How important is component “aesthetics” to you?


Obviously, performance, sound, etc is what matters most. However, some super fine, high performance products are just plain ugly. Aesthetcs does play an important role for me since we have placed a lot of emphasis on furnishing our home. 

Anyway, my search for a preamp has led me to the conclusion that ugly is more the norm. I love the look of glowing tubes with the Primalunas, mystere, Atma-sphere, Rogers, Decware, mapletree etc. In the solid state world, the macs have those famous blue meters. Even the “fake tube” older Peachtree components looked really nice. 

Just curious how “ looks” play a role when choosing components?
aberyclark

Showing 4 responses by aberyclark

I agree. Thats why my wife love the look of my Zu Omen Defs in cherry. The wife hates speaker grills. The Zu’s, imo, look like classic pieces of furniture. 
Op should look at Raven Audio they make some of the best looking and sounding tube amps that money can buy. I have a Reflection Integrated MK2 tube amp that is a thing of beauty and outstanding power and sound. I actually have it as a show piece and every time a guest comes into my house they want to know what that cool looking piece of machinery is.


I agree that Raven has really nice looking gear. However, the Raven emblem could be toned down quite a bit. Maybe, a bit smaller. To me, the size of the emblem looks too "chevy". Some of the newer Chevy cars (I despise General Motors for their company culture) look decent except for the giant size bow tie emblem.