Most beautiful speakers in the world ?

[Ron Texas]

I'm not wild about using exotic hardwoods to build anything other than heirloom quality furniture. Piano black is my favorite finish.

 

[Kustomize]

First: I am in awe of anyone who goes to the trouble of DIYing their own speakers. So well done! Plus, yours look really nice.

However, I have to ask a question due, perhaps, to my own idiosyncratic aesthetics. And, again, I DO think you've done a beautiful job but:

I'm curious: why didn't you use black screws?

I ask because I tend to be allergic to seeing screws on furniture, and that includes speakers which I tend to regard as a form of furniture. Admittedly I'm not even a fan of looking at exposed drivers, but when I see in many speakers all the screws as well it reminds me of "made in shop class" stuff and I think "couldn't they have found a way to hide those?" It feels "unfinished." (I do get the practicality aspect - if you have to change drivers). Putting shiny screws on a black surround is of course going to make the screws stand out...and I'm not sure what is aesthetically pleasing about screws.

I see that some speaker manufacturers actually manage to hide the screws. But most don't, so I'm happy to be educated about why most don't bother, or why it may be particularly hard to make the screws visually hidden or disappear when designing speakers.

Honestly. I just wanted a change! If you see my post underneath, it had black screws!
Plus this is DIY. I can change screws whenever I want. Not that big of a deal!

Thankyou so much!

these Zaph drivers are REALLY pretty. I wouldn’t think of hiding them!

 

[ttimer]

Not bad at all
View attachment 90908

Somehow, that look reminds me of a tuned everyday car or a lower end sports car.

 

[highender]

AE1 MKIII SE

 

[Juhazi]

Some beautiful speakers https://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/speakers

Beoplay A9

Beolab 20

 

[PierreV]

Custom veneered Focals are hard to beat.

I own a pair, in piano black, somewhat unfortunately, but there was already a piano black piano in the room...
They are a bit massive, a bit ostentatious, and a bit threatening imho. I'd go for white if I had to do it again.

 

[Leporello]

Avantgarde Zero is a seriously stylish and anti-kitsch slab of a loudspeaker. It could have been designed by Braun.

 

[Trouble Maker]

some bautiful speakers https://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/speakers

Beoplay A9

The Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara has a huge speaker area and selection. Anyone 'audiophile' visiting the Tokyo area should stop in there. They had a room setup like a living room dedicated to B&O, it almost looked like an advertisement. I'm sure there was some agreement there, the rest of the speakers had sometimes dedicated rooms to a brand but there would be 10's of them in there packed together VS 1 set of the high end B&0s and nice seats facing them, with some regular ones in an adjacent area.

Not one of these videos was all encompass, but if you skim through a few you'll get an idea of the breadth of selection they have there.
https://www.google.com/search?q=yodobashi+akiba+speakers&tbm=vid

I got to see at various times (not listen) to the 90, either the 18 or 50 (can't 100% remember), A9 & Beosound Shape and either the 1 or the 2.

For me the A9s are just strange in person, and they are really big. The Shape would be my pick for something architectural and visually interesting that would blend into the interior of a home if one didn't want big box speakers. But the 18's I'm pretty sure are the one's I saw and they were gorgeous. The 90s are what they are, it's probably as good looking as you can get with form following function in their case. It's too bad all of these, in my mind especially the 18's are way overpriced for the performance.

 

[MattHooper]

Yes, those Martin Logan CLS IIz’s get my vote for Most Beautiful speakers as well.

Closely followed by Revel’s original Salons:
View attachment 90900
What a pity Revel abandoned this daring design language for its conservatively bland and boring Salon 2...

I enjoy some weird looking speakers, but was never a fan of the look of those Revels. They don't look "form follows function" but rather "how can we make these look different?" So you have this sort of awkwardly designed, curved out grill "because we can curve it" and these awkward "after-thought" looking bolted on panels on the side. It's like a conservative pair of speakers underneath there trying to dress up for a party, with no sense of what style it's actually going for, so it's "let's keep piling on different shapes." The speaker equivalent of 80's new wave clothing. ;-)

 

[JeffS7444]

View attachment 90909

That's a design I might appreciate more for it's function, but it's an intriguing pick.

 

[MattHooper]

Again, mine. These are Von Schweikert VR-4 Gen III HSE:

Martin

Nice.

I had the VR 4 Gen II speakers for quite a while and loved them. Looks-wise, more grill cloth than I care for, but within those parameters a nice design. I had my wood caps sent to me unfinished and had them finished to match the wood trim in my listening room, which helped those large speakers blend in to my home.

Your set up looks intriguing (tubes! I ran mine with tubes as well). Would love to hear it. Those VRs did soundstaging and dimensionality like few other speakers back in the day.

 

[MattHooper]

I'm not wild about using exotic hardwoods to build anything other than heirloom quality furniture. Piano black is my favorite finish.

Piano black can look beautiful.

As long as we aren't talking Black Ash: the "mullet" of speaker finishes.

 

[richard12511]

I tend to like the looks of most loudspeakers. Only exception is probably the "vintage" look(Klipsch Heritage, old JBL, etc.). For some reason, I really don't like that look.

 

[EAXAE]

Six pages of quality posts yet no appreciation of JBL 4XXX?

 

[richard12511]

I enjoy some weird looking speakers, but was never a fan of the look of those Revels. They don't look "form follows function" but rather "how can we make these look different?" So you have this sort of awkwardly designed, curved out grill "because we can curve it" and these awkward "after-thought" looking bolted on panels on the side. It's like a conservative pair of speakers underneath there trying to dress up for a party, with no sense of what style it's actually going for, so it's "let's keep piling on different shapes." The speaker equivalent of 80's new wave clothing. ;-)

Agreed! I much prefer the look of the Salon2.

 

[weasels]

I always like mission bookshelf speakers, for reasonably priced attractive design.

 

[weasels]

And I mentioned these in the industrial design thread:

 

[paddycrow]

One thing that's evident going through this thread, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder!

 

[batfunk]

Sure! My midnight cherry Paradigm Prestige 15B:classic and intemporal design(very Kef inspired), Noble materials only(luxury wood and polished aluminum) and gorgeous rubis color in the light

 

[Count Arthur]

Six pages of quality posts yet no appreciation of JBL 4XXX?

I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.