Munich 2018

[Music or sound]

Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder I guess, but personally I thought about 99% of it was some of the ugliest design I’ve ever seen. Let’s just hope they sound good as there were some staggering prices in among that lot too.

The one thing I’ve never felt Devialet failed in is the Expert design, which is a masterpiece for what it is. Few have followed it seems.

I agree. If you like your hifi to be the opposite of children, namely heard (a lot) but not seen (maybe a little), then I'd class most of the kit as ugly and often brash or of dull design. Not much of understated elegance.

Having read this post before looking at the Pig, I counted over 40 ugly turntables and over 100 ugly, brash or dull loudspeakers.

As you say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my turntable choice narrowed down to those establish offerings from SME, Rega and Wilson Benesch. On loudspeakers, more choice but still with the established brands in the forefront (for me) such as Quad, Vivid (the new Kaya), Wilson, Magico, Kef and Avantgarde. I guess if I had to chose horns it would be the TotalDac and, at the spin-off show, wonderful panels from Alsyvox.

But,, as you infer, domestic acceptance rate pretty much in the low percentages.

Devialet score so highly here, joined IMO in design terms by CH Precision and Constellation and dCS if you have the money.

I agree that too much of the equipment is about showing off with bad, gaudy taste.
The most interesting design in loudspeakers at the show was the Vivid Kaya especially the smaller ones (45 and especially 25) transforming that boring tower.
Sound wise I was very impressed with the Chord Hugo TT2 but I do not care for Chord's design ideas at all. At least it is quite small and easy to conceal.