Appearances matter. Sound matters more.

I will say it plainly: the La Scalas would look better in my living room. I had to choose between the sweet-sounding, beautiful La Scalas and the twice-the-price, robot-looking Yvettes. I bought the robots.

Aesthetics are subjective, but they matter, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I find the Klipsch more appealing within the confines of a living room. There is no shame in choosing a speaker partly for how it looks.

But appearances matter, and sound matters more, at least to me. So I did what I tell everyone to do: a side-by-side audition with equipment relevant to mine and a playlist familiar enough that I could hear what changed. The La Scalas gave me horn immediacy and that Klipsch magic; the Yvettes gave me bass down to 20 Hz that I felt in my chest, and instruments placed with a precision I had not experienced before.

After that, the decision made itself. I never really had a choice, because the Wilsons don't give you any room for one. My eyes voted for the Klipsch, and my ears overruled them.

The eyes get a vote. The ears get the veto.