Aesthetics - how important are they?

What about the aesthetics of lights and displays?

Whenever possible I use dim mode/ display off.

 

I think it's the usual scale of opinion, but wonder if the people who sit at one end, and who care more for looks than sound, are also artsy people who like music more than kit etc, and those at the other extreme simply love engineering and mucking about and getting the measurements right and wouldn't notice if it sounded wrong or looked hideous, as long as it measured right?
I care about looks a lot and wouldn't have hideous kit near me, but sound matters most...JUST.

If this is the scale described above:

Artsy aesthetes, all looks and emotional music love 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7-----8-----9-----10 crazy engineers, measurement men, music's just a noise on a graph.

Im about a 3.

 

The Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turn table was displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as were the original Quad ESL as examples of form following function.

As it happens I have both, therefore aesthetics is something I do not have to worry to much about My MC7R looks quite good as does the Atlas Magnum power amp, Leak Troughline & Croft Vitale phono stage ok CD104 & Aiwa S950 cassette not so much linear PSU's yuck.

Thankfully the turn table sits high on a 3" thick 100kg black shelf in a brick built plastered alcove rising 6" above the OTA Quad 57's on their Rupert stands,that sit in front hiding the quite good's ok's not so much & yuck.

If I wanted a piece of ugly but sonically great if I could afford it I would buy and fit longer leads then hide it.

Forget the WAF factor at your peril.

 

Some people like being radical and not following the crowd...

 

My otherwise very aesthetically pleasing Leben 300f has a bright blue LED power on light which does some serious harm to the overall aesthetics. I often stand something in front of it when listening at night and have been seriously tempted to put a small sticker over it.

Having a cat determines some decisions - I have a very ugly Perspex cover over my very beautiful Gyro SE. She is convinced the revolving weights are a cat toy and once some serious harm to an old Elvis Costello record.

 

Its true! I agree with the two previous comments that modern styling is moving away from conservative, nicely proportioned, tasteful , elegant.....okay I am sure you get the idea, towards a much more brash, bling, "look at me" aesthetic.

I've fallen out of love with cars of the modern era for that reason, but its more than just cars as the previous commentors noted.

So what is driving this change in style?

My theory is that its the shift in which demographics have the disposable income.

 

Sounds cool to me. There seems to be some animosity towards blue led's here and I agree with that too. Blue led's are the work of the devil. More suitable for fridge /freezers imo.

Now. If Laura Ashley had made hifi, she could have opened up a whole new market. She missed a trick there!

 

Laura Ashley electrostatics.
Now there’s a thought...

 

See I'd take blue over the green and red. Blue is best as long as its not overly bright and just a cool blue and the led is as small as possible.

 

I think the fact that modern fabrication technology allows more complex shapes to be achieved plays its part, too. ‘We made it this way because we now can’.

 

This is a 25-30-ish year old design now - timeless simplicity IMHO. http://en.audionet.de/archive/#image-1115

 

But it's silver

 

Also comes in black (and red LED option)..... for those of us with darker souls http://en.audionet.de/machines/front-panel-displays/

 

minimal tiny lights.

blue, orange and the green c.d. player lights switch off.

got my eyes closed most of the time.

 

It's of zero importance to me. Form follows function. The casework of an amp provides a stable platform on which to bolt the mains transformer, smoothing caps etc and the sides a suitable place for heatsinks if required. Input and output sockets etc are an obvious requirement and where better for them than the back panel... That's as much thought as goes into it. For my own use equipment will often have no casework and a power amp for example may well consist of mains transformer, smoothing caps, boards and heatsinks just plonked on a bit of plywood and put on the carpet between the speakers... I need to have unhindered access to do tests and to carry out modifications and there's a very good chance that say a power amp will be used for a few months to a few years and then I'll take it apart and re-use the heatsinks, transformer etc for a new idea so the vast cost of casework and all the drilling, filing, cutting involved is just a right costly PITA.

 

If Laura Ashley did electrostatics it'd be curtains! I'll get my coat...

 

They matter to me quite a lot for the same reason as the OP, I like elegant, non blingy kit... Linn LK and Linn Klimax has always been a firm winner for me, Naim too. I also love the look of Primare, Densen and the brushed black and quartz silver Cyrus boxes.