Ugly vs Gogeous speakers

Both aesthetics and sound are a personal choice for anyone buying a pair of speakers.  That being said, the Lawrence Audio line of speakers not only looks very different and aesthetically pleasing but they are extremely neutral sounding with tight bass, gorgeous mid-range, and extended sweet sounding high-end. Look at some pics on my website at eastendhifi.com

 Beauty certainly is in the eye of the beholder.  James mentioned someone's wife dry-heaving over the look of the MBLs.
The MBLs have always been divisive: as an example of more "way out there" industrial design, I actually find them beautiful.

Probably the most puzzling "WAF" note I've seen was in the Soundstage review of the Joseph Audio Pulsar speakers.  The reviewer swooned over their sound, but could not keep them because apparently his wife hated their looks so much she put her foot down on his ever buying them.  The Pulsars are about as normal-looking a monitor as there is, and even with some nice contemporary lines.  How someone could hate their looks so much truly baffles me (and that line of Joseph speakers usually gets kudos for their good looks).

wspohn mentions the "mistake" of putting grills on the Wilsons.  I'm with his wife on this one: I generally don't care to see the speaker drivers.  While *some* designs do have beautiful looking drivers, most look drab or industrial.  The Wilsons are IMO a perfect example of this: there is nothing pretty about their drivers, and they exhibit one of my pet peeves: the very visible silver screw heads around the drivers.   I get this can make it easy to place and swap the drivers...but jeeze...go the extra yard to make it look nice. You don't see screw heads sticking out of walls and nice furniture for a reason; why anyone wants to look at those, like some unfinished shop project, on their super expensive speakers is a mystery to me.

I've read most of your comments with an open mind.  I realize that beauty is somewhat subjective.  Most people can agree on a pretty woman, beautiful home, nice car, etc, but speakers seem to be not in any of those categories.  
For me, I have always enjoyed (much like cars and women) really nice curves.  If you look at some of the most coveted cars in the world, Shelby cobras, Porsche 911, audi R8, they are well rounded.  So for me, I like the 802 D3s. Really nice curves.

But I also own three of them. 

I am just not into anything I can potentially build in my garage in an afternoon with a table saw and jig.  Not to say I don't appreciate those other speakers, (which I do) I just like something with a little more sex appeal.  

While I certainly like the speakers, like Sonus, that are fine furniture as well as sound reproducers, the question that always comes to mind is whether an audiophile with limited means (whether having a budget of $1,000 or $100,000) wishes to spend money on sound, appearance, or both, with the corollary that anything significant given to appearance usually means less spent on performance.

I’ve had odd looking speakers - the Spica Angelus looked rather like a couple of nuns staring at you - but I admired Vandersteen’s approach - put the maximum effort into performance and then wrap a sock over it so it looks at least acceptable, albeit a bit reminiscent of the monoliths in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

I have large Wilsons that do look a bit like something out of the Alien movies, and I made the mistake of sticking the grilles on them just as a way of keeping them safe while I was setting up the room (never do this - convincing a wife that they have to come off for listening is very difficult once she knows they have grilles!)

I guess there is a balance between aesthetics and sound, but I come down on the sound side. But if someone abandoned a pair of Sonus on my doorstep, I wouldn’t hesitate to haul them inside!

When I retired my Dahlquist DQ10s and replaced them with a pair of ML reQuests, my friend said: "I like these new ones - I thought those other speakers were ugly as sin."

An amusing statement coming from a guy that doesn't have a single piece of matching furniture in his home, let alone a decorating scheme.

Different strokes, I 'spose.  ;-)

the lower end of the Wilson line up reminds me of amusement park trash cans from the fifties and sixties........ butt ugly.

Sonus faber is the most beautiful hands down end of discussion. The Franco Serblin models. Game over!

My two cents worth is this: The sound is important, the look is important.  Why not have both?  Good sounding ugly speakers (or amps etc) ... just pass them buy.  We are spoiled for choice at the present time, so we can have our cake and eat it too.

Agree with james_w514 " Beauty is in the eye of the beholder with speakers.".   
At the moment, there are so many audio speaker designs that everyone can find the right ones for themselves, of course, top designs are expensive. The production of loudspeakers has gone so far that the cabinets and technological solutions for them are far more expensive than the price of the integrated electronics and speaker units. Let me tell you that I am CEO at Acoustic Preference d.o.o. and in our projects, we still strive to have the price of casing in the ratio of 1: 1 with the price of the integrated electronics, because we think that the design is as important as the sound quality. Of course, we are therefore constrained in creating, but this is a way that is still guaranteed by the acceptable price ratio.

So, my opinion is the same as James's.

Link, to our fully hand-made solid wood walnut loudspeakers Gracioso 2.0 LE because most of you probably do not know:
http://www.acoustic-preference.com/products/gracioso-2-0/

In my house speakers have look good (for the wife) and sound even better...the Legacy Audio Focus SE's fit the bill for me, love the Rosewood finish..

I'm still chuckling over 'a gorgeous form of ugly'...

