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Hifi that gives you "the fizz"

I place appearance well down in importance from performance. The fizz, for me, is virtually audio only.
Having said that, if anyone is skipping a pair of Gale GS401A's, I'll save them from damaging their back lifting them.
 
LP12
Spectral
Micromega
Linn LK series
My Accuphase gear
I bought my first Linn LK product (a Majik I) almost 20 years ago. I’m addicted to the stuff, eight boxes in my main system, three in my dining room, three in my office and two in my daughters bedroom. It’s timelessly elegant and happens to sound pretty excellent too. I think Linn Klimax gear is some of the best looking kit ever made too... but beyond the reach of the Majority.

I’ll have to look up Spectral, I’m kind of with you on Micromega, the Stage series looked very good and the brushed finish on the sleeve added a touch of class. Accuphase oozes build quality in the flesh, as does modern Luxman but they’re big boxes, look good on a large rack in a decent sized room.

I have to admit, I love the look of Cyrus gear, in either brushed black or quartz silver, it looks great in the flesh, pictures never do it justice... shame I’ve had such bad experience with reliability, I did like my Cyrus stuff when it worked. I had the 4 box CD player from new in late 2009, (transport/DAC/2 x XPS) and the Dicmaster 8 and AV Master 8 for home theatre duties... the transport, DAC and Discmaster all failed, some of them multiple times.
 
, Class A or excellent AB valve amps these days gives me the fizz. I mainly use solid-state due to personal circumstances but that warmth is pretty unbeatable.
 
Form dictated by function gives me the fizz, especially with pure Class-A operation.

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Form dictated by function gives me the fizz, especially with pure Class-A operation.

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Not class A, but I did lust after these, at the time:

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Apologies for introducing a reference to The Brand That Shall Not Be Named, but I did think them spectacularly good looking amps.
 
Not really 'fizz', but the most impressive piece I've owned was my top-of-the-line Marantz quadraphonic receiver with oscilloscope (circa 1976). Actually, a lot of that era's Japanese stuff induced a blingy sort of pride of ownership. My previous Revox A76 amp and tuner + A77 R2R looked the bus. in an understated way, side by side.
 
I think my Quad 34 and 303 look just right.
Strangely my Audiolab 8000A has grown on me over the years.

My AR XA look right to me.
No superfluous additions, just an on/off switch and arm lift.
It sounds good as well...
 
If we're just talking aesthetics, then I think (sad to say) the best looking stuff was designed a long time ago:-

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Yep same with music and in fact most things. We form most of our long-lasting opinions in our twenties.
Just showing our age :).

Most youngsters probably think a Quad 303 looks awful compared to a ridiculously oversized iPhone.
 
If we're just talking aesthetics, then I think (sad to say) the best looking stuff was designed a long time ago:-

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Most contemporary black boxes are best put somewhere out of sight IMO - they add nothing to a room, whereas these all contribute something to the space they're in.

I have to agree wholeheartedly.
Has anyone done better than B&O and QUAD? Nope!
Look at today’s turntables: ugly, all of them, no exception.
But manufacturing a Beogram 4000 would probably be impossible today. Perhaps the Japanese could.
But I’m sure Rega or Linn wouldn’t be able to do it, even if they wanted to.
 
The real fizz for me is going out and buying an album you go home and it turns out a cracker. Having great equipment is the icing on the cake.
 
If we're just talking aesthetics, then I think (sad to say) the best looking stuff was designed a long time ago:-

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Most contemporary black boxes are best put somewhere out of sight IMO - they add nothing to a room, whereas these all contribute something to the space they're in.

Funny how we all differ. I'm mid 50s so Quad should be right up my alley, but it just looks a complete mess to me. The B&O is even worse. The Marantz is OK, just like any other 70s/80s Japanese gear though. I studied industrial design in my youth and I have a feeling it's responsible for my feelings on the aesthetics of a lot of things... especially cars! Anyway just my opinion and god job we're not all the same!
 
[Gazes wistfully into the distance...] I still have a bit of a thing for the classic Naim olive "shoe-box" combo of 72/Hi/140...

Or Cyrus III & PSX-R.

Or Quad 34/FM4/306 (slightly bigger than shoe-boxes but near enough) - 33/303 too beige; 44/405 just fugly.

And for contrast, I quite like the aesthetics of soffit mounted Tannoys or ATCs but have neither the cash or wall space to scratch that particular itch ;)
 
Funny how we all differ. I'm mid 50s so Quad should be right up my alley, but it just looks a complete mess to me. The B&O is even worse. The Marantz is OK, just like any other 70s/80s Japanese gear though. I studied industrial design in my youth and I have a feeling it's responsible for my feelings on the aesthetics of a lot of things... especially cars! Anyway just my opinion and god job we're not all the same!
That's fighting talk :)! Funny enough, when I was at art college industrial design was one of the options I considered for dipAD. Perhaps it's just as well I didn't go down that path as I might not have had a job at the end of it! I still like much of the Quad style of design. They did choose some rather nice offbeat colours, with a nice variation for the knobs and that lovely contrasting orange. As it wasn't anodyne I suppose it is inevitable that some would like, and others hate it. May the woofers from hell protect us from boring hifi design, of which there is, sadly, a great deal. Just a shame that the Quad 33 was so awful sounding...
 
S-Man: I'm not sure it's an age thing - I was still in my twenties in the noughties so the Quad, B&O and 70;s Jap stuff were before my time by that reckoning! Like everyone else :) I do have a design background, though, perhaps it's that!
 


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