Finally got my hands on a pair of BL8000...

All I can say is this is the iconic B&O active speaker for a reason. I sold my BL1s and I traveled 1000 miles round trip to pick up these and I'm so glad I did. These are the Mk. 2 "bass enhanced" version and I got them as a package deal with another BS9000 that will be sold. Since the BS9000 came with a stand and remote and such, the net cost on the 8000s will probably end up being around 800.00 US, even with the travel included.

I basically just wanted to record this on the forum for future searchers, but if you haven't heard a lot of B&O speakers, which has now been an expensive lesson for me going through all the major models, don't gravitate automatically to the BL1 just because they were expensive and pretty. It's a solid speaker but the BL8000 is nearly as good and with MUCH better bass management to boot. If you truly love the BL1s incomparable looks, then get a pair, but don't be surprised if it takes a lot of tweaking to get right. They aren't as bad as many say here, but the 8000s are much more satisfying, much easier to transport and move around, and well... they're a B&O classic.

Now if only I could figure out how the frets come off!

Playdrv4me:

Now if only I could figure out how the frets come off!

My BL 8000 I bought in LA 2004,2001 model (MkI) was transported by ground down to Mex. city, connected, and they have been playing ever since, love them.

IMO don't pull the covers off if you don't have to. Once you do, they're never the same.....

Jonathan:

IMO don't pull the covers off if you don't have to. Once you do, they're never the same.....

Agreed. Getting them off is far from the "1-2" the service manual page shows - especially if you have never done it before - and it is easy to stretch the fabric so that it doesn't quite recover.

If the tweeters tweet and the woofers woof, there's really nothing to see in there.

Some of the (older?) bass drivers may have problems with the cones and surrounds, they deform. You can usually see enough through the fret if you hold a flashlight (torch in the UK ) right against the fabric.

First I had BL 8000. After a few years I purchased BL 1 and my BL 8000 went into bedroom. No doubt, BL 1 are not bass-monsters, but they are far better than BL 8000 and play in another league!

Greetings

Räuber

Points taken guys, I will not be removing the frets. I started to notice that the fabric is quite different from the 6000s, 4000s, and even the BL1s. It's a very fine fabric stretched just right over several folds and such in the fret backing. I agree that messing with it looks like it will result in problems, later. Heck just transporting them there were a few little spots that retained marks I had to go over with my hand to stretch out.

Please understand that I was not calling the BL1 a bad speaker. There is plenty of that on here and I don't think it's terribly fair, the mids and highs on the BL1 are very special. But the bottom line is the overall sound profile of the BL8000 is much more to my liking, given my space constraints and a placement that just doesn't allow me to get all I can out of the BL1, they are VERY placement dependent.

Just to add a note to those thinking of removing the BL8000 frets....

Whatever you do, do not raise the top flap of the fret. The top flap is set at 90 degrees from the front of the fret; but if you make the mistake of lifting it, it never goes completely flat again!