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B&O worth it and pricing?

The ‘point’ of B and O systems is that they are sold as a system for the household to live with and not sold as a bunch of boxes to a hifi hobbyist/nerd. So the style is very important. They are targeting a very specific market or lifestyle segment.

no doubt that selling licensed ICE module tech to others to the hifi hobbyist market is profitable and helps underpin R&D



their marketing experts knew what they were doing. A lady friend of ours has a B and O thing in her very stylish lounge. She is not a muso , nor a hifi type. She likes to play her CDs on a stylish system that looks smart. And so it does. And actually sounds pretty darn fine and not at all optimised or room treated or anything.
 
colasblue said:
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.
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The Beocord 5000 is a standard width drawer-loading cassette deck with Dolby HX Pro. No crazy styling to frighten the horses! Yes, it’s designed to match the rest of the Beosystem 5000 but can be used on its own with any other matching components you care to pair it with.

Which, admittedly, is not something you can say of all B&O…

https://beocentral.com/beocord5000-1980s
 
Hardly "standard" form factor but not too scary. Not all that readily available at the time though. I'd put money on most people here never having actually seen one "in the metal" in contrast to the Aiwa ADR550 say.
 
This is probably not strictly relevant, but the other night after only moderate amounts of whisky it took me an hour to change the batteries on a B&O remote. And I never would have managed it if I had not found the instruction manual.
And that IMHO is all you need to know about B&O. Or me.
 
Pah. Same goes with techs who say repairs are a nightmare. Just read the superb service manuals and they become a doddle.
Just don’t believe what you read on the ‘net.
 
JensenHealey said:
The ‘point’ of B and O systems is that they are sold as a system for the household to live with and not sold as a bunch of boxes to a hifi hobbyist/nerd. So the style is very important. They are targeting a very specific market or lifestyle segment.

no doubt that selling licensed ICE module tech to others to the hifi hobbyist market is profitable and helps underpin R&D



their marketing experts knew what they were doing. A lady friend of ours has a B and O thing in her very stylish lounge. She is not a muso , nor a hifi type. She likes to play her CDs on a stylish system that looks smart. And so it does. And actually sounds pretty darn fine and not at all optimised or room treated or anything.
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Please excuse the OT but “lady friend”? Why not just “friend”?
 
adamdea said:
This is probably not strictly relevant, but the other night after only moderate amounts of whisky it took me an hour to change the batteries on a B&O remote. And I never would have managed it if I had not found the instruction manual.
And that IMHO is all you need to know about B&O. Or me.
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I have owned a B&O Beogram CD50 for over 20 years and this is a model in which the CD has to be inserted into the tray upside down.

After a certain number of pints/glasses of red I still manage to forget this on occasion and wonder why it won’t play.

I think it’s us, not the B&O….
 
Have to say the B&O soundbar has more than met expectations. It doesn't sound as good as the main hi-fi but it has transformed the sound from the TV and it so convenient for music, just pick up a phone with Apple Music/Spotify/whatever and choose the speaker as the output. Sounds very nice and essentially takes no space as it just hangs on the wall below the TV. Decent bass for films and games.

It is of course possible to wire the TV or Bluetooth to the hi-fi but in practice we didn't often do so, it's a classic system and doesn't have any standby capability.

Tim
 
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colasblue said:
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.
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I know you’ve clarified what you mean by ‘form over function’, and ‘style’ is something different and style is a matter of personal taste, but can I just say in the interests of balance, that I’m a long term fan of the way B&O is styled - though the 70s and 80s era stuff is my favourite. And the stuff I’ve heard from that era sounded pretty damn good, too.
 
Beobloke said:
Yep, I’ve got a BeoSound 2 as well. Never used it as I have no interest in MP3s but it was a very generous present from Mrs B. and it’s such a lovely thing!
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We had one as main system for a while with a TT connected, very nice. It now fills the kitchen with music.
Beolink was decades ahead of the game, even if it was a tad expensive to install.
 
And think of bi-directional remotes with an LED display where you could see the radio frequency and CD timing…. in 1984!
As an aside, no silly VFD displays so it still all works today.
 
My Dad uses my old B&O setup - pair of Beolab 3 with stands and the matching CD/tuner unit with sliding glass front. Forget the model number. I got him an Audio Technica LP5 to plug into the aux socket. It’s a nice system and served us well over the Christmas period.

I used to have Beolab 5 but got them pre-owned and they went wrong after one day. They had amazing power and bass but weren’t as good in the midrange as my then resident Harbeth C7-ES3.

I did hear the Beolab 90 once at their Wilmslow branch. They were in a big showroom, all glass and hard surfaces. It was a disappointing little demo but I’m sure they’re really good in the right type of room.
 
I had a demo of the Beolab 90's with another member here, despite their evenness and solid bass i didnt feel that they sounded natural, perhaps it was the demo room they were in, i don't mind the looks of them.

EDIT: Same demo space as Nagraboy above ..., i thought they are supposed to mitigate the room sound somewhat and had a cardioid response.

The small Beo3s look quite interesting.
 
Space is the Place said:
I had a demo of the Beolab 90's with another member here, despite their evenness and solid bass i didnt feel that they sounded natural, perhaps it was the demo room they were in, i don't mind the looks of them.

EDIT: Same demo space as Nagraboy above ...
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I was, at best, ambivalent about their shape. Seemed to be like a big pair of tights pulled over an irregular shape. Oh dear that sounds like a Les Dawson joke :confused:
 
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