Thread: Changing the Finish/Color of your Equipment

For quite some time I wanted to change the “look” of my amp. My speakers were black and my amps were brush aluminum. I wanted to change them to black to match the speakers.

One thought I had to accomplish this was to “wrap” the amps with vinyl film. I contacted a local shop. They told me that they were too busy with cars to do such a small job. Also, if I wanted it done, I would have to bring the amps to his shop and leave them there for who knows how long.

That said, I decided to learn the basics of “wrapping” by watching videos on YouTube.

After further research, I also learned that there are all kind of options in terms of color, finish, designs, etc. There are wood grain finishes (in case anyone wants to change the look of a speaker), multiple types of metal finishes, concrete finish (!), you name it!

I decided to try it out. I bought the tools that I needed and ordered the material (I went with 3M brush black metallic). I figured that in the worst case scenario, I will waste about $60. But, on the other hand, it is always good to learn new stuff.

The pictures show the original look and the final look.

Note: This was the first time I had done this. I had trouble with the corners, but overall it was not too bad. I will do the other amp over the weekend and may even try to come up with design touches to match the room decor.

Looks good Nico!

Thank you Andre!!

Latest iteration…

Id rather clean crusty old records, remove price sticker adhesive, tape/re-glue open seams on LP jackets and find new ways to catalog my music collection before Id consider color-coordinating my gear. But hey! that's what makes the world go round.

Originally Posted by puroagave

Id rather clean crusty old records, remove price sticker adhesive, tape/re-glue open seams on LP jackets and find new ways to catalog my music collection before Id consider color-coordinating my gear. But hey! that's what makes the world go round.

Well, I guess that I am ahead of you since I have done the cleaning old records part…
What if I tell you that the amp that I changed colors to sounds better than the other one? (My head seems to till and favor that side, but granted, no measurements, just subjective opinion).

I thought of making my M600 look like the new Classe amp (easily doable with a different wrap color) but decided against it just because it would not be optimal for me for aesthetic reasons.

((I do wonder how many changes Classe actually made to their new amp.))

In any event, the M600 in silver always looked odd to me dimension-wise.

The “new” set up…

The “old” set up…

Notice how tall the silver amp looks compared to the black one.
(Of course they are both the same height).
Somehow, I feel that more music is coming from the side of the “shorter” amp!

Looking at that picture I just realized that the plant pots need to be replaced…

I think it looks great. No harm in trying it. Easy to remove if you want to sell or change to another color. Why not?

I just removed the wrap. (getting ready to sell). They look like new!
Tried to post a picture but I get a response that the jpeg file is not compatible. Wondering if others are having the same issue. Odd.

You can wrap the plant pot too.

Originally Posted by Kingrex

You can wrap the plant pot too.

I actually replaced the pots with matte black pots. (Wrapping a round pot is way beyond my wrapping ability!)
Here is a picture of the un-wrapping.

Originally Posted by Kingrex

You can wrap the plant pot too.

I actually replaced the pots with matte black pots. (Wrapping a round pot is way beyond my wrapping ability!)
Here is a picture of the amp un-wrapping.