Yes beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I’m in process of trying out some new gear. Looks, size and cost all count in addition to sound quality of course.
At one extreme I was strongly considering an Accuphase integrated amp. Lovely! Also fairly big and pricey.
I ended up choosing a plain Jane Schit pre-amp and a fairly non-descript looking new GanFet Class D amp that delivers a lot for the $$$ and in a very small package! Beautiful. I’d call the gear utilitarian looking perhaps but not ugly. Something to be said for plain and simple. But that Accuphase…..
Tekton: No thanks. To each their own