Speaker appearance vs quality sound or eyes over ears

Carlsy

Carlsy

Carlsy

Permabanned
Joined
6 Jul 2015
Posts
1
How important is the appearance of your speakers? do you to some degree choose with your eyes when shopping around or is it all about the sound
For me appearance plays a big part in selecting my speakers .I have a pair of Paradigm studio 100v5 in high gloss black and they dominate the room there in there appearance alone commands respect and if you want to know how they sound you will find out for you self (you can't hear with my ears)
I've listened to B&W nautilus (shaped like a snail) paired up with Macintosh and it was awesome but there's no way I'm putting those snails in my house
Money can't buy taste
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Each to their own - Those Paradigm's to me are about as ugly as speakers get.

I got my Q Acoustics (2050's Gloss Black) mainly based on price/performance. I was looking at used B&W which would have offered better performance but can't stand that fake black wood effect a lot of speakers seem to have.
 
Roadrunner_668 said:
Obviously sound should come first!! You wouldn't buy a TV with rubbish picture quality just because it looked nice would you!
Click to expand...

Totally agree sound first gone are the days where everything was volume and the quality of sound was very poor i have a pair of Ruark MR1's even though they look nice they sound great only 20watt and some say there exspensive at £299 but £299 was well spent for the sound in our bedroom HTPC set up
 
Carlsy said:
How important is the appearance of your speakers? do you to some degree choose with your eyes when shopping around or is it all about the sound
For me appearance plays a big part in selecting my speakers .I have a pair of Paradigm studio 100v5 in high gloss black and they dominate the room there in there appearance alone commands respect and if you want to know how they sound you will find out for you self (you can't hear with my ears)
I've listened to B&W nautilus (shaped like a snail) paired up with Macintosh and it was awesome but there's no way I'm putting those snails in my house
Money can't buy taste
Click to expand...
Ask yourself if the sort of person who can afford to drop £55,000 on speakers alone really gives a damn about your taste in aesthetics.

Speakers come in all shapes and sizes. For many there has to be a balance between audio performance and acceptable aesthetics to maintain marital harmony. But anyone who drops serious coin on speakers based purely on looks rather than sound is quite simply mad, or possibly American*



* Just kidding, my American friends.
 
I have a pair of Diapason Adamates III and although they look unusual, I think they look pretty good. I think speakers like Sonus Faber actually look fantastic and are on a different level of aesthetics compared with most speaker manufacturers.
 
Personally I think the perfect speakers would be invisible. Unfortunately they've not been invented (probably a good idea, as they'd be a real pain to keep falling over and even more to wire up). Next up is in wall, which I've heard, but still don't really do it for me. As mentioned, some do try to look good, but there's very few about. SF are a great example of something that does work. For the other 99% of speakers, just base it on their performance as even if YOU like the looks of them, chances are you missus won't.
 
Usually, people will see a speaker before they hear it, so I think how it looks will have the greatest initial impact. Thus, for me the first thing that would draw me to a speaker would be its appearance.

However, once the system starts playing then its the sound that counts and the appearance would only be of secondary consideration to me.

Indeed, over the years I've owned several sets of speakers whose appearance I did not care for, but I bought them because of the sound.
 
For me, sound quality comes over aesthetics any day. I use vintage speakers with very big walnut finished boxes and dark brown grilles. (Like so) Not necessarily a good look, but they make up for it in how they sound.
 
When I bought my Hifi (entry level really , £1.5k) I couldn't care if the speakers looked like Elephants riding unicycles.

Tried various different ones in the shop - As soon as I heard the Kef's there was no competition.
Looks nice too - But I wouldn't care if they looked like blobs with ears.
 
With the amount of speakers on offer today, we can have both sound quality and good looks. though what looks good to me, may look awful to you.

In my living room I have Quad 21L2 floorstanders, and 9L2 rears, + centre.

they look great, and sound great, though some may prefer a different look, or sound. Its all about a happy medium
 
Sound is everything (if you care about it). Long as they're not pink with elephants on them I'd live with anything if the sound they produced was to my liking. However I do like them hidden or not noticeable if possible.
 
I got my B&W's because when I deom'd them they were the only thing that really stood out to me it is a nice bonus that with the grills off they look kind of awesome!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom