Ugliest Component of the Year 2024!

Anything that uses LEDs to light up the tubes is ridiculous in my book. 
 

LEDs tend to increase noise to the power supply circuit.  Perhaps, that improves the sound of some gear where noise is preferable to what the amp puts out.

https://www.yankodesign.com/images/design_news/2009/10/25/asspeaker03.jpg

DeKay

DeKay,

Holy s**t, that is a real looker, although what looks like a port when the thing is closed is really going too far.  I recall people talking about putting toilet paper over the tweeter on Klipsch Heresy speakers; toilet paper stuffed in that port would really be too much to even think about.

@barts 

"So it goes."

I'll throw klipschorn and other giant boxes by them in the mix.  Don't like how they sound either which makes it worse for me.

And yea the rant on ASR was not a good moment for Tekton.  To be fair I didn't think their base model Lore was that bad measurement wise.  Go check the stereophile article on the impact monitors if you want to see the response of the seven tweeter array.  I have a +/-3 DB response from 20 hz to 20 khz with minimal room EQ from the listening position.  I also have a fully treated space and two rhythmik F12s working sub 80 hz.  Speaker designers are human too and he clearly takes pride in his products to light Amir up like that lol

When I read the copy on these speakers I double checked to see that I was not on The Onion.

https://www.yankodesign.com/2009/10/26/sounds-from-behind/

DeKay

IMHO, a lot of companies take pride in their work without threatening reviewers, and testers with litigation, like Tekton, DCS and Tom Evan’s did.

Let's not forget this weird banana thing from Vivid:  https://vividaudio.com/giya/giya-g1-spirit/

Wadax components get great reviews, cost a fortune, and look like a cheap boom box.  https://wadax.eu/reference/

Plus 1000 @otherworld74 

Until you see the back panel!!!

I have another anatomically suggestive speaker system for you to consider.  It is the Western Electric 16A horn from the 1920's.  I know someone who owns two of these beasts.  Although it has two drivers, it is a single midrange horn.  I've heard them run full range with Western Electric 555 fieldcoil drivers and also YL compression drivers.  The setups I heard did not employ any woofers.   Being a midrange horn, and given that the drivers were also meant to only operate in the midrange, it was shocking how much bass this horn delivers (goes down to somewhere around 70 hz).  A bullet tweeter crossed in at around 15 khz.  Whether it is ugly or beautiful is really hard to say.  It is like what someone said about Nat King Cole--I don't know if he is the handsomest or ugliest man.

https://we16ahorn.blogspot.com/

@larryi

Those are some horns…Personally, I wouldn’t care to own them but I believe some people pride themselves in owning something rare as this regardless of its appearance. They may sound phenomenal but for me, striking a balance between form, function, and how a piece integrates into its surroundings is an important aspect of ownership. It’s about creating harmony in the space as well as in the sound, which makes the experience even more enjoyable.

Really anything from these folks:

https://www.metaxas.com/product-page/product-page-audio-2/product-page-audio.html

The headphone amp is particularly fetching.

The person who owns these horns cares ONLY about the sound.  He puts together custom systems that are much more practical than ones with that giant horn.  That horn was meant to be used in theaters where it was hidden behind screens or curtains so looks were totally irrelevant.  The sound is a great example of how one can engineer something that works despite what would otherwise be considered a major flaw.  If you suddenly stop the music, you will hear a very long echoing decay of the music, which means that the horn is ringing like crazy.  But, it rings over a broad range of frequencies so that the decay sounds utterly natural and there is no sense of the music being muddled or tonally altered by this ringing.  Once I heard that ringing, I found it hard to accept, in my mind, that this was not a BIG problem.  But, the more I listened, the more I came to realize that it was not a problem and that this horn is fantastic.  It is very impractical, requires at least four, and up to eight very expensive midrange compression drivers for a stereo pair, but it IS something one should hear if one has the chance.  It is on display and plays in the museum dedicated to vintage gear in Seoul, South Korea.

Not sure I would turn the lights off with those amplifiers in the house.

Lubachi, that’s it!   Looks like some kind of flower that would grow in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Run for your lives!   Ahhhhhh!  

Manley’s headphone amp is at the top of my list for least attractive aesthetic.

It gives off expensive casket vibes:

https://www.hifinews.com/content/manley-absolute-headphone-amp

While no particular component comes to mind, anything with a polished mirror finish that reflects the image of a 75-year-old, well-worn audiophile back at you (in my case) has to be near the top.

I’d say its a toss up between that laughable Tekton speaker pictured above and the supreme joke of Tralfamador...actually I think the real prize should go to complete system composed of Mac separates with Tektons as the main left and right with Tralfamadors as the surrounds with a phantom center. Anyone support that notion? And now for the real question: Who among you could walk into a room filled with a system like I just described without laughing out loud?

The ugliest thing about the McIntosh is that it lacks MDMI.  Something that is reportedly fixed with their forthcoming pre-amp!  Who cares what the form factor is if there's no function

It is amazing to me that people got paid real money to come up with these designs.  On top of that, the designs most likely had to be approved by multiple people at these organizations.  The wadax is the least offensive to me.  Tectonic and McIntosh are close but Tekton gets the edge because I could put the Mc in a cabinet to hide.