Many higher end preamps are dated and ugly, why is this?

Conrad Johnson, BAT, VTL are all very good preamplifiers, they are dated and just ugly. Audio research is a prettier amplifier but it's not very well regarded due to it sounding more like a solid state, ie. Not really a tube preamp despite all those internal lightbulbs.

Cheaper preamps can be more pretty. Schitt makes a pretty preamp for about $1000. People like pretty.

D'Agostino by many is viewed as very attractive but kind of weird.

jumia05-19-2022 3:52pm

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retiredfarmer Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 354 posts 05-20-2022 at 11:06pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/canary4/903.html Check that one out all high performance design in four chassis true dual mono
tweak1 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 3,680 posts 05-21-2022 at 12:46pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete I like the Audio GD, fully balanced, which is ~ $3300 from Underwood HiFi. There's an ad for it today
wspohn Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 610 posts 05-21-2022 at 04:22pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete While I am not a fan of gear that looks like it was created by amateurs from articles in Popular Electronics I think that a lot of vintage gear is nice looking. Some of mine:
kingharold Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 304 posts 05-21-2022 at 06:17pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete To me the epitome of a beautiful preamp is the MBL 6010D.
mglik Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 913 posts 05-21-2022 at 08:30pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Looks are important. Surely speakers are most prominent and the most important visual. Personally, I find most box speakers somewhat unattractive. At least the square box ones. Sonus Farber has sculpted boxes which are very aesthetic pleasing. For box components, I have always liked AR. They are always substantial looking. But when it comes to performance of any speaker of component, if they sound good they become good looking… sort of.