Just for fun: how do you balance appearance and sound quality?
Do you prioritise sound quality above aesthetics, or accept some loss in audio performance for a better-looking setup (maybe 70% sound and 90% aesthetics)? Anyone feel they’ve managed to maximise both?
Never been able to maximise both in my various homes, but I do strive for a balance. I don’t hear the music properly if my vision is clouded by an ‘ugly’ but functional set up.
The boxes are largely hidden but the speakers have to be aesthetically acceptable in our living room. Emphasis on ‘our’. My wife (quite reasonably) would not agree to ugly or huge speakers in our smallish room. I don’t have a separate ‘listening room’. Don’t want one either; we share the spaces in our house.
Bruce
Yes, I’m in a similar position, BruceW. I don’t have or want a separate listening space, but the room layout means the equipment and speakers can only go in one place. They’re currently on a stand with speakers either side, but the setup doesn’t dominate the room, so my other half is happy with it. I’d guess my aesthetics / sound balance would probably be 90 / 80.
I’m totally on-board with your position here Bruce. My stereo is in a shared lounge, and I’m very fortunate that we can both share the space. Although my wife did take her role of the chair of the aesthetics committee when I was looking for speakers, and vetoed both the Totem Element Metal V2 (which sounded amazing) and the Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V, she’s very forgiving of the “wall of black boxes” that sits under the TV.
Sound first, then aesthetics, buf s balance is needed, just that for me the balance is weighted fairly heavily towards sound quality. Hard to put s balance on it - probably at least 70/30, maybe 80/20, in favour of sound where there is a conflict between the two, but there need not always be a conflict - e.g. acoustic absorption panels can be had faced with artwork of ons’s choice, including photographic. But I have the luxury of having two lounge spaces, one primarily for music the other not - essential for domestic practicality and harmony.
If it looks good it is good - apparently.
A good rule of thumb is that the uglier and messier a system looks the better it will probably sound!
To me though it’s always been about the sound. The appearance is just what it is. I draw the line at cables trailing right across the room or speakers placed way out into the room though.
Interestingly I’ve found that if something sounds especially good to me then I tend to grow to like it’s appearance, even if my initial reaction was to dislike it.
I would never buy any kit I hated the look of. Fortunately, I have mostly liked Naim designs; I wasn’t a fan of the green designs but didn’t find them objectionable. I really like the NC and Uniti ranges look. Which is good, as I have these at home.
.
I designed and made my own audio equipment furniture to both display the aesthetics of the Naim boxes and to match the wood and style of the Ercol furniture in the room.
So … my audio furniture is 100% aesthetics (IMHO of course) and I also claim 100% SQ for the Naim models I have and how I have them wired and interfaced.
A good question and not one I’d given much thought to until a few weeks ago
We invited some old friends around for Sunday lunch, and like us they are into their music etc my buddy having inherited a Heybrook TT2 and Audiolab amp etc from his father when he passed away I helped him set it up etc and his other half insisted that speakers would be small and tucked away
On arrival at our place and waiting for lunch to be ready we both cleared off to our music room, very lucky to have separate room for kit and CD collection that myself and Mrs R retire to frequently with a nice glass of red
My buddy chose some tracks he knew and settled down,30 minutes later he was impressed, he said he heard things he hadn’t heard before but couldn’t believe that the dull looking, industrial shaped boxes were responsible for the outcome of the listening session. It became apparent the more we discussed it that he could not tally the cost against the look, and the amount of boxes required to create what he had heard
We had never really thought about it before, and to be honest we still won’t but I fully understand that not everybody is in a position where their domestic situation allows for the separation of music listening and general family and living constraints.
I suppose in our case the musical enjoyment is foremost, but Mrs R never gave up on the fact that she disliked the overbearing nature of our Isobariks at the time but loved the sound!!!
SWMBO didn’t like the look of Dave or ATC50s.
Sound brilliant. But we don’t own either 
Always sound first … until I found a way to hide the kit in another room. Now, although the speakers are large, they are part of the furniture. I could not say that about the Fraim stacks, nor the mana stuff before them.
luckily the 3 box nc system +lp12 is rather minimalist and tucked away to the side of the room on isoblue stand (chosen for low-key appearance) almost disappears. luckily my dealer provided the 8m NACA5 runs that entailed for free. the speakers on the other hand are 4-5ft out into the room for sq and are rather more dominant than i would like. but again the white NACA5 running behind them back to the wall are scarcely noticible on te off-white carpet. so mostly lucky that it was possible to come up with a system with excellent sound but for the most part visually low key
Great topic question first off!
For me when I began my Naim journey the aesthetics were very important and I had my Naim system hidden largely in oak cabinets apart from LP12 and CDS2. Anyway, I got alot of advice on here and went down the Fraim route ultimately!
As time goes by I enjoy the looks and aesthetics of the cables and equipment in their own right. So for me having trailing cables across the room is an aesthetic choice as well as a sound one in it’s own right.
Having exposed cables is very much part of my system. Hiding them would degrade the sound on a complex large 500 DR series system with 3 sources, an AV system with large TV and 2 large sub woofers. And then there’s room treatment also.
Personally, I love my listening room/living room. It has to be fit for my 6 year old son to play in also. I have him well trained and he is very good and doesn’t touch the system! But we play cars and Lego and lark about a bit! It’s not a dedicated listening room but isn’t far off!
The array of equipment have therefore become the aesthetic. It’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea and I get that. I have chosen to embrace it.
Thus my scores are aesthetics 80. Sound 90.
I have some cable risers and I think that’s going too far for me. I will experiment with them at some point though! There’s always so much to do and so much to enjoy with this hobby we have!
BD
I’m 80/20 sound or I’d be wasting my time and money but as is constantly proved on here you can definitely have both. This ultimately depends on whether you listen to music or your system. I will add however my system is modest compared to some on here.
I bet your system sounds superb. For many it would be regarded as high end.
Without a doubt.
Not really thought of that way but I guess you are right Dan. Still, compared to some of the wonderful systems on here it’s definitely modest
I could not purchase equipment that I found aesthetically displeasing.
My motto has been “understated elegance”… I feel that OC Naim boxes have this when placed on Fraim supports.
My Kudos Titan T88s are not as elegant as the pics I have seen of the 808s but their looks have grown on me over time. They are certainly a “form follows function” type of design which is an approach I also admire.
I have never liked “blingy” looks in audio equipment (as well as cars, furniture, etc).
Good topic for discussion
David