The best looking speakers

Taste being subjective all I could contribute is what are the best looking speakers to me.

I actually think the Thiel 2.7 speakers, which I now happily own, are about as close to "perfect" for speaker aesthetics as I can think of.They depart from the boring rectangle shape, yet aren’t a crazy, gauche design, but very sleek and contemporary with gorgeous wood finishes (mine being ebony). A really beautiful piece of furniture which IMO enhances a room.

I also really like the Joseph Audio Perspectives - just a bang-on combination of slender proportions that combined a modern-with-classic look with impeccable wood finish work.

Also love the Devore Fidelity O/96 speakers for a great combo of comfy-classic styling made contemporary.

@captainsteve
Awesome!  Please let us know how you like them.  I presume you are buying new, and hence getting the new "Graphene 2" version of the Perspectives?
Those are what I"ve been aiming for myself.

LOL...Jadis Eurythmie: my wife would kick me out of the house if those showed up.

"The best looking speakers for you and your wife ! , is the. “Ilumnia Magister”"

Which, again, I can predict some women I know including my wife would think look odd and sort of like robots. "Why doesn’t it just look like a speaker?"

And even though my own wife’s aesthetic judgement of speakers is to some degree predictable, it’s not entirely predictable. She has liked the looks of some speakers I’ve had in the house much more than others, where I would have predicted the reverse.

Point being: All this "best looking speaker" stuff is highly subjective. I’m not sure how the subjective all-over-the-map suggestions from other people can help, unless one has no taste of one’s own.

mrdecibel
I don't quite agree.  Though my wife has her opinions on the looks of speakers, I actually can buy pretty much whatever I want within my budget, and the looks of the speaker are up to me.  Aesthetics are very important to me.  I'll be looking at those speakers a lot, and it will be a piece of furniture whatever room I put it in.  I want a speaker to look really pleasing, not a crappy DIY-looking collection of drivers in a box or whatever.  I find ugly aesthetics detracts from the experience.

Fortunately the options for speakers are so varied I don't have to sacrifice sound quality in order to also have a good looking speaker.

I agree the Gershman Avant Garde have a nice contemporary shape, though I always disliked the out-of-place-looking yellow driver. Looks like the "Grand" Avant Garde has some more interesting grill covers though.

But their top of the line "Posh" speaker....egads! Saw it at a show and it was one of the most off-putting, industrial "shop prototype" looking speakers I’ve seen. The cobbled-together aesthetic is a real eye-sore IMO.

cd13,

I love the look of the timeless classic box designs (as long as they’re no darker than maple/cherry to rosewood - no zebra sriped ugliness please). .....

The Harbeth SLH5s stand out for me. Their grille and particularly their geometry just looks damn near perfect to my eyes.

I feel the same way about a well-proportioned old-school speaker. And the Harbeths are particularly nice for their wood finish and the way they are designed with the grills in mind, so the grills sit neatly and deliberately inset in to the front, where many speaker grills break the aesthetic flow by looking like something you just add on afterward.

But it’s also the case, at least for me, that a speaker has to look comfortable in a room. I bought the Harbeth SuperHL5plus to downsize from big Thiel 3.7 speakers. Since I liked the aesthetics of the Harbeths, and they were so much smaller, and I was dealing with a somewhat small listening room, I figured the Harbeths would win the aesthetics battle. But it turned out not to be the case. My room has a contemporary look, and speakers have to be pulled out pretty far in to the room. The Harbeths just looked "wrong" in there, out of place, jarring. Even though the Thiels were far larger, they had a more sleek, modern look, though with a comfy nice wood grain. Both my wife and I and others felt the big Thiels looked more "right" in the room. Even more so for my current Thiel 2.7s.

As for "zebra striped ugliness" if you mean for instance the ebony finish on the Harbeths (or other speakers) there we depart. I love a good rich ebony and I deliberately sought out that finish in my Thiel 2.7s which make them match the room beautifully (the rest of the room is in deep brown, black, and cream colors).

Maple is usually dull to me and, aside from the obvious atrocities of oak or black ash finish, cherry is my least favorite finish. I remember when cherry-wood was the rage in the 90’s and everyone did cherry. To me it’s simultaneously a boring wood and brings to mind the time of "Shabby chic" furniture and neon windbreakers of the 90’s.

But...hey...that’s just one audiophile’s grumbly opinions ;-)