Aesthetics why are they not important?

[pauljack00]

Steve Jobs had the right idea about design and functionality going hand in hand to make beutiful, amazing products.

Why hasn't Hi-Fi followed suit with so many componants looking like they were designed by idiots who still live with their mothers and wear their fathers clothes.

Why is it all so ugly?

 

[wilro15]

Take a look at Peachtree's products like the decco65 - looks pretty nice to me.

Otherwise I kind of agree. Its all a bit industrial.

 

[Paul.]

Computers and phones are a little different, if you interact with something the form=function. If something is sat in the corners of a room the way you interact with it does not affect its performance. Hifi tends to be engineered not designed as a result of this.

 

[richardw42]

OP + 1

ive got very little traditional hifi. Speakers are a necessary evil to me.

B&O make some nice looking stuff though.

 

[P00dl3]

Well for one, there is a limit to what you can do, you need knobs and displays on the front and connectors on the back. If its an Amp you also need holes in it to cool down, or heatsinks.

The mass produced stuff does and always has come in all shapes and sizes, and I would suggest some of them are quite nice and interesting.

It's the HiFi world of seperates that are dull and boring, but lets be fair to them when they try something different you guys do not react well, for example the Leema Pulse/Stream 3. Or my personal favorite in plain nasty : Chord which I find hideous.

Apple had the advantage in being able to use simplicity, as a key part of its aesthetic, which is far easier to do on a touchscreen phone. Of course in this modern world we can now move all control to a handset and then your fascia could be a piece of art or something. Would that do it for you?

 

[BigH]

Thats because they are mostly for girls and hifi is mainly for blokes. Some hifi looks ugly and some does not and it depends on your taste some people like the brutal look.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Give an iphone and samsung to a non technophobe and they wont tell the difference. Speakers and amps cant look much different either. All cars look the same. Form & function. Compare current products with those of 25 years ago. Same can be said about almost all 'products'. Beauty is in the eye ....

 

[WishTree]

Steve Jobs had the right idea ....

You already said it!

Before Steve Jobs, it was all about tech specs and not much about the looks. Mainly because the initial bunch of customers for computers are mostly techies (no offense, I am an engineer too!) but with the internet boom, computers have become essential and the market opened up for people who are willing to dig deeper into pockets if looks can match the tech specs.

In case of HiFi, my current favourite company, B&O does exactly the same as Apple does. But keeping few asides (like Devialet), the way the companies see the consumers for HiFi, especially beyond 500 Pound mark (just a random start point), are the one who care more about the tech specs over the look & appeal.

Except two of my friends, none others are keen on HiFi spending. They are fine buying a much expensive car which will depreciate alot more than HiFi, even when they do not need/use the kind of the power but just buy the way they look.

HiFi is not as big a market as we want to be and not as essetial like a car or a computer. So, the changes, especially in the direction of aesthetics, if at all happen, then it will be at snail pace.

If I have to bet, then it will be on newer brands like Devialet, Oppo, Vivid to breath freshness into design rather than a traditional company making a sudden paradigm shift and focussing on aesthetics. B&O is a traditional design/style focussed company and it is already way ahead than any possible close competition.

I have come across severeal posters (and actual consumers of HiFi), all over internet, ready to dismiss B&O even with out hearing them once, just because they look too stylish and expensive to buy. May be this set of the consumers (who are unwilling to even listen to some thing out of their comfort zone) is the largest pie of the actual consumers of HiFi and the traditional HiFi companies retain their designs (read as ugly boxes) not to loose their customer base.

In all fairness, some of the traditional designs do look very beautiful.

 

[BenLaw]

Thats because they are mostly for girls and hifi is mainly for blokes. Some hifi looks ugly and some does not and it depends on your taste some people like the brutal look.

Eh? What is mostly for girls?

 

[Sospri]

Sounds a bit like style over substance to me, give me substance any day................

 

[chebby]

Sounds a bit like style over substance to me, give me substance any day................

Why does it have to be a choice?

 

[char_lotte]

Thats because they are mostly for girls and hifi is mainly for blokes. Some hifi looks ugly and some does not and it depends on your taste some people like the brutal look.

Good grief.

 

[iQ Speakers]

I think it's more to do with money, or the economies of scale, return on investment. Most hifi is produced by relatively small companies.

To design and then manufacture a piece of hifi in a different stylish way is expensive not to mention risky (will it look odd on my rack?)

A mobile phone "has" to be stylish to stand any chance of selling well. It a completly different business model.

 

[BigH]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2430387/PINK-iPhone-5C-outsell-colours-iPad-5-mini-2-release-date-rumoured-15-October.html

PInk hifi anyone?

 

[simonlewis]

 

[respe]

Your stylish and mine could very different. If you are selling hi fi rather than life style systems, you are already aiming at a small, and reducing market. Why would you use a design that did not blend with the stuff thats already out there. The likes of onkyo or denon could probably get away with something more designer than apeing separates in a midi system.

As long as they don't use apple as a guide.

 

[BenLaw]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2430387/PINK-iPhone-5C-outsell-colours-iPad-5-mini-2-release-date-rumoured-15-October.html

PInk hifi anyone?

Since when did 'aesthetics' mean 'colour'? I'd still like to know what in earth your first post was meant to mean.

 

[CnoEvil]

A question within a question - does anyone else think that the way a component looks, often gives a big clue as to how it will sound? eg, Focal and Sonus Faber.

 

[JamesMellor]

Style dates quickly , they are some classics like the Technics su900 power amps , useless needle meters that still look good but imagine if they had used the LED's available at the time , the Marantz and Denon oiled ? displays look really good now , but will they in 5 years ?

Take a look at Ben Laws "Hi-Fi" link and tell me those premire cd and amps don't look cool as feck and will still do 20 years from now , hope he dosnt mind me saying his kit is drop dead gorgeous

James

 

[Anonymous]

unpublished

 

[knaithrover]

Aesthetics DO matter (certainly to me anyway) of course the sound is the main thing but i find monolithic black dare i say it functional slabs look great on high gloss white or black furniture mmmmm

 

[Anonymous]

unpublished

 

[strapped for cash]

Since when did 'aesthetics' mean 'colour'? I'd still like to know what in earth your first post was meant to mean.

As an amateur semiotician, I'd argue that "colour" and "aesthetics" are related (if not perfectly synonymous) terms.

Colour is no less a signifier than shape, size, or any other aesthetic component. Indeed, in some examples, colour can be the most important signifier.

Nevertheless, "Girls like pretty things while men value performance" distinctions are fairly crude.

 

[MajorFubar]

Thats because they are mostly for girls and hifi is mainly for blokes. Some hifi looks ugly and some does not and it depends on your taste some people like the brutal look.

Not sure if that's true or not, but for sake of argument let's say it is, that must show that the only people some HiFi manufacturers aim their products at is gay men and batchelors, neither of whom presumably have a significant female in their life laying down the aethetics-laws on what can and cannot be allowed in their homes. That sort of alienates a lot of us.

 

[Anonymous]

unpublished