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Do you buy hifi because it looks good or sounds good?

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Naim mythology runs deep on forum sites.
It does indeed, starting with this old chestnut:
Naimers are obsessed with music, black, green, blue or red, matters not.
Does anyone here imagine that anyone else here is going to admit to buying stuff primarily because it looks good? As posted above, we all spend ages justifying our actions post hoc.
 
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It does indeed, starting with this old chestnut:

Does anyone here imagine that anyone else here is going to admit to buying stuff primarily because it looks good? As posted above, we all spend ages justifying our actions post hoc.
I would say it's 50/50, that is on reputation, personal bias towards a company etc.. vs sound, we all imagine what we hear anyway according to many on here so SQ is irrelevant, right?

Choosing on looks is a little silly IMO, who looks at the hifi when listening to music, what's the point.
 
I wasn’t aware of this compulsion - you don’t mean by law, do you?
Of course not by law, but by market forces. Even Waitrose has "Essentials". Do you imagine for one minute that with Waitrose's market position they want to stock "Essentials" and sell them cheap? Do you imagine that a Waitrose shopper wants to be seen to be buying "Essentials" cheap tat? Never in a million years. However because (most) supermarkets are price led and good-value driven, they all have to have a "Savers" range, otherwise any claims of value are out of the window. The margins on "Savers" stuff are so low that nobody wants to manufacture it. However they are forced to by the retailers, it is a case of "If you want £X million of business every year supplying the standard meat pie range, you have to supply £Y hundred thousand worth of the cheap-and-cheerful Cornish pasty product, that you will sell to us at 3/10 of bugger all." The cheapo Cornish pasties are sold at little more than cost price, in deliberately unattractive single colour print film wrap. They look dreadful; the product inside is decent enough, as far as a cheapo CP that's mostly pastry and potato filling goes. I know, I've made the stuff.
 
OK - made by manufacturers who don’t want to make them for retailers who don’t want to sell them to people who don’t buy them. FZ would have been proud!
 
I wanted one of these for ages, when I had the CD-T100. :D
Shanling-CD-T300SE-03.jpg

All_Over_the_World_ELO_cover.jpg
 
Hm. MIne is from Portugal, China, Canada, England, USA, Norway and Germany (speakers) and Netherlands. Purely by chance, nothing from Japan.

I have never totted it up until I read your post... Mine is all British or DIY'ed.

Homemade turntable, Audiomods arm ( soon to be a homemade arm as well ) Diy phono stage ( Paradise ) and power supplies. Diy amps ( based on NCC200's ) ATC speakers. Linn CD player and Linn preamp.

Only foreigner is a Denon DL 103r cartridge. ( or the alternative Zu version that needs re-tipping. )

I also have , but must get on and sell , an LP12 some Spendor BC 1's and some SP 1/2 's and some Linn Saras.

( so even the B team are British.) I should start wearing Union Jack underwear.
 
This is market segmentation. No-one intentionally stocks products that don't sell.
I didn't say that they did. What they do want to do is to discourage you from buying the low margin stuff when you would otherwise be buying higher margin alternatives. Part of this is market segmentation, for sure, but there is a definite shove to discourage you from buying the cheapest range.
 
Choosing on looks is a little silly IMO, who looks at the hifi when listening to music, what's the point.
To some extent I agree, kit doesn’t need to be beautiful for me, Sound is the first priority, however I really don’t want hideously ugly kit in my house no matter how good it sounds... unless it could be hidden it of sight but that’s not always practical. One of the things I really like about Linn LK kit is how it just blends into the background. It’s compact and elegant... and (in my opinion) sounds pretty decent too.
 
The best looking replay would be behind a closed door in another room - except for the need to have the speaker in the room with you!

Unfortunately this is more often than not impractical!
 
So put the rig in a cupboard and build the speakers into the walls. Some time ago I helped my dad move the hifi into a china cabinet. My mother was delighted.
 
Sound first - I have some pretty ugly and/or beat up gear, as well as one or two more handsome items.
 
I'll be the first to admit my Naim system started when I first saw photos of the then new CD3.5 with it's slim case, swing drawer, puck and glowing logo. I was having that no matter what it sounded like.

Still have all Naim as a main system and still think it looks wonderful. I'm absolutely certain it can be bettered for probably less money, but it sounds great as it ever did so I don't feel the need to spoil the aesthetics to improve the sound.
 
It has to be both for me maybe 60/40 in favour of sound but it has to be a piece of hifi I could live with.
 


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