There's a lot of that 'out there'...the MBLs' have been referred to 'alien fire hydrants'. and scrolling back through this thread  there's been a lot slung at other units of various 'intent'...

It truly is 'eye of the beholder'....mixed with the 'ear of the owner', which makes it truly a very mixed bag.  It's no wonder that the 'serious listening space' (aka, "Man Cave") has evolved into a very planned and detailed arrangement when taken to the extremes....

Which leads me to an observation and a question: Is this a Good Thing, or a Bad Thing?  Do we expect the 'new recruit' to not be shocked at the extremes of both details and costs to not be driven off by what could be viewed as dilettantes discussing the population of angels on a pin head?  Will he/she/either just decide to be happy with the Bluetoothed turntable bought to explore 'this vinyl thing'?  When approached by a 'newbie' with some basic questions, shall we rein in the urge to flood them with cable this 'n that. and our personal prefs in that regard?

Should we erect a 'newbie forum'?  Big letters at the entry:

"Welcome to a very satisfying pursuit, the quest for music as You perceive it.  The experience can be as simple or as involved as You choose to make it.  Here you will find some basic advice and commentary on how to begin.  Stop at any time if you're happy with what you hear and experience.  Or, as your interest evolves, you can investigate your thoughts and desires for Perfection as you see fit.  In any case, WELCOME."

We can be an opinionated and rather daunting bunch to the casual observer.  And the technology is still evolving...the 'A' amp of now may become the 'A+' of tomorrow, since it's just a matter of design and software now.  I'm not saying 'toss that fire-bottled 70# thing into the recycle bin, no.  Just keep in mind that the future wins, eventually.

 Someone WILL figure out how to make a 'point source' speaker that will make anything we currently discuss its' pros and cons Moot.  And you will probably buy them.  Because they're that much Better....

All speakers sound good to those that own them, regardless of what they look like. *shrug*  'Twas always thus.  Any audio show proves that....

I run a custom built set of Linkwitz Orions, which normally have kind of a Danish Modern look.  Not bad actually, especially compared to pretty much most of the monstrosities listed here.   His LX521 is every bit as good as anything I've ever heard, but is inherently butt ugly.  But you can afford it, unlike most mentioned here.

I had my Orions built in a kind of Mission style, to go with my Craftsman bungalow.  I think they look pretty good.
https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/russbutton.com/Russ/audio/photos/home_system/20150503_160924.jpg

Daedalus speakers have heirloom quality woodwork. All pieces fitted and joined to perfection. No screws or nails. No mdf either. All solid North American hardwoods with gorgeous details. Plus the sonics are world class.

I have some ugly ones that sound great.

Vandersteen Treos (CT in my case) have a clean architectural look I like, but also lots of lovely matched cherry veneer. I know the finish doesn’t add to the sound quality but since I spend a fair amount of time sitting facing them, and it’s nicer than the stretch-sock exterior of some towers.

The Treos replaced a pair of KEF LS-50s which were also beautiful, but I couldn’t find stands to put them on that didn’t ugly them up.

I always loved the look of Sonus Faber

@imhififan yeah, that second pair is hideous. The first you shared I kinda like..

I got a used pair of top of the line rbh speakers with nice wood veneer and rounded corners because my wife hated the giant black jbl L7s that I had. We were remodeling the basement and she told me the L7s were too ugly and had to go. I said sure, as long as I could buy a pretty pair that sounds at least as good.. that worked out well for me since the JBLs were $400 plus refurb effort.

For me, if they sound good, it makes them look better. It’s like a person you find just marginally attractive, but whom you find incredibly attractive after talking to and seeing who they are as a person. There is the inverse, in speakers as well..

I really like the look of these crazy bang and olufsen floor standers:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/bang-olufsen-beolab-90-loudspeaker

I'm a sucker for a simple contemporary look with a beautiful wood finish, so here are some speakers I think look great:

Tidal:

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/07/ef/8c/07ef8cb965521e21e4283a62d1a7f332.jpg

Joseph Audio Perspectives (I hope to buy a pair some time):

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/39/13/52/3913522d7ac97099183530f341566d22.jpg

Though I prefer this wood finish:

https://d29pumjbf1ozmy.cloudfront.net/resize=w:700,h:470,fit:clip/rotate=deg:exif/output=quality:70/...

And I love, love, love the look of the Thiel 2.7s that I now own in the premier ebony.  They look exactly like these pictures:

http://img.usaudiomart.com/uploads/large/779895-thiel-audio-cs27-pair-in-premium-composite-ebony-msr...

I prefer grills on:

http://img.usaudiomart.com/uploads/large/779884-thiel-audio-cs27-pair-in-premium-composite-ebony-msr...

imhififan,

Horrendous.

A lot of these speakers are like a basement-dwelling engineer's attempt at making something that looks cool, but without any actual aesthetic or industrial design experience.   They just end up looking ugos!

A million dollar question!
Ugly? Gorgeous?

http://www.milliondollarstereos.com/pix100k/MoonAudio_DarkStar.jpg

I like to listen in the dark.  Similar to tasting wine in a black glass.  If your eyes are taken out of the equation then the reason you made the purchase comes to the forefront.

