You get that a lot with discussion of Harbeth cabinets and materials. (although the design impact on dispersion is clearly measurable and should be audible)
And you have speakers like the JBL 708P which are made of relatively thin plastic and look quite ugly, but by all accounts sound excellent.
“ The Downside
My biggest complaint with the F328Be remains the cabinet. While it functions just fine, it's the same cabinet as the non-Be series speakers and falls behind the competition in the finish of the touch points.
I agree that Revel's aesthetic style and fit-and-finish is definitely nowhere near on the same level as brands like Focal, Sonus Faber, etc. However this is somewhat subjective, but most people do seem to agree.
What's interesting is that I think "most people" would rather just not see any speaker at all, so in many ways the Revel's grill-on look is just as good or better than many other speakers in practice, because they're so boring they just blend into the background. For example, someone thought my Revel Salon2's with the grill on were just a weird tower fan / air purifier.
And then at the other extreme end of this spectrum, there's the story (can't find the link though) of the person who bought a pair of B&W Nautilus speakers and never actually plugged them in, because he just liked the way they looked and wanted them to display as a modern art piece).
But I must say I still feel the appeal of some of the more beautiful (subjectively of course) speakers, like the Focal Sopra / Utopia speakers:
Measurements aren't bad, either:
But even if someone measures them in the Klippel and confirms no other flaws, you certainly pay a huge price premium for these for the aesthetic and fit-and-finish.
