to be grounded to the chassis), and then include a cavity on the back left side of the plinth, with the Jelco arm mounted on a platform/cavity cover. There would be a channel on the rear for the interconnects to exit.

 

Ahhh.... this is one of those times we need a virtual whiteboard.... not knowing what the Jelco arm looks like, etc I have trouble visualizing everything, but get it in concept! So you are truly trying to have BOTH arms mounted at the same time? I did not go there in my original reply because I had trouble visualizing that.... there must be something about the shape of the arms, placement that I would have the aha moment... or maybe I am just being thick right now...

 

That's right, something along these lines...