Just saying, I bet most speakers look better than the guy sitting in front of them.

wolf_garcia,

Hi wolf! Good to hear from ya!

Good to know.

Dave

I refuse to comment on threads where the OP hasn't proof read the title of the post. Wait…I just commented…darn it...

Tekton does have a few veneer finishes, but from what I read on their web site, you have to wait for your second life to come around before you get them.....

Yeah, it’s quite odd about the Tektons. The box designs are all the old rectangle cabinet, now only used in the entry level stuff. Even Pioneer has curved cabinets in their FP-FS52’s that go for under $300.

And the paint colors that they offer are no improvement. Bright harsh tones instead of at least a nice laminate or stain finish. And the grill cloth tone definitely clashes instead of complementing things.

Which is too bad because the drivers are quite plain too. The whole package is just off putting to say the least. They obviously need a woman’s touch because they have no idea how to make their speakers attractive to the eye.

If they were asking Pioneer type prices, under 500, I could understand, but 3000, 5000 and 12000? Not for prime time.

I had to get rid of one of the most beautiful speakers I’ve ever had in my room - a pair of Audio Physic Scorpios in perfect room-matching ebony.
I bought them because I’ve always loved audio physic speakers, the reviews were excellent, and they were virtually my aesthetic ideal. Turned out they didn’t have quite the same tone of previous AP speakers that I craved and didn’t quite do it for me, so I sadly had to bid them farewell.

The right sound always has to be there, of course.

On the other hand, the right look to some degree as well.  For instance, though I'm quite intrigued by all the talk of Tekton, I don't think I could ever live with a pair of those things aesthetically.

BTW, imhififan, if there could ever be something truly "objectively ugly," those speakers make a great case for it.

@imhififan , ugly, IMHO.
Does look like R2D2.

Imhififan, I'm not sure which, but I can't stop staring at them.  They're like robots!

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=30732&d=1485082531

Ugly? Gogeous?

It looks like some people are simply obsessed with bashing Tekton speakers on every speaker thread regardless of the topic... its just incredibly juvenile.

I recently came across a speaker brand that has models costing even up to 3-5000, with the top model costing $12,000.  Everyone of their models fell off the ugly bus, I kid you not.  Owners warn NOT to try the speaker grills.  These Tekton models make me grimace and shake my head at the missed opportunity. 

Anyone with a lick of good taste in their body knows they are ugly.  One shouldn't have to look at ugly every night just to get to heaven, and I'm speaking of musical bliss.  Life is too short.  

Tekton obviously needs to start listening to feedback with a little more attention.

My girlfriend does not mind the idea of my Classic Audio Loudspeakers in her living room. She's heard what they can do. Plus they are finished very nicely.

the Sonus Faber Aida's look real nice...

Ugly is ok, but it has to be a gorgeous form of ugly.  ;) 

I have found surprisingly little correlation between the appearance of speakers and their absolute performance. I find most claims of purportedly better performance while skimping on aesthetics to be tenuous. 

The Vivid Giya looks fantastic in my room and sounds even better,but thats just my opinion as I'm done with box speakers made of mdf.

gdhal...that's the most apt comment posted so far.  Congrats on cutting to the chase. ;) *5's*

 Speakers are a very personal thing. You see your speakers even when you are not listening to music.

Sonus Faber considers speakers to be musical instruments. They are designed and voiced to reflect that philosophy. They have that "in the room" sound in spades. They do piano correctly which can be very difficult.

 " I remember a quote from a review of my Elipsa SE speakers. "Some speaker sound one way and other speakers sound another. Sonus Faber speakers just sound like music". I have found this to be very true. I feel no need to ever upgrade.

I urge you to listen to a pair of Sonus Faber speaker. If you have no dealer, search Audiogon by your zip code. See if there is a pair for sale in your area and ask if you can listen to them

. 

I want the best performance for the money.  Looks aren't entirely irrelevant but they're way down the priorities list.  I definitely agree that vandersteen has the right idea with the cloth exterior with just a little bit of wood.  It looks fine but you aren't paying a lot for a fancy finish. 

@mgattmch I've never seen those before very cool and mid-century modern! In a similar vein there is a Scandinavian speaker maker whose name escapes me that makes a speaker in that shape. It has a bit of an Eames chair look to it and is in wood.

I have owned B&W 801's, 802's, Magnaplanar, 
I now have KEF Ref. 3 and love them.
Excellent sound and beautiful to look at.

I heard one audiophile say the big Wilson's looked like a stack of ill assorted boxes....

@rsf507 

Vivid are ugly - trying to pretend a speaker is a musical instrument or something a giant dog might leave behind is not my idea of aesthetics.

Not asking about sonics but what are your thoughts about the Vivid Giya speakers?
https://www.vividaudio.com/speakers/giya-reference-line/models/giya-g1.html

For me it is Gale GS401 speakers:

www.vintagegale.com


Not only do they look spectacular, they sound it to. I actually prefer the sound of the Gale speakers to my B&W Nautilus 801 speakers. See my previous post on these speaker and a TT/Tube based system I have recently assembled.