The best looking speakers

You guys talk about WAF. What happened to real men? why would you `kowtow to any woman. She is lucky to have you. If she can’t accept your interests and speakers, she should get lost. WAF makes me sick. MAN UP!!!!!

Two standouts: certain Sonus Fabers and Estelons (with extra-cost finishes).

Kharma speakers look very good at shows...not the greatest sound, but, aesthetically stunning.

@ovature Men just have to take interest in their home decor. In my household, it's more like HAF (Husband Acceptance Factor). Why? Because I decorate.

To be frank, I see a lot of pictures of empty listening rooms with tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. This makes my blood boil. So you can afford $5000 speakers but you can't afford to decorate the space? I feel like I'm in a car mechanic's waiting room. It's depressing.

Can't you hang pictures on the wall? Lay a nice rug? Add a few plants, an accent chair and nice pieces of vintage furniture? Can we have some color up in here? Why does everything have to be a shade of grey? I just want to drag people's butts to the local flea markets, the goodwill and pawn shops. Quality pieces are often cheap and IKEA sells drab white melamine furniture as luxury...

Personally, large speaker towers turn me off. They absolutely dwarf a living room and scream "me! me! me!".

I would prioritize wood veneer or real wood to add warmth to a space. So any slim tower or tiny standmount in a wood finish is a solid choice.

But the Elipson BS50 Tribute gets my vote. Otherwise I love the vintage JBL look of the L100 with the fuzzy orange grill.

@ovature tell us you've never had a real relationship without telling us you've never had a real relationship.  

Tidal

@kokakolia - interesting; I do take a big interest in my living space; I've been talking to a decorator about a re-do but it's not easy to find decorators who have any real interest in dealing with my audio-visual setup. 

The best looking speakers I've ever owned were stand-mount Sonus-Faber Cremona Auditors.... 

@kokakolia you should start a thread about tips/tricks for decorating. I’ve always been really interested in room aesthetics and ambience in relation to putting foreign objects (speakers, amps, racks, room treatment) in an otherwise normal room. I found this to be most difficult and something I’m still trying to learn by going to Virtual Systems on the weekly (as well as Pinterest of all places). Seriously, though, it would be a great thread that begins with your insights.

Cant beat Boenicke. Im just waiting on my W11's to arrive as replacements to my Focal Kanta 3s.

@toro3 Don’t be like me and purchase a condo with a 3 year completion wait. I had 3 years to think about the interior decor, without setting foot in the condo. My brain was working 24/7 imagining what the space would look like. I even used AutoCAD at work to figure out a layout. I spent over 3 years obsessively watching interior decorators on YouTube. There are standouts :

- Garrett le Chic

- Page Wassel

- Nick Lewis

There are pitfalls in interior design:

- Overspending on ‘new’ furniture. Nobody gives a flying care if your table has a ding or a scratch. Nobody cares about your designer chairs and if they’re « original ». 
- Buying everything from the same place. Now, IKEA kinda pulls it off in their showrooms because they accessorize to the max with trinkets and fabrics. 
- Sticking to a theme. Your place will look like a rental if everything is a shade of brown or grey. 
- Only buying square shaped furniture with straight lines. Your human brain doesn’t like to be in a space with only straight lines. Curves, circles and ovals are soothing to the mind. Your room is already a box and that’s already oppressing. 
- DO wood veneer and solid wood pieces. Your human brain calms down at the sight of natural materials like wood, stone, cotton/linen etc… The worst you can do is have grey laminate flooring with all white furniture (some of which is glossy).

It’s okay to have some white furniture if you introduce books, a rug, some wood etc… There’s no hard rule in decorating. Just fill the space with stuff. Have some colored fabrics that pop (accent chair, accent pillow, throw…). Have books (even if you don’t read. Look for trinkets at the pawnshop and flea markets. 
 

kef blade

Any of the Franco Serblins or Sonner Audio, Gunawan Surya have designed spectacular sounding and aesthetically pleasing speakers. IMHO. 

@kokakolia - Don't forget real/artificial plants. I've added to my listening space and wish I'd done it sooner. Big ones, little ones, different shaped leaves -very cool.

I am purely in the "form should follow function" camp of audio design.

This usually leads me to love the looks of quite a few speakers that many find not so aesthetically pleasing.

AvantGarde Acoustics, Tidal, Aries Cerat, Acapella, and others.

Ugly speakers to me, are almost anything in a "monkey casket" type of enclosure, no matter how great the finish is on them.

And don’t even get me started on this entire "retro" design trend that has been going on recently.

"Hey! I have an idea. Let’s build speakers that look like they could have been the house brand of just about any mid-fi store of the 70’s, throw a nice finish on it, and call it "Heritage", or "Classic" or some other name marketing can come up with".

"But we’ve learned a long time ago, that rectangular enclosures, with wide baffles, and a raised lip around the edge of the baffle, are sonic compromises".

"Just do it".

TEKTON😎

Sonus Faber has always made some of the most beautiful speakers....  im listening to a 20 plus year old pair of Concerto right now and they still sound great and look beautiful. 

My Dad just picked up a pair of Electa Amator III.  They are gorgeous.  Fit and finish is over the top.    They sound better than they look.  A statement speaker for sure