How important are the Speaker Cabinets?

Re: the purchase motivation of expensive loudspeakers.

If you place a pair of large floorstanders in a living room, they are effectively something between furniture and sculpture - in addition to the last link in the sound system. Thus, they have 2 functions: visual and aural. As you spend more money, you would expect the product to perform both functions "better". Of course, in both cases, "better" may be the subject of some debate. Given the realities of the overall market, how else would you expect it to be?

Marty

BTW, I don't dismiss reverse psychology. I'm sure that someone out there makes an "ugly" megabuck speaker specifically to convey that all the cost is dedicated to the "aural" function and little (to none) to the "visual".
Given the realities of the "lunatic fringe" (BTW, I could reasonably be classified as either part of, or close to, that crowd) how else would you expect it to be?

Shadorne, the article does not prove that looks are more important than sound quality

Well the way I read how the selection process went blind versus sighted (choice is so utterly dependent on visual cues even though they were instructed to rate only sonic quality), it is hard to see how one could not draw this simple conclusion: what audiophiles see is what they hear.

Shadorne, why limit it to just what can be seen? Better it's what the audiophile knows is what they hear. In anything it's near impossible to not be influenced by what you think you already know.

For what it's worth Shadorne, in this thread, you and I seem to be completely of the same mind.

Shadorne, why limit it to just what can be seen? Better it's what the audiophile knows is what they hear.

Yes absolutely. What I meant to say was that when an buyer sees the product and knows who makes it then he/she becomes influenced by all the reviews and aura around the product, as well as the aesthetics. You are right to correct me - it is not ONLY aesthetics but a whole bunch of factors - including testimonials people have read on the web...

In fact I was playing Golf this morning and I am still amazed at how many brands of Golf ball there are (and clubs) - I got to wondering if most of these are just OEM sourced equipment from a few large volume manufacturers that get a different cosmetic look and logo (is the Nike Golf ball really that different from Pinnacle)....much like many speaker companies using the same North European third party low cost drivers...much like cable manufacturers that don't make their own cable but simply add logos to what an OEM makes.