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VPI TNT turntable. Just gorgeous.
As a follow-up to last week's question, we'd like to know what audio gear gets your vote for best-looking product of all time.
I would say Bang & Olufsen have consistently been on the cutting edge of looks and design over the years. Yet I have never bought one of their products because I thought they were too trendy. My vote for one of the coolest components ever built was the Nakamichi Dragon cassette player. The way it spun the cassette around was really cool.
Greg, did you ever work at IAS?
100% correct. They just disappear.
The Marantz 3650 preamp. Functionality, usability, quality, flexibility, symmetry, sculpted knobs and extruded panel . . . all contribute to the overall look. This preamp makes reductionist modern black gear look like the junk it is, while providing more and better capabilities hands-down. I searched for years to find one. You can see it here: www.glasgow.com/marantz/3650.html
looks matter because it involves another sense to add further personal involvement during the exercise of aural perception. This said, even though all audio afficianados, myself included will profess looks do not add or subtract from the listening experience. All gear is beautiful. Extruded heat sinks have a techno utility beauty of form and function.
To those who say "looks don't matter at all," how would you feel about showing off a fantastic new amp you bought to your friends that features a large, pulsing red swastika on the front? Even if you concealed it, you'd be admitting that aesthetics do matter to some degree. Everyone has their own aesthetic tastes and limits when it comes down to a product-purchasing decision. If "the sound" is really the only thing that matters for audio products, would you buy the "best-sounding" speakers on the market, even if they emanated the pungent odor of wet baloney 24/7?
My first choice, loudspeaker-wise, would have to be the B&W Nautilus, with the Martin-Logan Statement coming in a close second. The B&W Nautilus is a one-of-a-kind loudspeaker. It looks as if it just came up from the deep blue sea. The exponentially tapered tubesso amazing. The Martin-Logan Statement looks as if it came right out of the film "2001." The monolith stands before us.