ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
I'd go with whatever you thought displayed the better picture.
Beoplay A2
BV7-55 if you want the very best audio/visual experience, but looks huge and a bit cumbersome.
BV11 -55 if you want a TV which looks like a work of art, but includes an excellent picture and reasonable sound.
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
Difficult question. I was about to pull the trigger on the 7-55 when the 11-55 came out, and went for the latter. The ability to play with the settings (sound groups, colour temperature, etc) won me over. However i agree that the 7-55 PQ is a bit better, but the 11-55 is very close, specially when watching bluray. At the end of the day the 7-55 looks enormous and takes up a lot of space compared to the 11-55. Plus you would be buying a used TV that is out of production, compared to a new one that is being updated with new features on a regular basis, without the need for a technician. I have my 11-55 set up with BL1s and the sound is amazing. And since you will have BL5s soon, i think you would be very happy with the 11-55
BV11-55, BS9000, BL1, BL19, Transmitter 1, Beo4, Beocom 6000, BeoTalk1 200, Sennheiser HD600, McIntosh MHA100
Barry Santini:11-55 if NL is important to you.
BeoNut since '75
Being that you already have the BV9, the BV 11 is the same "sort" of design in my book a frame with a TV and a speaker, you sort of know how that will look, and you can suspend that beautifully on your wall.
Aussie Michael: Being that you already have the BV9, the BV 11 is the same "sort" of design in my book...
Being that you already have the BV9, the BV 11 is the same "sort" of design in my book...
True, but I can't cope with the large frame edge and speaker in the middle. Looks a bit 'late 90s' to me, design-wise. Just my opinion though.
Although the BV7-55 does edge the BV11-55 in terms over overall A/V experience, I've never regretted my BV11-46 purchase. A superb TV, enhanced by the addition of a sub. Still keen to move up to a WISA-based BV11-55 (although there's no deal for this on the table from my dealer, although there is for the newer Avant).
My suggestion would be to go for the Beovision 11. Despite the fact I prefer the look of the Beovision 7-55 with just the right amount of visible aluminium and it not having the great big 'sound' area underneath it, its a VERY dated product now.
The chassis dates back 8-9 years that I believe in short order will limit the options and functions you can run through it. And even if they do upgrade it, you'll be calling in your dealer to perform it. And its also this age that IMOP results in fewer functions/capabilities/protocol support that will deliver an experience that overall disappoints relative to what you'll be spending.
Many people on this board have for at least two years been bemoaning the lack of up to date sound protocol support with the latest standards on Blu-Ray.
IMOP, the new Avant would be a better all round longer-term proposition that will only get better in the future, versus potentially frustrating you - especially the BV7.
In summary, if this is a two year purchase, either the BV7 and 11 are both fantastic - but the 11 pips it for me as it would be much easier to live with.
mawheele:My suggestion would be to go for the Beovision 11. Despite the fact I prefer the look of the Beovision 7-55 with just the right amount of visible aluminium and it not having the great big 'sound' area underneath it, its a VERY dated product now. The chassis dates back 8-9 years that I believe in short order will limit the options and functions you can run through it. And even if they do upgrade it, you'll be calling in your dealer to perform it. And its also this age that IMOP results in fewer functions/capabilities/protocol support that will deliver an experience that overall disappoints relative to what you'll be spending. Many people on this board have for at least two years been bemoaning the lack of up to date sound protocol support with the latest standards on Blu-Ray. IMOP, the new Avant would be a better all round longer-term proposition that will only get better in the future, versus potentially frustrating you - especially the BV7. In summary, if this is a two year purchase, either the BV7 and 11 are both fantastic - but the 11 pips it for me as it would be much easier to live with.
Given the choice I would go for a 7-55. The only reason I do not have one is 55 is just to big for my house.
mawheele: My suggestion would be to go for the Beovision 11. Despite the fact I prefer the look of the Beovision 7-55 with just the right amount of visible aluminium and it not having the great big 'sound' area underneath it, its a VERY dated product now. The chassis dates back 8-9 years that I believe in short order will limit the options and functions you can run through it. And even if they do upgrade it, you'll be calling in your dealer to perform it. And its also this age that IMOP results in fewer functions/capabilities/protocol support that will deliver an experience that overall disappoints relative to what you'll be spending. Many people on this board have for at least two years been bemoaning the lack of up to date sound protocol support with the latest standards on Blu-Ray. IMOP, the new Avant would be a better all round longer-term proposition that will only get better in the future, versus potentially frustrating you - especially the BV7. In summary, if this is a two year purchase, either the BV7 and 11 are both fantastic - but the 11 pips it for me as it would be much easier to live with.
