My "audiophile" weakness(es)...ie: how the item looks, and you?.


It's all about the sound.....right?  Well, with me mostly and most always.....however I am influenced by the cosmetics of audio gear.

The Maggie 20 are impressive, as are many Martin Logan's, and tubes....the glowing of tubes does have impact beyond the glow and heat.  Still love the "looks" of my original CJ ART preamp. 

As I look at the cosmetics/looks of audio gear I do give myself much slack...I know in sports cars, furniture, art and many other things how something looks does impact my thoughts......perhaps that explains some of the very pretty women I was with that were not actually very good people.....but they did look nice.  As a p.s. the best sports cars I ever drove were not very "pretty" as they were race cars...and the "pretty" street ones were much better looking but not nearly as fast/fun to drive as those race cars. 

Have you been influenced by how audio items look?  If you have, what are some of your favorites in the "looks" department?  Thanks for your thoughts/experiences. 







whatjd
Yep, cool is a thing. But, it still has to sound good. Performance beats out looks all day long. Good looks get your attention. There are other examples of this in the world!
The listening experience is mostly, but not completely, about the sound. Where you are, whom you're with, what you're drinking, how comfortable you are and a lot of other things contribute. 
The obvious solution to the conundrum is to balance the effect by damning all pretty cables.  ;)
I agree entirely, the look of HiFi equipment in my living room is very important. This is why I assembled this system:

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/7324#&gid=1&pid=1

At the end of the day I have combined outstanding sound quality with what I consider to be beautiful HiFi art. Works for me, could not be happier with this system, I have no plans to upgrade/change anything.