Best looking reel to reel

Wouldn't it be more prudent to invest in something that sounds good as opposed to something that looks cool? Just a thought.

Sadly, finding something that sounds good is the easy part these days. Any decent handheld solid state digital recorder will sound better than even the Studer. The beauty of these old recorders is their refined mechanical quality, and the look and feel that comes with that.
It is for the same nostalgic reason that I have not yet sold my LP12 turntable with its classically beautiful  SME arm, or my old analogue Nikons.

The SME III w/ slightly S-shaped super light titanium nitride wand is just beautiful, also the finest pivot arm for the most compliant cartridges ever produced, from the Golden Age of Vinyl. Period.

The one in the Skogard room at AXPONA was super attractive.

Mine is the SME 3009 series II improved. The later series III is a better arm, but for looks I still think it is trumped by the series II. And the V15iii MR was a great cartridge with vastly superior tracking (sadly no longer supported). Even so, the arrival of digital represented a clear improvement.