Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Indeed!
In my entire audio journey - my decisions have always been influenced by the way a product looks. I have bought things with performance first approach - but more often than not the looks have been a crucial part of shortlisting something.
Till today afternoon at around 4 PM, my dream or fancy, kinda like a bucket list item was the Uno XD speakers from Avantgarde; something about the extremely mundane and pleasing (read boring) geometric symmetry of the speaker body, shattered by the protruding horns in vibrant colors - made me dream about them. Literally. It always reminded me on a dandelion in a cold high dessert. So many times I imagined myself appreciating the Sapphire Burma Blue horns on the slate black body, filling the air of my wooden cabin deep in the mountains with the intoxicating voice of a female singer from the 40s or 50s in a language I can't understand. Peeking through the gap between the speakers a warm glow of some beautiful looking tube amp, glowing like little embers in the fire in the background. Oh how I have romanticised this setup.
And then I stumbled upon this website - randomly - https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/. Finally after years of obsessing over Avantgarde Uno XD, I got my new kick. They are a lot more industrial and a lot more busy looking than my previous choice, but something about their loudspeaker model Imperia (in white & deep mahogany finish), took a hold of the space that UNO XD held for years, almost immediately, love at first sight - the second time; so much so that the Uno XD now look ordinary . I have now started going over their tube amplifiers and they are a sight to behold too.
****I have never heard Uno XD, I have never even heard of Imperias before, it is just romanticising the art of it not the performance.
In my entire audio journey - my decisions have always been influenced by the way a product looks. I have bought things with performance first approach - but more often than not the looks have been a crucial part of shortlisting something.
Till today afternoon at around 4 PM, my dream or fancy, kinda like a bucket list item was the Uno XD speakers from Avantgarde; something about the extremely mundane and pleasing (read boring) geometric symmetry of the speaker body, shattered by the protruding horns in vibrant colors - made me dream about them. Literally. It always reminded me on a dandelion in a cold high dessert. So many times I imagined myself appreciating the Sapphire Burma Blue horns on the slate black body, filling the air of my wooden cabin deep in the mountains with the intoxicating voice of a female singer from the 40s or 50s in a language I can't understand. Peeking through the gap between the speakers a warm glow of some beautiful looking tube amp, glowing like little embers in the fire in the background. Oh how I have romanticised this setup.
And then I stumbled upon this website - randomly - https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/. Finally after years of obsessing over Avantgarde Uno XD, I got my new kick. They are a lot more industrial and a lot more busy looking than my previous choice, but something about their loudspeaker model Imperia (in white & deep mahogany finish), took a hold of the space that UNO XD held for years, almost immediately, love at first sight - the second time; so much so that the Uno XD now look ordinary . I have now started going over their tube amplifiers and they are a sight to behold too.
****I have never heard Uno XD, I have never even heard of Imperias before, it is just romanticising the art of it not the performance.
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