Silver finish fad

[JaceTheAce]

In recent years we've seen the trend of A/V manufacturers making their component finishes silver instead of black. Sony popularized this colour scheme with their Wega line of CRT televisions at the turn of the century and I've seen a gradual increase in the past couple of years with consumers buying components in silver finishes.

Silver finishes seemed to be popular in the late 70's and very early 80's with companies such as Marantz, Rotel, and Pioneer, then in the mid-80's everything seemed to go to black.

I do prefer black finishes for A/V components, but I still want my components to match somewhat close. Where do you think the trend will be in years to come? Black or silver?

 

[FierceTIMbo17]

I voted black because i simply dont like silver, i think it looks cheap on electronics, seems like crappy electronics seems to allways have a silver finish.

 

[Sheep]

I voted for whats going to happen, not what I want to happen (**** brown).

then in the mid-80's everything seemed to go to black.

Ain't that the truth. I hate the 80s.

But I have a silver Sony CRT TV, and a silver TV stand, and a silver DVD player. Does that make me a consumer whore? God I hope so. I can't wait to buy all my wires in purgatory white like the Ipod wires.

SheepStar

 

[Nick250]

Not a spot for this in your poll, but I find black more attractive, don't know why, I just do.

Nick

 

[JaceTheAce]

Interesting viewpoints. I am looking at the Cambridge Audio Azur 540R and in silver the receiver has a hint of looking like one of those $50 HTIB receiver/dvd player combos you get at Wal-Mart...where they include the 7 crappy speakers and a passive "subwoofer" with one 5" driver I think it has to do with the fact that the CA 540R is so short at 3.9" tall:

I think for terms of expanding, black would be the way to go when purchasing a receiver or pre/pro/amp since available used a/v equipment seems to be more black than silver.

There are exceptions though... all the Rotel pre/pros and receivers really look nice with the silver face and black heat sink accents.

 

[fredejo]

black looks the best to me, then again depending on where you have your av equiptment you may want silver to match your tv if its silver, guess it depends... if they offered a choice of colors i guess it would help some. & yes rotels look great having both

 

[WmAx]

I voted black because i simply dont like silver, i think it looks cheap on electronics, seems like crappy electronics seems to allways have a silver finish.

Nah, it only looks cheap when it is plastic painted to be silver. But real anodized or polished aluminum[or whatever metal] does not look cheap, so long as it's thicker than a beer can.

-Chris

 

[bandit]

Way back when - I was growing up and getting into this silver is all that was out there. Now - black seems to be the color of choice and it does make sense. Black draws less attention to itself and lets you concentrate on whatever movie or music you are watching or listening to. So I voted black. In another setting, if I ordered and received something in a restaruant and didn't like its color or taste, I would send it back if you know what I mean.

Bandit.

 

[Nomo]

It seems every few years silver seems to rear it's ugly head. It will go away. Soon I hope.

 

[Geno]

I had three generations of components in black. My present Denon array is all silver, and I think it looks great.

 

[JonBaker99]

I vote that we transition back to wood paneling for the sides of our components. Now there was a hot look! I dislike silver although it has started to grow on me. However I still prefer black. The industry seems to be moving along with what stays popular in Japan and silver continues to be the in thing. Next thing you know they'll want to start taking away our standard component width and then my rack is really gonna go to hell.

 

[HookedOnSound]

I find that the silver "look" let's me go longer in between dusting my components.

As soon as you clean black components the next day dust starts to appear!

 

[JaceTheAce]

I vote that we transition back to wood paneling for the sides of our components. Now there was a hot look! I dislike silver although it has started to grow on me. However I still prefer black. The industry seems to be moving along with what stays popular in Japan and silver continues to be the in thing. Next thing you know they'll want to start taking away our standard component width and then my rack is really gonna go to hell.

Yeah my parent's old Marantz and Pioneer receivers had the real wood side paneling!

 

[Hi Ho]

I don't really have a preference. Some silver components do look cheap, but those are usually the ones that are cheap. I don't get why so many people hate silver.

 

[Sheep]

I don't really have a preference. Some silver components do look cheap, but those are usually the ones that are cheap. I don't get why so many people hate silver.

Fear change.

SheepStar

 

[hemiram]

I don't really have a preference. Some silver components do look cheap, but those are usually the ones that are cheap. I don't get why so many people hate silver.

I think the people that really hate silver are of a certain age range where only the junk stuff was silver. The older silver stuff before the black started showing up was almost always brushed aluminum sheet, or brushed extruded aluminum, and it held up well. Only the cheapest of the cheap stuff was silver painted, like a lot of silver stuff is now. I remember a cheap portable short wave radio I had looked good new, but just normal use caused the silver to peel off around the tuning knob and volume control, exposing the now common yellowish orange plastic it was actually made of.

The first black component I ever had was a Carver M-400T amp, the little cube. It wasn't actually black, it was a dark grey, and it still looks good, but there are a couple of tiny nicks on it, and they can't easily be covered up.

I had a couple of higher end cassette decks over the years, both brushed aluminum, and they are still looking really good, one is almost 30 years old, and the other 25. Minor nicks are a cinch to fix, you can't do that in black, unless the black magic marker deal will be enough to get by with. Those old Panasonic/Technics decks hold up very well, even under hard use.

Lately, I've seen some of the cheaper black and "charcoal" stuff showing the same orangey plastic as it ages, it looks just as crappy as the silver stuff does, but it is slightly easier to restore, if wanted/needed than the silver, which is really hard to match.

 

[mustang_steve]

I prefer the look of a quality silver metal faceplate.

Might just be my growing up with vintage Sansui components, which had a mix of brushed silver for the bottom, and gloss black for the displays.

I also have this absolute wood thing going on....I love hardwood on my audio gear. That's what I would love to see, is wood chassis sleeves as an option. Preferably unfinished, so I can stain it to match the rest of my gear.

 

[Mudcat]

Pastels

I was shopping for a washer/dryer combo last week (ended up with Kenmore H3/H4 - in white) and the colors available now, white, black, silver/polished steel, copper, turquoise, puke green, baby poop orange, skid mark brown. Some of these colors may look interesting in electronic faceplates.

 

[majorloser]

I still like brushed or matte black finishes on my components. I like the hidden "stealth" look.

Granted, I'd love to see some manufacturer start looking into some of the powder coatings available. Powder coating would make for some very durable components.

Or better yet, how about having face plates that you can customize. Like the Xbox 360?

 

[hemiram]

I prefer the look of a quality silver metal faceplate.

Might just be my growing up with vintage Sansui components, which had a mix of brushed silver for the bottom, and gloss black for the displays.

I also have this absolute wood thing going on....I love hardwood on my audio gear. That's what I would love to see, is wood chassis sleeves as an option. Preferably unfinished, so I can stain it to match the rest of my gear.

I kind of miss the wood cases on equipment too. I had a really nice one made for my HK 330a by a friend of mine who owed me money, to wipe out the debt. It was solid Oak, and looked great. I even had a wood case/sleeve on one of my cassette decks, and of course, the nice walnut base of my Dual 1229 turntable.