CJ was dated when I first said no to my sound advice salesman in the early 90s. He didn’t understand. Fortunately the Krell KSA -100S came out soon thereafter (I did with Adcom until then). Using McIntosh Hybrid these days and it looks the part. The brand was too staid for me back then. Wadia, Rowland, Acurus, Gryphon, Levinson have done it for me as well as Krell and Mc. Schiit is just too lacking in style and size to do anything towards a purchase. I’ve looked, but won’t listen.
Many higher end preamps are dated and ugly, why is this?
Conrad Johnson, BAT, VTL are all very good preamplifiers, they are dated and just ugly. Audio research is a prettier amplifier but it's not very well regarded due to it sounding more like a solid state, ie. Not really a tube preamp despite all those internal lightbulbs.
Cheaper preamps can be more pretty. Schitt makes a pretty preamp for about $1000. People like pretty.
D'Agostino by many is viewed as very attractive but kind of weird.