??? Would You or Have You Paid A Premium Price For A Component Because Of It's Looks ???

I'm not buying ugly gear.  If that was the case, I'm sure I could find some amazing sounding speakers made of raw MDF with screws showing and some plain black, bent metal boxes for the gear.  No thanks.  I have to live with and look at this stuff each day so I can't do ugly, (with the exception of my CD player.  It's a black CD player.  Meh.)

I'm going to buck the trend; 20% esthetics and 80% performance. It's the music that matters.

related to the topic, i never understood why a component would cost more based on a different paint job, namely silver.  same component, different paint, different pricing.  the only exception i've seen on this, is the parasound a23+, where the silver is actually $640 less!!!  you would think it would be the opposite.  or maybe they just have too many in silver. who knows. 

Let's say the question was about a new car....the answer is no, I wouldn't "pay up"  I would take the money that I saved on the car and buy better cables for my studio 

Autos, Stereos, Cameras, Furniture, Kitchen Appliances: I want to like it, each time it comes within sight, even when it's turned off (which is most of the time). 

Looking at this right now, for hours at a time every day

I'm also a bargain hunter, and Mr. Fixit, so I also 'see' a great 'deal' when I eyeball something like that TT that I built with parts from two non-working ones, and the R2R player's Mickey Mouse Dust Cover which I saved for many years until I finally was able to use the X2000R vertically at stand up height for the 1st time after re-arranging my office, cutting down the height of the bookcases, arranging my chair/monitor dead center on the speakers ....