Colin Smith - January 10, 2009

First thing this morning I entered the well-stocked Tangent room and was immediately struck by the array of colors and shapes that fought for my eye’s attention. Everywhere I turned were slick designs with high-gloss finishes, shapes pleasing to the eye and packaging that screamed both "quality" and "open me!" What’s more, all but one of these products cost less than $1000.

After taking in the eye candy, I spoke with a Tangent representative and found myself telling him that I was so pleased to see fine design becoming a priority for manufacturers of moderately priced audio products. But it isn’t just Tangent that wants to make products that are as pleasing to the eye as to the ear. This year’s CES provided ample evidence that style is as important as substance.

NAD could fairly be called the great gray lady of audio because its components have traditionally been clothed in the metal-and-plastic equivalent of a potato sack. But the company’s new Viso products are smooth, rounded and very slick. Samsung’s on-wall BD-P4600 Blu-ray player...

...is the sort of product one expects to emerge from pricey Scandinavian brands, not a mass-market consumer-products giant. The list of style-conscious brands that have broken free from the staid, old rectangles of the past -- without compromising on performance -- is growing fast. If this keeps up, "wife-acceptance factor" might become a thing of the past.