There seems to be a cultural divide along silver/black lines. Audio Note UK makes most things with a choice of brushed aluminum face w/silver knobs or black acrylic w/ gold knobs. I prefer the black, as it appears most US AN buyers do, although keeping fingerprints off is a bear. On the other hand, there are parts of the world where you couldn't *give a piece of black gear away!My DVD player is a Sony ES9000 and yes, it's black! 