Personally, I'd rather have performance than a logo or even a nice looking cabinet (although I do have to have some minimum standard of cabinetry). For instance, I like Jeff Rowland stuff and wish that the'd bring out a line using just sheetmetal and let me save several thousand dollars. While his products are beautiful (and I own one), I'd rather save the money and get plain looking. If there's an option for better looking but doesn't add performance, I typically don't buy it.
Way to go, Bob - where do I sign?
I totally agree with you. All I want is decent workmanship - no obvious rough edges, no loose canals, no loose screws. But rather than have a 1" thick fascia, I would much prefer a 0.12" thick (BTW, that's the pro RAL norm standard, 3 mm or about 0.12") thick fascia - BUT with the rest of the case done in aluminium as well, because of its advantages over classic steel pressed cases in terms of reduced susceptability to magnetic eddy currents.
But to balance that saving, I would like to see some decent electronics inside, serious work, not just slapped together, even if using SMD technology, and of course, I want it to sound good, up to its price level. I definitely DON'T want to see a single pair of 150W devices being pushed to deliver 100 watts into 8 ohms, even if accompanied with a sexy story that SEPP outputs sound better.
In short, what I so much like to see, but get prescious little opportunity to see in real life these days, is a BALANCED approach, favoring the essence over the form.
Cheers,
DVV
