Your advice to speakers designers

If aesthetics are important then the sound will never be great.

That’s simply not the case.

First, I’ve had numerous speakers I think were aesthetically beautiful that sounded great. Further, the more expensive speakers tend to be the more beautifully built speakers with even more attention to finish and style. As is the case with most high performance luxury items. Many of the Tidal speakers, for instance, are among the most beautifully made, and are also in the top sphere of performance.

(And I also happen to like the aesthetics of the MBL speakers, which produce some of the most amazing sound I’ve ever heard).

Right now I have Thiel 2.7 speakers in ebony and they are among the most beautiful speakers I’ve ever seen, and they sound superb. So do my bigger 3.7s.

A friend of mine reviews audio gear and often has crazy expensive gear and cabling. His set up is more of a "reviewer" set up in terms of aesthetics - equipment all around. I prefer most equipment to be out of sight, except the speakers, hence all my cabling is mostly hidden, source gear in another room. Yet my system usually sounds more impressive than his, because I put my money into my speakers (and not cables) and especially because I had the room professionally designed for good acoustics, with a high priority for aesthetics so you don’t see the treatments.

There is nothing about high end audio that bars beautiful industrial design as part of the process. And there’s quite a bit of it in the high end.

This is not exactly an advice but I would like to see speakers designers do custom work, within reason. Like custom knives, furniture, serious car tuning etc. 
By the way, Tidals and MBLs don't visually appeal to me but I've seen much worse.

I agree with Prof. Everything must be designed; a speaker does not design itself. And a physically beautiful speaker can also be a superb sounding speaker - and this applies to electronics, cabling, etc. When it comes to speakers, fit and finish go a long way; and the ability to customize the finished surface (wood, paint, color, etc) is a bonus. For example, my Zu Def 4s are available in an almost unlimited combination of finishes. The only problem is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I find that this especially applies to electronics. 

inna,

"I rarely just sit down and listen,

"

Wait. What? You don’t sit down and listen to music?

Did you wander into a high end audio forum by mistake? :-)

Can you explain further: Do you just listen to high end audio as background music for other activities?

You can pretty a good sounding room up a bit but room treatments are inherently homely.  It's all subjective anyway but anything dealing with sound absorption/diffusion is going to have to have quite a bit of surface area to be effective and will have to be placed where it works effectively.  Neither of these things are conducive to good looks.  If looks, decor are a priority the sound will suffer.  I don't believe there's any way around it.