Ok, I'm going to tip my hand as a high-end product design consultant.
How about -- a tube preamp that
looks like an iconic tube preamp?!
There's a cottage industry of "clones" of iconic tube preamps that are no more than PCBs that may (or may not) be related to the circuitry of such icons... how about going the
other way?
The size and physical robustness of the icons might be off-putting to modern markets (and budgets),
but some judicious re-proportioning might result in a product of reasonable size
and enough heft to stay put on a desktop or shelf when cables are attached to it!
Here's my first choice for an iconic design "language" for a preamplifier:
Mark, I hear you say
-- it's gotta have a
display of some sort. OK, that's fine... instead of a big, soul-less black rectangle, how about that mirrored plastic (mylar-coated?) that looks silver but is in fact transparent when illuminated from behind?
This Zenith DVD/VCR
combo, e.g., has such a display:
There are other preamp design choices of course:
conrad-johnson
(funny -- I wonder what their inspiration was for this aesthetic?
)
Audio Research
Dynaco:
Something to think about...
I'll send a bill for my services anon.
