Interesting question. The world of audio is hardly flowing over with great looking products, but I think it is possible to have both looks and performance.
The Roksan Xerxes 20 plus is a fabulous looking turntable. My preferred finish would be one in gloss white. Even the cut out platter mat is an embellishment on what is already a very elegant design.
The Leben cs300/600 amplifiers look endearingly old-worlde with their gold fascias and wooden side panels. If they only sound as half as good as they look...
As for loudspeakers, even though the traditional box is unlikely to be the optimum shape for the cabinet, I find that all the classic BBC based designs (Harbeth, Spendor etc) reassuringly look like what I expect loudspeakers to look like.
Especially in their lighter finishes such as cherry or maple finishes.
I also thought the innovative 3 box Naim SBLs (in a lighter finish of course) were great looking loudspeakers, as were virtually all of the Martin Logan range too.
Of course plain ugly products abound but my pet hate are designs such as the Linn Majik range with their hideously ’bling’ chrome tweeter assembly.
Whoever designed that range, and more importantly whoever sanctioned it, cannot have much, if any, sense of aesthetics.
The Roksan Xerxes 20 plus is a fabulous looking turntable. My preferred finish would be one in gloss white. Even the cut out platter mat is an embellishment on what is already a very elegant design.
The Leben cs300/600 amplifiers look endearingly old-worlde with their gold fascias and wooden side panels. If they only sound as half as good as they look...
As for loudspeakers, even though the traditional box is unlikely to be the optimum shape for the cabinet, I find that all the classic BBC based designs (Harbeth, Spendor etc) reassuringly look like what I expect loudspeakers to look like.
Especially in their lighter finishes such as cherry or maple finishes.
I also thought the innovative 3 box Naim SBLs (in a lighter finish of course) were great looking loudspeakers, as were virtually all of the Martin Logan range too.
Of course plain ugly products abound but my pet hate are designs such as the Linn Majik range with their hideously ’bling’ chrome tweeter assembly.
Whoever designed that range, and more importantly whoever sanctioned it, cannot have much, if any, sense of aesthetics.