Depends entirely on the customer and what they want from their TV.
My suggestion would be to keep the BV9. In fact I just bought a Mark 1 BV9 with some BL9s because for me, it represents excellent picture, excellent sound, excellent looks and excellent build quality, which are all the requirements I wanted to satisfy. I bought a BV7-55 but then returned it because it was too big in my lounge. I did not buy a BV11 because I was not satisfied with the picture quality (judder etc) neither did I like the build quality. I did not buy the new Avant because it didn't excite me in terms of design and 4K is not important to me at this time. Therefore, the outright winner was the BV9 hence my purchase and decent ALT speakers to match. I will add 2-3 more BL9s to the system in due course for surround sound and consistency with looks and design. I am not fussed about internet or radio so an Apple TV is all that I needed, so I have added it and am now entirely happy with my setup.
It is important to buy what you like and not get carried away with staying up to date with technology when there 'may not' be any added benefit to you. I do not believe that 4K is worth buying into at this time. Indeed I bought a 4K TV and had it for 6 months before getting rid of it. Chris's post further up this thread is correct that blown up pictures on 4K TVs look pretty awful. They did. If you want a 55" or 65" TV from B&O then I suggest the BV7-55 or BV12 are good options, especially the prices you can now buy them for. I do not agree that any discontinued TV is a bad purchase or that buying into old technology is.
If you like the new Avant my personal suggestion would be to wait until a revised version comes out since there seems to be too many problems with the current model.
Of the available TVs (recently discontinued and those still in production) my choices in terms of picture quality would be as follows:
1. BV12
2. BV7-55 Mk 2 / BV7-40 Mk 6
3. BV7-55 Mk 1 / BV7-40 Mk 5
4. BV Avant
5. BV11s (excellent picture but problems with judder/movement)
6. BV10s (as above)
7. BV9s / BV7 Mk 4 (fantastic picture for these TVs with the BV9 representing the best all round set for reasons mentioned above)
8. BV 7-40 Mk 3 / 7-32 Mk 3
9. BV 7-40 Mk 2 / 7-32 Mk 2 / BV 8-40 / BV8-32 (still lovely pictures on these sets but again, visible judder/motion problems)
10. BV 7-40 Mk 1 / 7-32 Mk 1
This list represents my own opinion only and does not include the BeoPlay V1 models. Other users will undoubtedly disagree and look for different features and requirements from their televisions. Since sound is generally not a problem with B&O TVs speakers have been omitted too as this is down to the users choice to compliment their television.
If my BV9 blew up anytime soon and I could not replace it with another then given the options, my choice would be the new Avant on a table stand. Much as I like the 11-46 (which would be the right size for my room) I simply could not live with looking at the movement issues all the time. These are not present on the BV9 or if they are I cannot see them at all.
Hope this post is useful for the OP and at the end of the day only you can make the final decision. If you want picture quality then my list may be helpful. If you look for the same criteria that I do then you may wish to stay with you're BV9. If 4K is important then the Avant is the choice. If noticeable problems with judder and panning are not important and you don't care much for 4K then the BV11 is the way to go. If you want the best picture out there with no movement problems and can accommodate large screens then the BV12 and BV7-55 are the outright winners in my opinion.
Best of luck!
B&O products are V1-32, BS2, H95, E8 and an Essence remote.11-46 now replaced with Sony A90J 65”, Sony HT-A9, Sony UBP-X800M2 and Sony SRS-NS7.
@ mbdj
That room is amazing with your wall color and the light gray on your B&O.
My opinion is the only real upgrade to your BV9 is the BV12, and it's end of life. BV7 offers no significant advantage to your BV9 outside of 5" larger, but is massive, especially with the proper speaker (which is not as good a match with BeoLab 5 as the 7-4 in the BV9).
What a terrible problem to have :-)
I totally agree with symmes, the only tv i would go to would be a bv12, i still think the picture is in a class of its own and would be an improvement on the bv9.
I also really like your room.
On my last demo they were playing gravity on bluray, and the blacks were deep and lush with motion being a strong point.
at no time did I notice blur or judder just a crisp clean 3-dimensional absorbing picture. When watching the same image on the bv11 although good really didn't match the bv12.
The BV12 was insane money though guys for what was a bit of chrome mounted onto a wonderful Panasonic screen. Plus it certainly didn't have the sexy looks of the BV11 or BV9! It was a little vulgar with its chrome!
My question would be, do you HAVE to change the BV9 right now? The reason why i'm asking this is LG is now the ONLY manufacturer of OLED now and it's doing very very well with it. It's just signed a deal with Panasonic to supply them with OLED screens.
