I like the 3rd variant.

Touching on the design argument, I can see both sides here:

On the one hand the previous designs were basic and not very pretty but for me if they work well then the look is by the by.

On the other hand, when something looks good it automatically becomes desirable and as Werner said, the first bite is with the eye! Apple have this down to a fine art which has made hi tech very accessible to everyone and not just techies!

If you put two devices side by side and test them most people will pick the shiny pretty product over all else even if the sound from the ugly duckling was better. A good friend of mine decided a few years back that he would go out and put together a good hi-fi. The hi fi shop recommended buying all manner of expensive and very pretty cables and interconnects and gave him a case of them to trial at home. I took over a few of my own cables that although were well made did not have shiny connectors or purple sheaths and ran some double blind tests for him to decide, the tests were inconclusive and so I recommended he not shell out £70 quid for an interconnect and instead look around the budget end which is where my cables are sourced from.

Well he went back to the hi-fi shop and came back a few hundred quid lighter with a selection of the prettiest cables you ever did see...

The only issue with the Bushmaster is that my wife will know it cost more than "a couple of quid" when I remove it from the box...