Are looks important?

[zebra100]

Most of us strive for the best sound we can afford. The amps (pre & power combination) & cables in my second system are DIY, and the CD player is heavily modded. I get a very good return for my money. However, my kit is not the best looking kit in the world.

To me, looks are simply not important at all. I get all my enjoyment from the sound of the kit, not how it looks. Having seen pictures of some peoples set up's, looks are obviously important so some. Personally, I just don't get it. But I guess everyone is different, otherwise we would all be listening to clinically accurate plain old boxes finished in tonal Grey.

 

[rockmeister]

why not have function AND looks? It's out there!

 

[lindsayt]

The uglier the kit, the more likely it is to be cheaper on the 2nd hand market.

The wise can use this to their advantage.

 

[tkimages]

You can have both. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I used to love the look of my old Linn electronics, nicely proportioned black boxes. I felt they exuded quality, just like a Zippo lighter. My Gyro SE is gorgeous looking and sounds great, while my DSP 5200 speakers are similarly good looking and sound awesome.

 

[It Cost How Much!?!]

The uglier the kit, the more likely it is to be cheaper on the 2nd hand market.The wise can use this to their advantage.

What about Kondo & Naim, both very ugly and yet they retain their value fairly well.

 

[Tel]

The uglier the kit, the less likely SWMBO will let it into the house,The wise can use this to their advantage.

fixt

 

[Rapid 17]

Sound quality before looks FTW.

Geoff.

 

[speedysteve]

Speakers need be big heavy and look purposeful ;-)

The rest should look at least well engineered and clean.

 

[Nagraboy]

Hi-fi is one of the few consumer products where there are customers who say the appeareance of the product is unimportant to them. Some people even instinctively dislike any hi-fi component which is good-looking and well-featured. Sound per pound! They cry. Whereas the ugly-mug, industrial crate amplifier with no facilities is praised for the perceived focus on sound-quality.

Looks are important in most things in life to most people, hi-fi's perculiar mistrust of appearances and subsequant ugliness is a probable reason for it's unpopularity with the general public.

 

[Helmut]

to me, looks are important. there's enough kit out there that's great and looks good (to me) that I can happily say there won't ever be a simaudio amp in my living room. Same goes for speakers. I'd be prepared to close my eyes if I had a separate music room, but if they as long as they are part of the living room furniture, I won't own anything the size of PMC EB1is or as ugly as art deco 8s (unless I lived in a log cabin, where the PMCs would blend in, or an open plan place with Warhol prints on the wall for the Aer Decos)

 

[gregf]

If I have to select between two pieces of hifi that both sound good, I would select the one that looks better, wouldnt you?

 

[JBCobra]

My rig looks like sh!t

Brush painted speakers and all, but i love it

I don't look at it while listening, but it sounds so fine:^

I have had comments from buddies. How can that pos? :shock: ..............oh my that sounds awesome:^

 

[Nagraboy]

My rig looks like sh!tBrush painted speakers and all, but i love it

I don't look at it while listening, but it sounds so fine:^

I have had comments from buddies. How can that pos? :shock: ..............oh my that sounds awesome:^

Good on ya JB! :^

 

[JBCobra]

Top Man Nagra! :^

I love your avitar too. Is that tree one of yours?

Good on ya JB! :^

 

[JBCobra]

I will be hanging out at local bar carrying on and whatknot, shooting the sh!t...........stereo comes up occasionally. So I have to get my "buck 3 eighty" in there. You know what I mean;-)

So they are like, so what kind of stuff you runnin'?

I tell em it is a 59 Leak with my "ratrod" Klipsch speakers.

They say, wtf is that? So I tell them it is tubes etc.....fully restored etc.. Well now they want to check it out.

Bring them over and I can see the disappointment in there eyes when they see it LOL

I tell 'em you guys sit right here..................they are very sceptical...........

After a few minutes..it starts to sink in:^

Holy Moly. "I never hears something like that before. I didn't even know that was on the record

Good on ya JB! :^

 

[Nagraboy]

Top Man Nagra! :^ I love your avitar too. Is that tree one of yours?

Thanks but no, the bonsai is not one of mine. I have two bonsai trees - my Podocarpus is growing very nicely with this Spring-time sun in the UK, though.

That's a good story about showing people what your system can do, people see my Nagra or Leben stuff and don't even know what it is! One guy saw my Nagra CD, pre/power setup and said it looked like something out of a 70s Cold War movie! I was delighted that he'd noticed! Lots of Nagra recorders in those type of films. Was told this week that my Leben poweramp looks like something out of Doctor Who...A classical musician came by last week and was really impressed with the Leben/Harbeth sound too.

We've got to try to win people over somehow!

 

[zebra100]

If I have to select between two pieces of hifi that both sound good, I would select the one that looks better, wouldnt you?

Depends on the cost. Looks honestly don't come into it. My kit sits in a cabinet, behind a smoked glass door. The only time I actually see it is when I open the door to turn it on/off, or change the CD.

I mainly concentrated on getting my amps sounding great rather than aesthetics. I could have spent time and money making them look spectacular, but it wouldn't have made any difference to the sound, so for me, it just wasn't worth it. My power amp (LM3875 Gainclone) is in an off the shelf metal enclosure from Italy (Hifi200), and my pre-amp (Op-amp based with a class A output stage) is shoe horned into a custom made wooden enclosure, which I have sprayed satin black. Both are purely functional. No extra switches, buttons or multi-function displays. They just serve their primary functions of source selection and amplification.

I have absolutely no problem with beautiful looking kit. In fact, some pieces of kit wouldn't look out of place in an art gallery. But that isn't what it's about for me. It just has to sound good, and nothing more.

 

[silencio]

'course looks are important.

 

[Guest]

Apparently so. I finally finished painting my speaker cabinets today. They'd only been sitting in the living room in glorious MDF for about 12 years.

Yes, the wife moaned, but, as they were there before her...

I'm sure it's made them sound better too, but that might be because I've also got round to routing the drive units in flush with the front panel.

Kevin