Ron, my 1.6's were black with cherry trim but I like the look of the aluminum trim better. Although it may just be cosmetic, I think the aluminum stiles add a little stability to keep the mdf from doing any flexing whereas the wood stiles are plainly cosmetic. As far as the value of Mye Stands, that would be up to you. I plan on having my 1.7's for awhile so I think the Mye Stands are a good investment and they definitely improve the sound. As for jumpers, the first thing my dealer said was to get rid of those crappy metal bars. I had some jumpers and installed them without any comparison. The fuses I used are HiFi Tuning 4amp fast blow (gold)fuses which are on sale right now. If I used one word to describe them it would be "cleaner." Like I said before, I decided to keep fuses in while still under warranty and using a better quality fuse gets me closer to no fuse at all.