I know many of us here put audio quality and sound as the first and foremost thing about selecting gear and equipment, but I thought this might be an interesting question.
What do you think are some of the best looking amps, pre-amps, DACs, etc.? Or which ones do you personally love the aesthetics of or find beautiful? It could be solid-state or tubes, DACs, or any other equipment really that powers the headphones/IEMs or speakers we use to listen to our music or is in our audio chain.
Personally I love the look of some more classic tube amps. Tube clocks may not be audio gear, but those also look really cool.
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Senn’s HEV90 takes it for me…absolutely stunning, looks like an intergalactic town hall waiting for the mothership to arrive? 
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Wow that is actually a super accurate description! I can totally see that. What a beauty…
That’s a Gotham HEV lol
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I love the darker look of that. Really sweet. 
I’m just gonna say easthetics is incredibly subjective and audiophiles are just a bunch of nerds and when you get down to it our aesthetic tastes usually isn’t the greatest from people outside looking in
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Honestly aesthetics is very low on the list for me in terms of importance when I go for something, but it is a nice added benefit. Personally as long as I don’t hate looking at it I really don’t care too much how something looks (I kinda want to start posting things I just despise visually lol)
I just find aesthetic tastes tend to change when you get more into a hobby that’s is about performance. Even car guys will just take a old rusted civic and load it with bullshit to make it go faster. Or PC guys will just have wires and shit lying around on a test bench just cause fuck aesthetics I got 2080ti and a threadripper and I couldn’t a good a proper case for this. Just a cool thing thing I’ve found.
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I’m curious to know what others think are the best looking stack. you know, along the lines of, say, the Topping D90 and A90?
I love the Phono Section inside the EAR 912 to death. Someday… Someday…
I love the plane funktional studio gear look hiding amazing valve technology, transformer and magic.
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Ah I’ve got an EAR 824 mic pre but it doesn’t look that nice lol (and doesn’t serve the same purpose)
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lovely 80s tec, but I bet it adds some sweet but probably grainy mojo to a nice microphone.
I just fell I love with the phono Section pairing it with a Koetsu Black… And the whole preamp Section is very good too. Some people argue it’s overpriced but I look at it as a 5k preamp with a 5k phono preamp. I just need to win the lottery first.
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I also use a Mercury M76m Mk. III which is also a sweet mic pre, both give excellent sound. The ear actually isn’t as grainy as you would think
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The Mercury looks great… Occasionally I also check for tube microphone preamps. But I always get the feeling I need a tape recorder that I can push hard to get the classic guitar sounds I’m after.
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I’ve got a few nice tape simulators that are pretty sweet (but imma stop hijacking this thread lol)
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Agreed…you don’t look at the mantelpiece when you’re poking the fire but it’s always nice to have a pretty mantlepiece none the less lol.
I’m guilty of purchasing an item or 2 because of aesthetics …Oh well 
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We need a ‘are you a shallow audiophile’ thread lol.
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