There is a hierarchy that assists in distilling my product choices.
Intuitively, first and foremost…it’s best-of-breed class audio performance in each their budget strata respective equipment class, ... Full stop. Build quality and audio performance matters ..,, it’s the big first one that selects the contenders from all the pretenders .
BUT …..and it’s a big “BUT” …. it’s also their appearance & impressions with an “EZ on the eyes “ additional further decision factor among the distilled contenders above , thst cannot be simply ignored either . For example. Classy polished wood high-end speaker cabinets build , instead of defaulting to cheap cost cutters with vinyl over MDF.