Surely with this technology moving fast, it may only be a year away for B&O to introduce OLED. The new LG is currently £3995. I wonder how many more weeks it will be until it drops to £2995! It is clear that OLED is the only technology to rival or maybe better plasma so since the BV9 is quite frankly, rather good, it may be worth holding on a little longer. I'm sure Chris T and a few others would back me up on this arguement!
I do too - and I wote for the BeoLed as well
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
Although I don't quite understand what the issue was, I have deleted some of the last posts for the benefit of both participants and the Beoworld community in general.
Please refrain from behaviour like that.
--mika
Paul W: The BV12 was insane money though guys for what was a bit of chrome mounted onto a wonderful Panasonic screen. Plus it certainly didn't have the sexy looks of the BV11 or BV9! It was a little vulgar with its chrome! My question would be, do you HAVE to change the BV9 right now? The reason why i'm asking this is LG is now the ONLY manufacturer of OLED now and it's doing very very well with it. It's just signed a deal with Panasonic to supply them with OLED screens. Surely with this technology moving fast, it may only be a year away for B&O to introduce OLED. The new LG is currently £3995. I wonder how many more weeks it will be until it drops to £2995! It is clear that OLED is the only technology to rival or maybe better plasma so since the BV9 is quite frankly, rather good, it may be worth holding on a little longer. I'm sure Chris T and a few others would back me up on this arguement!
There was a store in the US called MicroCenter that was selling, for a short moment, the 55EA9800 OLED brand new in the box for *USD* $1,999.00 and I scooped one up, but haven't even opened it yet. From what I observed when it was on display, it blows most things out of the water, or at least surpasses them by a small margin including the last Samsung and Panasonic plasma generations.
However... This is still a Gen 1 product with about a 30k hour lifespan and some early teething problems. I'd say it would need to get well into Gen 2 or 3 before B&O would or SHOULD consider jumping on that bandwagon. Ironically, the 9800 version, with that blasted curve almost has a look sitting on the table of a B&O"esque" product (the 8800 "Gallery" model is flat, but not available as widely), so it matches nicely with other B&O things if you put it on the right table/stand.
LG did just release pricing and specs for their gen 2 4K units, so hopefully the tech will grow and not be trampled over like every other good display technology by LCD.
I agree that its too early for OLED at the moment but good to see that LG and Samsung are moving things forward. I think in 3-5 years it may well be the standard.
Paul W: The BV12 was insane money though guys for what was a bit of chrome mounted onto a wonderful Panasonic screen. Plus it certainly didn't have the sexy looks of the BV11 or BV9! It was a little vulgar with its chrome!
You can get it in black/dark grey speaker. I think it looks amazing on a wall, but the only versions that are available are the floor-stand version of the BV12. I don't want it on a floor stand - it will look huge. On a wall, it was fairly flush. No-one seems to have the wall version anywhere.
You can pick up a floor stand BV12-65 for about £9000 these days, but you'd definitely need additional speakers as the BV12 centre speaker was poor.
With grey speaker...
In Singapore this week and there is a B&O dealer in the hotel lobby. They happened to have a BV12 o a floor stand. It looked great, although with the insane price. Too bad for the short lived BV12
Chris Townsend:The 7-55 is big. As opposed to being in a corner, it's now in a window. But my god it's worth it. If you are into watching movies and don't want or need the extra speakers the 11 will need, the Beolab 7-6 does it all, in spades. Factor in the fact you won't need supplementary speakers when looking at floor space. Would it really take up more space than an 11-55 with extra speakers? Built in Bluray player and picture quality on the Mark 2, is still the reference at which all other TVs should be measured against in my book. Beovision 7-55 Mk2, Beovision 8-32, Beovision 3-32, Avant RF 28, Beoplay A9, Beolit 12, Beocom 2, Beotime, H6, Form 2.
Chris Townsend:Demo it in MBDJ's house over a weekend. Job done. Beovision 7-55 Mk2, Beovision 8-32, Beovision 3-32, Avant RF 28, Beoplay A9, Beolit 12, Beocom 2, Beotime, H6, Form 2.
Chris Townsend:I wanted to love it, but both the sound and picture ever really came up to muster in the flesh. I thought Bath had one wall mounted Moxxey?
No, see above, long gone. I wanted it, they gave me a reasonable offer, but then they sold it to someone else.
I don't want a BV4. Looks dated with the embossed panel.
If my dealer offers me a deal on a BV11-55, I'll take it, but it's not forthcoming, so I'll keep the BV11-46.