Is it Audio, or is it Art?


A casual survey of the latest batch of high end electronics and speakers leads me to an interesting observation. The trend is towards exotic physical shapes which go far beyond any legitimate technical necessity. Taking power amplifiers as an example, electronic “guts” worth about $2000 can be near SOTA. You could put the circuitry in a plain metal box and it would sound the same. But no…we see beautifully sculptured enclosures, and price tags in the multi-kilobuck range. In the case of loudspeakers the number of 6 inch drivers, exhibited without a grill, seems to be a selling point, like the number of cup holders in autos a few years back.

I used to get mad about the prices charged for high end power amps, but not now since I have tumbled to the fact that these items are works of art as much as they are practical sound systems. Are they not proudly displayed on open racks? When you think of, for example, a pair of Chord monoblocks for $75,000, as electronic gear it is completely absurd, but when viewed as a piece of artwork (sculpture) 75 grand is unexceptional. And it plays music too!
eldartford
I think this is a very valid point. There are SOME instances where form follows function, ans there is a visual statement, but this is usually in the domain of big speakers. I was discussing the similarities of the a lot of the high end audio stuff with high end watches (horology?) with a co-worker. It seems that both pursuits share an obsession with complication, in that you are pursuing novel ways of re-soving a problem that has already been solved, in one case time keeping, in the other passing an audio signal as free of measurable distortions as possible. My co-worker pointed out one big difference - the watch often increases in value over time, whereas as high end gear is just consumer electronics at the end of the day, and is usually significantly depreciated the moment you unbox it.
Better quality items always come in better packaging. A Sieko Flightdeck watch is a lot better looking than a cheap casio digital. A ford Mustang comes in a much nicer package than a Festiva. Godiva ice cream comes in a better package than Blue Bunny ice cream.

It's like that in EVERY industry, only in audio do people whine about the package. Perceived value has a lot to do with the price a retailer can get for an item. I would rather have my amp in nice solid cabinet than in a flimsy piece of tin.
It's audio -- at best. IMO, except for speakers, it works hard to be anything less than ugly. It's all just metal in boxes. I have nice gear (like a Cary SLP-05, Rowland monos, etc) but it's all ugly as hell compared to the custom woodworked Japanese-style box that sits over the whole system. Inside the furniture cabinet, the gear is on a Monaco Modular rack. Very nice looking -- for an audio rack. But it's still a hunk of steel, acrylic and carbon. It can't compare to the handcrafted piece of furniture it sits inside, the primary function of which is to aesthetically pleasing.

So it's all relative. Compared to an ugly metal box, a pretty metal box is artful. Compared to a piece of art, it's still just a pretty metal box.

As for the watch/stereo comparison, I think you have it wrong on a number of counts.

The watch often increases in value? Often? No. Rarely. Great watches retain their value better than others, but they don't go up in value unless a surprising confluence of events occurs.

Consumer electronics go down in value? Yep. We've long since figured out how to keep good time, but we're still figuring out how to make good sound.

Watches go up in price the more complications there are. A credible "minute repeater" does a lot more than tell time, and it can set you back well into six figures. The more an audio piece goes up in price, the less it does.

Fine automatic watches are using technology that will be fixable in 100 years. Similar watches (automatic/gear based) that are 100 years old are A fine piece of stereo componentry will be difficult to repair in 25 years.

If you like staring at your stereo, more power to you, but don't delude yourself into believing that it's a work of art.

My (cynical) two cents.

R
The watch example is perfect. A $24 Timex keeps time within a few seconds per year. If keeping time is what you want, spending more than $24 is foolish. Of course there are beautiful watches that cost a lot more, but they are not about telling time. People buy them for other reasons.
Eldartford, you're response assumes someone using a watch actually needs to know the time accurately to within a few seconds per year. If you drop this proconception, then other factors can have validity in the type of watch you use.