Article: Images of Munich High End 2016 Part 1 of 3

[james45974]

Having perused through all 3 sets of photos I am struck by the fact that, IMO, there are precious few pieces of really good looking equipment. Of course the sound matters more than the looks, but it seems that the higher end you go the uglier the equipment becomes. I guess I am old school, I have no problem with a speaker that looks like a speaker, not some outer space machine, for instance!

[james45974]

Interesting observation.

 

Chris, design and aesthetics are very individual and personal concepts, I understand not everyone has the same tastes! I personally like more of a classic, timeless style rather than a current fashion or trendy type of style. I own a pair of Harbeth P3ESR speakers and a conrad-johnson preamp, for example, which are classics, definitely not flashy compared to some of today's designs. I am not against modern design. I find the MBL speakers to be fantastic, for instance. But their design is probably more the result of "form follows function" than anything else. I would say the Dynaudio designs are an example of a classic type Scandinavian aesthetic which has other fine examples in the audio world. Looking at your picture of the D'Agostino equipment, without knowing the scale of the image, you could be tricked into thinking you were looking at a series of washing machines. The steampunk look is not something that I am enamored with, there is a definite line between nice industrial design and kooky steampunk! You can veer too far the other way, I find the Vivid speakers to be too cartoonish, something a Smurf would own (a different speaker design but in the same molded & curved vein are the nice B&W Nautilus)! The Burmester black and white speakers are just plain weird! I have always like the Avantgarde horns, not sure about XA Pre you have shown, looks like it would be more at home on the dash of a luxury car than at your equipment rack.

 

As a final thought, it is interesting, for me, and it shows a little of the different directions of the high end auto and high end audio industries, to see the juxtaposition of the cars (and building) at the BMW World with the Sound Galleries demonstration. The cars scream high tech, modern design, the look of the demonstration, to me, screamed something else entirely! I would have suggested a different company with speakers that would have meshed more aesthetically with the surroundings, the KEF Blade for instance! The demo photos kind of had an out of touch/disconnect vibe to me! Couldn't something have been done to showcase the equipment in a better light than a standard, run of the mill equipment rack (no matter how expensive), given the high tech surroundings? Seems to me like there was a big missed opportunity here to show a progressive and modern audio industry! What was shown were bloated form speakers and standard form equipment on a ho-hum rack setup!

 

But again, taste being personal, to each his own!