What Is The Cost Of Amplifier Casework?

I say styling exudes quality...surely it must be wonderful if it looks that way.   I strongly suspect lots of people buy the styling even before listening to the black box.

I suspect that much of this industry's marketing target is towards: "pride of ownership". Fancy case work would be an obvious choice to those ends. 

What are the chances of a manufacturer getting the internal amp design to sound right if they can’t get casework that is functional and looks good?

Why does having the case look good, reflect on how it sounds.

It’s what’s inside that counts. Many times it’s prototypes that sound better than the production versions. This is why Schiit are making a big impact on the hiend, great internals average budget exterior.
This way you can have hiend sound without the exorbitant costs of "glitzy" casework that does nothing for the sound.

But then there are "pseudo" audiophiles that buy the most expensive "glitzy’est" looking equipment/racking, just to show it off for it’s looks, but have no idea if it sounds good or not, as they have no ear.
These are usually the ones that stack their "glamour" pieces in-between the speakers so they can ogle it and the led lights while listening, but they have no idea that the "stereo image is being greatly compromised" with all that racking and equipment and sometimes a tv as well, in-between the speakers.   

Cheers George

It’s what’s inside that counts.

So you would pay Porsche prices for a Porsche built car that looked like a Gremlin?

BTW, Schitt Audio clearly pays attention to how their products look.  As does PS Audio, NAD and other "budget" audiophile brands.  Their cases are not cheaply made.  Making it look good is relatively easy.  Getting it to sound good is harder.  If you can't do the easy part, how you going to do the hard part?