B&O worth it and pricing?
- Thread starter JimmyB
- Start date
pocketkitchen
Registered User
They are a great manufacturer. It’s not sold as pure Hifi; the design is a very significant component of the price, so often better sound is available for much less. Plenty of people pay high prices for good design, though. An original Knoll sofa, anyone?
Plenty have already pointed out their technical skills which are notable and I’d also add that the Beolab 90s are possibly THE best speaker I’ve ever heard, irrespective of price.
Plenty have already pointed out their technical skills which are notable and I’d also add that the Beolab 90s are possibly THE best speaker I’ve ever heard, irrespective of price.
Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
Yes the 90s are a tour de force.
Keith
Keith
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
They do more in depth R & D into audio than any other company to my knowledge. They've even done research that appears to be aimed at increasing mankind's understanding of various bleeding edge audio matters (mainly with speakers) when there was no instantly obvious commercial exploitation waiting for it.
Adam will no doubt know more but I'm getting stirrings in the grey matter involving some "biggest ever" research on speakers involving the Danish and Canadian govs, several universities and the biggest anechoic chamber in the world... "The 'thingamajig' project" or whatever.... yer know I ain't gonna google this but I'm getting "Eureka Project".... but I could have seen that on "Star Trek"!
Adam will no doubt know more but I'm getting stirrings in the grey matter involving some "biggest ever" research on speakers involving the Danish and Canadian govs, several universities and the biggest anechoic chamber in the world... "The 'thingamajig' project" or whatever.... yer know I ain't gonna google this but I'm getting "Eureka Project".... but I could have seen that on "Star Trek"!
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
Dare I say I rather like both… and Naim, for different reasons.
If you want something that sounds nice and looks beautiful without dominating the space it occupies, B&O do that brilliantly, also, their earphones/headphones are great, maybe less detailed and accurate than some of their more expensive competition, but they’re totally unfatiguing, I can listen for hours on end, which is something I struggle with with headphones.
I’m not going to sell the merits of Linn or Naim, you already know.
onlyconnect
pfm Member
I just bought a Stage soundbar from a B&O shop. Customer before me bought a TV and shop gave him a candle and a bottle opener. Me, I only got a bottle opener. I couldn't help wondering though how much I had to spend to get a candle as well
Tim
Tim
pocketkitchen
Registered User
That’s a very cool bottle opener!
Beobloke
pfm Member
Why "clearly"?
Beobloke
pfm Member
They do more in depth R & D into audio than any other company to my knowledge. They've even done research that appears to be aimed at increasing mankind's understanding of various bleeding edge audio matters (mainly with speakers) when there was no instantly obvious commercial exploitation waiting for it.
Adam will no doubt know more but I'm getting stirrings in the grey matter involving some "biggest ever" research on speakers involving the Danish and Canadian govs, several universities and the biggest anechoic chamber in the world... "The 'thingamajig' project" or whatever.... yer know I ain't gonna google this but I'm getting "Eureka Project".... but I could have seen that on "Star Trek"!
No, you're in the right ballpark!
Eureka was the European R&D funding scheme that provided the money, and the project you're thinking of was Archimedes. It was undertaken by B&O, KEF and The Acoustics Laboratory of the Technical University of Denmark, and the aim was to determine the subjective effect that the listening room and loudspeaker directivity had on reproduced sound.
The initial aim was to find useful specifics and theories regarding the room/loudspeaker/listener interface. The ultimate hope was that a "smart" loudspeaker might have been possible that would compensate automatically for its surroundings. So, that would be the Beolab 90, then... Although Archimedes started in 1987, so it took a while!
chartz
If it’s broke fix it!
Good thing if they remain an independent company.
No Chinese compromise involved, but at the expense of product cost perhaps.
I’ve got a totally mint one (as new) in my collection. A nice thing to behold but more akin to a luxury Dansette! It weighs a ton too.
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
Who would have thought things would be as they now are eh!? I vividly remember a mate and myself at aged about 17 looking at a hi fi show guide and discussing how "everyone these days assumes all electronics are Japanese (no China stuff then!) and would be amazed that most of this stuff is British!" we were going through a list and going "British, British" etc.... Several of the brands no longer exist and the vast majority of the others are now Chinese owned or merely brand names on Chinese gear....
colasblue
pfm Member
I say "clearly" since none of the B&O "form over function" kit appeals to me at all, which seems to be a view shared by the majority on here.
Now why is it you can't actually buy a B&O branded Icepower class D power amp in the traditional form factor?
Why do you have to go to Nord, or Bel Canto or somesuch?
Nor could you easily buy a B&O standard form factor cassette deck with HX pro back in the day, but you could buy one from plenty of other manufacturers.
I presume they know their business but there does seem to be an obvious (and quite large) sector of the HiFi market they deliberately choose not to engage with.
Now why is it you can't actually buy a B&O branded Icepower class D power amp in the traditional form factor?
Why do you have to go to Nord, or Bel Canto or somesuch?
Nor could you easily buy a B&O standard form factor cassette deck with HX pro back in the day, but you could buy one from plenty of other manufacturers.
I presume they know their business but there does seem to be an obvious (and quite large) sector of the HiFi market they deliberately choose not to engage with.
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Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
... and don't Linn REALLY want a slice of that market!!?
I think we've established though that the "form over function" allegation is false. Firms that only care about styling don't invent HX Pro, the Pramanik stylus profile (IIRC!!), make the worlds leading OEM class D modules, and make possibly the best and most advanced speaker system available..... at a hell of a price... but you can actually see that a lot of money went into them and the research programme. Hardly the "if we make the front panel 1/2" thick and gold plated we can get away with charging an extra £20k!" of some of the high end
onlyconnect
pfm Member
I don’t think “form over function” is quite fair. I think B&O wants to be distinctive, minimalist and elegant, but not at the expense of sound quality *except* that it has no interest in being best value purely from a sound for your pound perspective. Then again, neither does the likes of Naim. A difference perhaps is that B&O has more interest in its products being appreciated as attractive things to put into your home - an individual thing for sure - but that design effort is obviously part of what you pay for.
Tim
colasblue
pfm Member
Well I did put "form over function" in quotes with the intention of describing a genre of equipment where multiple functions are contained in a single bespoke unit of non standard form factor, many of which may be superfluous to a user's requirements. That doesn't necessarily imply poor sound but it probably does imply poor VFM (if you don't need all the functions) and absence of flexibility.
The current B&Q range seems much more minimalist, though in fairness when you see a used item on ebay, it's often fairly unclear what its actual function is.
The current B&Q range seems much more minimalist, though in fairness when you see a used item on ebay, it's often fairly unclear what its actual function is.