Jonboi
Because Music Matters
I appreciate your perspective.
We shall have to agree to disagree: I didn't find the 5's, 9's, 8000's, or the aforementioned 150s (Which are a large standmount, regardless of how many or how big the drivers were, to the other chap who felt this compromised my comparison to the Heybrook HB3's) to be not very good VFM and really, on the whole, not terribly satisfying as complete systems.
I haven't heard the 90's or the 50's. But from what I've read, and seen, these represent a different magnitude of hi-fi experience to their previous stuff over the past 3 decades.
I don't know why this has become a great debate here: the 8000's were simply overpiced lifestyle products. Nice looking. Great reliability. And no better than a Nakamichi Receiver/CD changer/and some KEF bookshelves for 1/4 the cost. Or less.
I don't think the same can be said for the 90's. that's what I'm saying.
Audiophiles seldom agree on different brands/marques of kit, and some have very entrenched views - I well remember the time I received a most unusual PM on this very forum; having dared to publicly state that my then new Sony amp was superior to my existing Naim electronics, this particular PM invited me to 'come out the back to sort it out' - i.e. fisticuffs. Naturally I would've preferred pistols at dawn, but unfortunately 'he' was in England and I'm in Australia. So the invitation was politely ignored..lol.
If I've learned anything over many decades being involved in Hifi and the audiophile world, it's that apart from speakers, most kit sounds far more alike than different - regardless of the sales and other hype associated with it.
So yes, with respect to the Beolab 9's, 3's and 5's, we politely disagree and that's fine. If there was a perfect HiFi system, we'd all have it and nothing else.
Having said that, many style conscious people wouldn't let much audiophile kit have house space either, no matter how good it was acoustically, and one needs to respect that, as Hifi is after all, lifestyle consumer goods - even the most vaunted brands - despite what some marketeers try and have you believe.
Have you heard the Beolab 90's BTW?
Cheers.