Seeking opinions on finish options before production

[Raleigh Acoustics]

Some point to consider in general:
- Be very careful about logos, text and fonts. Couldn't find the thread just now, but there is one with a lot of vintage amplifiers at ASR, and scores of them are aesthetically ruined by text and logos. A bad logo and poor fonts will ruin the best of designs. There is no rescue from bad, fonts and poor logos with wrong size and proportions.
- All products needs to stand out one way or another, and manufacturers are looking for aesthetics which serves as an unique brand identifier selling the product. Nail it, and there is hardly need for text, and the logo can be subtile. Get it wrong, and you're done. Brand identifiers makes or breaks products.
- Get the proportions aestethically right whatever that is. Get it right and they will fit in most environments, get it wrong at they will be off everywhere.
- Honest materials is always an advantage. If it looks like a rock it should be a rock, if it looks like wood veneer it should be wood veneer. If it looks like wool it should be wool.
- Modern today is old tomorrow, and that's fashion. Designed to sell today, designed to be replaced tomorrow. Timeless may never be modern, and it may never become unfashionable.

As for your renderings, I think you are off to a rather good start. Perhaps there are 2 considerations I would have made. The first is the "transition" between front and sides. One suggestion could be to have an visible edge not only on the sides, but top bottom too. That edge may be 90 deg, 45 deg, 30 deg, or e.g. 90 deg breaking into 30 deg. Then a slight gap between the edges and the sculptured front plate for a nice shadow / 3D effect - making the front sort of float. The edges of the frontplate may be in parallel to the edge of the sides, or not. Getting such suggestion right would depend a lot upon proportions and execution, but I suspect it would have made your sculptured front even more of a feature.

Here is one simple example - not the best - but it illustrates the point:

The other suggestion I would have considered are the element covers.

Have a look at the 1528 and 1610 towers by Arendal Sound. Whether one likes the design of the 1528 or not, the execution - integration of the elements into the front - is well thought out. Not so for the 1610, in particular with the covers on. It's bad without, and terrible covered. Those would never have entered my living room.

Tower Speakers - Floor Standing Speakers

arendalsound.com

I would have had a look at Ascilab F6B and considered whether their take on the covers is slightly better than your renderings. Yours are not bad at all, but perhaps Ascilab does it slightly better. I probably would have liked it if yours were recessed and the front of the covers alligned to the surface both on the side and in the front.

As for colors, black/charchoal plays nicely with a wide variety of wood veneers, from soaped oak to dark wood veneers. Whiteish can be nice too, but the specific choice would make a lot of difference. The color of the sides of the pictured Ikea speaker isn't bad, and e.g the whiteish Triangle Boreas aren't quite right in my opinion. I believe it's challenging to get the whiteish tones right.

That's enormously helpful. Thanks ever so much.

 

[Soundproof]

You are being too kind, but indeed glad if you found some of it helpful.

One more little thing: I can't see how the front plays out proportionally from your renders thus it may very well be beyond excellent, but placing circles of different sizes into a "prismaticly sculptured" front strikes me as a bit of a challenge (difficult) in terms of getting the aesthetical balance and proportions/distances/spaces right.

Guess positioning of the speaker elements are determined by sonic performance/optimalisation, thus adapting the prismatic sculpturing to play well with your sonic construction/positioning could be rather important. You COULD play with the size/colors of the covers to get it aesthetically right. Could turn it disturbing or pleasantly comfortable....

Wishing you every possible success.

 

[bluefuzz]

Which would you be most likely to buy?

Personally, I think they all look too busy. They look like they're cobbled together from what you had lying around in the parts bin. I'd go with Ivory all over with Ivory grilles or Charcoal all over with Charcoal grilles. Lose the wood veneer sides. As others have commented having both white and ivory seems an odd choice. If you want something other than the 'easy' options of ivory/charcoal I'd add something bolder like a deep red or blue. Again with matching grilles and sides.

Are the grilles removeable? I'd almost certainly take them off regardless of grille colour. What colour are the driver cones when visible?

 

[RickS]

Account under review

 

[Raleigh Acoustics]

Personally, I think they all look too busy. They look like they're cobbled together from what you had lying around in the parts bin. I'd go with Ivory all over with Ivory grilles or Charcoal all over with Charcoal grilles. Lose the wood veneer sides. As others have commented having both white and ivory seems an odd choice. If you want something other than the 'easy' options of ivory/charcoal I'd add something bolder like a deep red or blue. Again with matching grilles and sides.

Are the grilles removeable? I'd almost certainly take them off regardless of grille colour. What colour are the driver cones when visible?

Interesting thoughts. Thanks. The drivers are pretty conventional looking. See image of the first prototype.

The grilles will be magnetic and removable.

 

[Marc v E]

Hi everyone

I'm at the stage of deciding on the standard finish options for my first loudspeaker model and I'd really appreciate some honest feedback from the community here before I commit to sample production quantities.

The speaker is a passive standmount (approximately 450 mm tall) intended to live in normal shared living spaces. At this stage I'm not looking for comments on the acoustic design or measurements; those will come later. This is purely about the visual design.

The three options portrayed in the CAD renderings all use the same oak veneer cabinet, but with different baffle finishes:

White
Charcoal
Cartography Ivory

Which would you be most likely to buy?

Which would you be happiest living with for the next 10-15 years?

Do you prefer loudspeakers that blend into the room, or ones that make a visual statement?

If none of these appeal, what would you change?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people whose systems are in a living room or other shared space, rather than a dedicated listening room.

There are no right or wrong answers. I'm genuinely trying to understand how people think about loudspeaker aesthetics before finalising the standard finishes.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

David
Founder, Raleigh Acoustics

To find out more about us, please see www.raleighacoustics.co.uk/about

Choosing from the 3 options, I would prefer the charcoal option as they match the grey speaker cloth.

For a living room in general I like the speakers to blend in. My current speakers are made of white cloth and aluminium, matching the front wall.

I would only like them to stand out if they were a work of art like the blade 2 meta, in black and with bronze cone. (subtle)

 

[bluefuzz]

See image of the first prototype.

Much better! I could live with that.

 

[Raleigh Acoustics]

Much better! I could live with that.

I am 99% decided that initially the standard finish will be oak veneer and black baffle. After that, there will probably be custom order options.