Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - Audio product which really floats your boat !

[Miss Ariel]

Hi Guys - I know recently there was a thread of Audio Gear What Where They Thinking Styling Wise ?

What gear really gives or gave you that Wow ! factor.
Sorry can't attach any photos as have struggled with up - loading any photo on Flikr here.

But here are 3 of mine

1) Linn Ittok - I was 19 at the time and had a LVX before and when my dealer brought it round fitted on my LP12 - The engineering and build with the dials just blew me away - even the box was beautiful !
Still love it BTW but that's probably nostalgia.

2) The Meridian 200 series - Never owned any but always loved the styling of it very understated style wise I thought.

3) The Audio Innovations Series 500 amplifier - Had it on a 3 month dealer lone and loved the perspex top and Audio Innovations signature across the perspex and the glow of the valves especially at night - Like a coal fire - Sounded very nice I remember.

 

[Quintessential Audio]

Meridian 500 series
KEF Blade
Chord Electronics

Plenty more will come to me when k really start to think about it

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I love the dCS Puccini

 

[Bob McC]

Lesson AC1/AP3

 

[Marchbanks]

Radford STA15 or 25/SC22. Thorens TD125/SME 3009.

 

[booja30]

Pretty much anything Jacob Jensen designed at B&O

 

[BlueYeti]

Chrome Bumper Nait 1 & 2.
Rega RP3 (original).
Kuzma R, pref in a custom walnut plinth.

 

[tuga]

This topic needs photos.

 

[Chops54]

Radford STA15 or 25/SC22. Thorens TD125/SME 3009.

The TD125/3009 floats my boat. Those SMEs are just so nice to use.

 

[k90tour]

I still like the Naim Chrome bumper look. Big stack of 135s.

 

[Gervais Cote]

Sleeve chrome bumper Naim amps
Speakers made of real rose wood such as some Rogers LS3/5A, Kan first generation, many vintage Spendor
Linn LP12........but not 100% sure if it’s for the sound or the look....
Sugden integrated with a blue facing :

https://pitchperfectaudio.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/behind-blue-eyes/

And a real vintage Kenwood tuner like this :

https://www.aussieaudiomart.com/det...ng-am-fm-supertuner-from-1976/images/1854623/

 

[Tony L]

Big fan of the ‘mid-century modern’ aesthetic here, so I’d pick some real high-end Eames-era stuff, e.g. big Altec, Klipsch or JBL (Hartsfield etc) speakers from the ‘50s or ‘60s, either a Quad 22/II amp or similar era McIntosh (MC40 etc) and either a Transcriptors Saturn with a SME 3009, or a TD-124 in Ortofon conical plinth with Ortofon arm and SPU. Add a Revox A77, that big SAE tuner with the Nixie tubes, a Marantz 5220 cassette deck and an Eames recliner and job done.

 

[martin clark]

Braun, obviously.
Quad too.

(placeholder while I go think about taking good pics of my Acoustical FM-1 c 1955 still in use; also Quad AM-2, FM3, late FM4, 306, ESLs past and present... )

ps obvs fake is obvs fake. She'd have to be about be about 3ft nothing; and as for the female model- obvs 'shopped in from some '60s fantasy.

 

[Subito]

Spectral DMC-10 preamp from the Eighties, yummy:

 

[miktec]

Quad 33/303 combo - love at first sight for me

Anything by Dieter Rams for Braun (up to the black models)

That diddy little amp Sinclair brought out .....

Pet Hates = all valve amps ... bling ... and 'Baby Belling' hifi (Garrard, Thorens, early Quad, etc... blergh !!)

 

[Salamander]

The Lyra Connoisseur, never forgotten how good it looked the first time I saw it reviewed in HiFi+
http://www.lyraconnoisseur.com/Products/Lyra_Connoisseur/LC_42SEL.html

 

[miktec]

... almost forgot - the original Rega Planet off of the 70s - I tried to nick my mates but he caught me walking out with it under me coat.

 

[miktec]

ps obvs fake is obvs fake. She'd have to be about be about 3ft nothing; and as for the female model- obvs 'shopped in from some '60s fantasy.

No - people really were much smaller in the 60s .... that's why the Mini caught on

 

[martin clark]

Oh, Issigonis' Mini remains an object-lesson in packaging design, a classic that'll still seat four admittedly-close friends; and yet also a lot of fun to drive stilll - in a way the obvious modern equivalents (say, the Smart for 2, Aygo etc) really, really are not.

'We now return you to your original programme...'

 

[Wilson]