Speakers, Fashion item or music reproduction tool.

Syd,

the Neat Ultimatums were chosen on sound quality first and foremost. I was very lucky in that the Neats fit in nicely with all our other furniture!


Regards


NB

I don't have a wife or girlfriend screwing up my hifi (which makes better music than a female nagging anyway!), so this isn't an issue for me.

Plus with my eyesight I don't CARE what a speaker looks like.

That said, Rega Elas look like a cross between Darth Vader and a Dalek (ie, I think they rule!), and my walnut Epos ES14s are quite possibly the UGLIEST domestic monitor known to man - Isobariks have nothing on '14s - especially on those fugly stands!

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

Well so far nearly neck and neck between option 1 and 2. I'm also pleased to see that there's no one here forced into buying NXT panel speakers in the shape of picture frames with a nice photie of the bairns and the family pets.

Please keep voting.

Yours in Music

Syd

quote:

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Originally posted by domfjbrown:
...my walnut Epos ES14s are quite possibly the UGLIEST domestic monitor known to man - Isobariks have nothing on '14s - especially on those fugly stands!

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Dom, this is a classic example of how our reaction to something's appearance is much less a question of how it looks, and much more to do with how we see it (IMHO!). I think quite a lot of "hi-fi furniture" from the time around the "rise and rise" of the ES14 was influenced by Linn. Linn's Kan and Sara stands were designed arround the requirements of the functions they were supposed to perform, ie: light, sturdy, rigid and particularly, resistance to fore & aft movement. There is a theory which states that if you allow required function totally to dictate the look of an item, you will end up with something that works all round, and I think Linn proved this to an extent. In doing so, they (IMHO) allowed the visual effect to be appropriately reminiscent of some very influential furniture from Charles Rennie Macintosh (Glasgow School of Art); certainly one can see how this happened:



and:



and:



All the above are from the early years of the 20th century. Given that these were Linn's influences, it isn't surprising that Linn influenced Epos to an extent. It's entirely possible (likely, even) that neither inflence was conscious. I personally think Epos did a fantastic job with the ES14 and its stands, both visually and otherwise. I'm not even sure how much the "look" was a factor to them, although it certainly would be now, more's the pity!

Best;

Mark