now I am making (outsourcing to several companies) an exclusive enclosure for the power system.
Bronze , bone , exotic wood ... development at the jeweler , foundry , CNC milling ...
It turned out to be quite expensive! - the mass market, on the contrary, is trying to save money (for this reason, the external design is very modest)
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.