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Whats the deal?

Why do people, myself included, place so much emphasis on build quality and appearance over sound?  It’s so strange that I’ll do just about anything to make my system sound better apart from using tone controls or buying / enjoying speakers that don’t use high quality drivers, cabs and crossovers.  It’s like I have an audiophile checklist of dos and don’ts

A good example would be the fact that I have bought and listened to many different models of Paradigm speakers and the only ones that I loved were the Signature 2 V.2.  I have loved the way  many other Paradigm speakers that I owned looked or were built but when it comes to sound they were all too bright.  Sure they image well and have good dynamics but I see so many posts about paradigm that have a similar tones (no pun intended).

Why oh why do we spend all kinds of $ trying to make speakers that we don’t like sound like speakers that we do like.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy new speakers as opposed to new amp, source, wires, room acoustic treatments trying to put band aids on speakers that we don’t like?

Kind of reminds me of marriages where the Wife is a total jerk yet the Husband will stay with her forever because she’s beautiful.  
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pgaulke60
29 posts
 
I believe you can have beautiful sound and aesthetically pleasing equipment.  My Sonos Faber speakers are works of art and fit it well with my surrounding living area - plus they sound superb.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
I went totally for the Stonehenge look.. Giant speakers towering on each side of the window.. Except I clicked it down a notch by having them in light oak trim and the off white cloth (I guess that is the "esthetics" part. (Magnepan 20.7) With the color they are they sort of almost vanish during the day, with the brightness of the light from the window dominating one's vision. If only I would have chosen the dark grey cloth and cherry rails...
No one would ever confuse my listening room for a normal living room
schubert
4,867 posts
 
If you have enough money you can get any look you desire .
pwhinson
97 posts
 
Look at it this way. If something costs a fortune, sounds fantastic, but looks like a piece of junk that will fall apart at any minute would you buy it? I don’t think so. Re the cable issue I never thought I would join what I used to call the crazy cable club and then I heard what Synergistic Research could do in my system and suddenly I had laid out $10K in cables. But it was the only thing left to tweek. I must have listened to midline cables from a dozen different companies and yes there were differences but it wasn’t always clear that it was improvement. With the SR stuff there was no question.
n80
1,227 posts
 
I said this in another thread once and I still think it is true and someone should make it happen:

Some of these fine high end cables and power cords are beautifully made and beautiful to look at (including some that I own) regardless of what you think about their actual benefit. But then we stick them in some rack, closet or cabinet coming out of the backs of our components.

Someone needs to make equally beautiful components in which these gorgeous cables come out the front where they can be seen and admired.....as well as heard.
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