Why do people, myself included, place so much emphasis on build quality and appearance over sound?
... Why oh why do we spend all kinds of $ trying to make speakers that we don’t like sound like speakers that we do like.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy new speakers as opposed to new amp, source, wires, room acoustic treatments trying to put band aids on speakers that we don’t like?
IMO more often that not it has nothing to do with wanting to stay with the build quality and appearance of the speakers. Rather, it is due in part to the fact that applying band-aids of various kinds usually involves much less hassle than changing speakers, and perhaps less risk of winding up with sonics we like even less, and in part to the fact that it can often be difficult to properly identify the root cause of a sonic issue. And perhaps in some cases it is due to expectations that such band-aids will be necessary no matter what speakers are chosen.
As far as appearance is concerned, though, most of us care about the appearance of our house and its furnishings, as well as the appearance of our cars, and we like to have some degree of pride of ownership in both. In general I see no reason for speakers and audio components to be any different in those respects. In his post above Snapsc expressed it somewhat differently, but said it well IMO.
Regards,
-- Al