High end audio: look more sound

[youknowyou]

I am not too sure about that. Most speakers are chosen by wives so you could almost guess how that will go. Even the low end speakers are designed to look attractive first then sound later. Interestingly enough, especially low end speakers, it's almost entirely depends on looks.
For hardcore audiophiles, I could see the priorities might not be as clear cut but those are very few (and weird).

in all fairness, i dont really know anyone personally who buy 20k speakers, but from those who do and im in contact with via forums, what you are saying is not true at all. sound is the first priority. of course, one can argue that audiophile on forums are not the "normal" customer of high end speakers.

 

[Scottmoose]

Guess it is a matter of taste, i don’t mind this one. My tastes are more towards the McLaren or Aston Martin, but for day-to-day practicality on real worlsd the all wheel drive Tesla S is appealing, really fast 5 door hatchback with near the room of a van, yet capable of 0-over the typical speed limit in 3.2 sec. And it is only the 1st availabe of a new generation of electric vehicles that benefit the electic motor's full torqur from zero character.

dave

Agreed, I quite like the '80s Testarossa & the 512TR development. Low-line configuration taken to its logical contemporary conclusion. The F512M (final version) was a travesty though. It looked as though somebody was given a list of key design features & went through it one by one working out ways to ruin them. As bad as the Mondial? Probably.

 

[Ultima Thule]

Ghost

A car that looks like a wedge craving for getting parked underneath a Škoda, no thanks, would much rather waft away in something more Royalish.
Form can follow function and still look awesome, there are many more speakers gone the oposite way that look right out fuggly and where function could have saved their looks.

 

[chrisb]

Back to audio - never having heard them, I'll opine only on their form, but I'd wager that cost aside, any of the larger Wilson or Oswald Mills designs would elicit a "what, are you crazy?" from most wives.

OTOH, the Sonus Fabre and even B&W N800 series are very stylish indeed.

 

[bwaslo]

There do seem to be a lot of bigger-buck audiophile speakers that have form not following function, or really, following much of anything else either. Gotta attract attention first before anyone will buy, I suppose.

 

[planet10]

the Sonus Fabre

The Sonus Fabre Elipsa was the last commercial speaker that caught my attention. I spent a fair amount of time listening to them.

They inspired this build (alot easier to draw than build).

dave