Why is black so popular for components?

Correction: "Stabilant 22"

One thing I like about silver, it is much easier to read the black lettering that designates each control. Black is terrible for this.

simple, beautiful & elegant. i WILL NOT buy equipment any other color.

Black, silver, gold, brown or gray - certain audio manufacturers have their approved color and when they try a different color, it just looks wrong, while other manufacturers can get away with it.

- cj in black is a violation, because their gold or champagne color is what we are used to
- ARC in black is also not recommended because silver Audio Research products just look better
- Threshold looks better in silver than black as does Crown.

Let us not turn this into any kind of race thing, because that’s just insane, but it just now occurred to me that when certain manufacturers makes their products in silver, IMHO, they don’t look as good in black, as per the above examples.

But when a manufacturer makes their products in black, then makes a smaller number in silver or white, they tend to look better and more interesting in a color besides black.

For ex: B&K - the majority were made in black, very few in silver, but the silver ones look really cool. Adcom in white, Tandberg in silver, Nakamichi in silver. But early Haflers looked better in brown than in black. NAD has always been gun metal gray, anything else would be uncivilized. I’m sure there are many more examples, but I can’t think of any at this time.
It’s kind of the same thing with sports teams and team jerseys. As an Eagles fan, I always liked when the Cowboys came out in their dark uniforms because I don’t think they play as good in their dark blue jerseys.

In summation, I think color is just what we get used to from manufacturer to manufacturer.

lou -- I'd swear my long gone, very early NAD gear (1970's?) was brown.