For the Audiophile with a taste for good design(looks)....a question.


What are your favorite audio components and speakers based on the way they look (looked).  Yes, I know that sound is what counts and that is my major influence, but I do enjoy well designed/good looking products.   I no longer do, but did have a collection of art deco radios, both table models and consoles.....and that was all about design rather than their audiophile qualities.  Thanks 

whatjd
My Consonance Droplet 5.0 CD player would be at home in any Art Deco listening room. It looks like miniature UFO.

I recently bought a McIntosh headphone amplifier. You can’t tell me that the green glass and blue meters aren’t a factor in the purchasing decision of this expensive equipment. They have always appealed to me.

Also, I can't claim that the clear plexiglass enclosure didn't influence my purchase of a JA Michell GyroDec turntable.
I have no good looking sources, unless I count Altmann Tera Player; Mac Mini does not count, either. Pass D1 DAC is not bad looking (as well as that generation of preamps).I like the looks of Pass Labs Aleph power amps, esp. the big ones (Aleph 1, 1.2 and 4). Unfortunately Aleph 4 struggles with low efficiency, low impedance speakers.
Early Madrigal MLs are nice, in particular 23, 27, 28; and 26, but that one I have not seen in the flesh.
As for loudspeakers, Gradient 1.5 Helsinki have the looks and the sound to match; probably my room is a little too big for them (45 sqm / 500 sq. feet with a couple of large openings).
MBL 101c look great, I only wish I had the original stands, And they need a sub (by the sound of it, they need to be relieved from the lowest bass, as this model has nothing but three radialstrahler drivers).
And headphones. AKG 701 are nice, Ultrasone Ed. 8 Ltd. are posh, but the cushions fall off, beyerdynamic T5P are good looking (but have a fragile cable), Senn HD 600 look good, too; beyerdynamic 1350 also are good looking, but not very comfortable.
What amazes me is how the wives let their husbands goober up their homes with such ugly gear.  Things need to fit in without destroying the looks of a room.  
Larry, it is not always the women. I did architecture and interior design for years, even taught. Most of the best industrial design, architecture and MOMA consumer products were designed by men. Very few Ferraris, Porsche, Packards and others were designed by women. Women can and do design great things. But to say that men goober anything up not true...who designed and built that building you are living in or the car you drive or most of the furniture in your home?  Do a Google search with the word Bauhaus or name Raymond Loewy....just for a basic beginning. 

Do google/ebay for great designers, buildings, homes, cars, coffee pots and more and see which gender designed them.  Like men are bad cooks, the vast majority of world class restaurants I have been to have a man for head chef.....not to mention the aircraft I flew on to get there.   Both genders can excel. 




Many Audiophiles revere what the coveted as youths.
In your case not so much. 
I agree about beauty. 
This is why I refuse to listen to certain brands for fear I might like them.
I won't mention which in order to avoid a war here.
Amp- Leben, Shindo, Mac
Speaker- Chord ELS 57,most else is pretty much ugly.

Let us know what you choose!