BeoSound Moment

It seems to be a nice interface and allows basic or more involved interaction with your digital music depending on which side you use. I hope they have great sales success with it. Maybe it's a great product for someone with only digital and cloud-based music.

It can't replace my pizza box system, so it's clearly not designed for me. I like the ML integration I have with my BS4000 and Avant 32 US, but even that created a compromise for me since I didn't have an elegant way to include a Beogram into this system. That system wound up being relegated to use in my bedroom as an isolated system. To be honest, the Beo4 remote was a bit of a mixed bag in that system. I never had complete control of all the external devices. The menu was missing some commands for my FiOS DVR and when trying to navigate the guide list would inexplicably process a command for channel 0(!), taking me far away from the channels I was trying to navigate in the first place. I wound up only using the Beo4 only for source selection and volume control, and used the FiOS box remote for the everything else. Surely not as elegant an experience as I was hoping to achieve.

With my Mac mini configured as a music server playing in a constant loop, accessible from my iDevices for playlist changes, playing through my BS5000 stack in multiple rooms via MCL82, I can play all of the music I have - CDs, LPs, Cassettes, radio (yes, my children and I still listen to FM broadcasts). I can't see what the moment can do for us that I can't already do with ease. Certainly the mood wheel interface is not worth the cost of the upgrade, and I would lose so much music flexibility, I couldn't justify the expense.

And maybe that's just fine, but I would consider myself a B&O enthusiast, so it's kind of sad they can't interest me in the slightest with the Moment or the Essence. I don't see where you get enough value in this device for $2,800. Maybe this 50 year old professional family man with modest disposable income is not their target demo. I'll keep waiting and buying past products from the used market, sadly depriving them of some much needed cash. I will keep looking for reasons to buy new B&O, but it shouldn't be this hard. I'm a bit frustrated, really.

Yendys:

Thanks for your replies Phil and Raeuber, but i thought the ML/NL converter could act as Audio master and have aux input....

I currently have playmaker connected to the Aux-in of the BS3000, was hoping to retire it and i really like what the moment can do, it is the most interesting Audio master product for some time and really well though out as such IMHO

I'm sure we will have the opportunity to replace a BS30(2)00 in the way you mentioned. But not now, it will be later on the year, hopefully.

I you already have the NL/ML converter, use the AUX input on the converter for your playmaker, this input sounds a lot more much more musical in comparison to the AUX on a BS.

I wonder if Hiort asked some questions at the CES about the Moments battery capacity. The idea of the removable screen is good, but hows autonomy. Will it be one hour or 10 hours.

@several posters on the previous page:

I - as Phil do - see no reason, why we should not be able to adress/access the Moment from a ML product (which might need a sw-update) if connected through the NL/ML Converter.

If the Moment accept ir-controls via the BeoRemote One (or the updated Beo4), you should be able to access these 'sources' from anywhere on the (NL/ML) network.

But we don't know yet, which commands from the remote the Moment will react to - probably 'N.Radio'/'Radio' and 'N.Music'/'CD'. It will be interesting to learn more about this.

Accessing the Moment from a NL-product (a tv, the Essence or the A9) will be no problem - as soon as the software is updated.

You can use the Moment as a/or more source/s from those. But you can't access a BS Essence the same way. That is the reason, why I used the comparison to the 'Master/Slave' definitions of the old ML technology in a post further up.

MM

Reply to the DMacri post up above:

I don't think that B&O would expect a long time B&O costumer with a smooth running system to replace this with the Moment - although some will do it.

B&O is making soundsystems for today and for the future - that is why the 'new BeoSystem' has become, what we now see as the BS Moment. And B&O need new costumers!

But I am quite sure, that - when we have learned how the Moment really works, you will find lots of tips and hints how to integrate this player into an existing (even with MCL82 running rooms) audio/video system.

I'd be surpriced, if we would not see some creative ideas from our fellow Beoworlders coming.

MM

@DMacri

With my Mac mini configured as a music server playing in a constant loop, accessible from my iDevices for playlist changes, playing through my BS5000 stack in multiple rooms via MCL82, I can play all of the music I have - CDs, LPs, Cassettes, radio (yes, my children and I still listen to FM broadcasts). I can't see what the moment can do for us that I can't already do with ease...

Indeed not much more then you do now ! Well you get a bonus 'internet radio'.

...And maybe that's just fine, but I would consider myself a B&O enthusiast, so it's kind of sad they can't interest me in the slightest with the Moment or the Essence. I don't see where you get enough value in this device for $2,800....

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Apple fan and use it also for my digital collection. But how much cost the Mac Mini, is it worth this price? Apple manufacture's those mini's in thousands, and are still asking a lot of money for it ! The Moment in comparison is rather a limited edition, designed specifically for your music collection and as a bonus you get a tablet remote. 

...I'm a bit frustrated, really.

Don't be. B&O is still the only manufacturer who is trying, and does it also, to integrate their older systems in their new one's. Be pretty sure that the Moment will find his integration in to te ML link. Just give them time.

 

bayerische:

Shown the Moment to 6 of my friends now.

None of them likes it.

Same here. The first reactions were always some sort of hesitation.

1) Design:

Visible wood is more or less incompatible with modern design following the Bauhaus tradition. There are seldom exceptions where wood is well hidden or integrated, like the black edition of the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman but it remains an exception. There might be a bigger market in Scandinavia or the US for speakers or audio systems containing wood, but if you invested in objects made mostly of glass, black leather and chromed, brushed or polished metal then wood isn’t an option at all. I fear that traditional B&O customers are not pleased with this newer wooden approach and will be alienated. Wood is interrupting the B&O design continuity which is especially disturbing as their products are considered as timeless objects justifying even the highest investment. The BeoSound Moment unfortunately looks like an intruder that might be tolerable only if photographed from some very specific angles or not surrounded by anything, otherwise it’s no eye candy at all in a B&O landscape based on Jacob Jensen and David Lewis. The form factor has some potential for destroying design harmony wherever you place the Moment, especially in smaller rooms or when combining with anything else B&O did since the Millennium, except perhaps the BeoLab 18 or A9 speakers. Updating the BeoSound 5 hard- and software would have been so much better.

2) Technology

Like I discussed here before, the apparatus has absolutely no use for me if it does not connect digitally to the BeoLab 5. Sound systems in this price range should not compromise the transmission chain and S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) is a well established standard for over twenty years, only HDMI could have been an alternative. The BeoSound Moment indicates, well, the moment I’m giving up on B&O. I waited endlessly for something technically sophisticated and am always confronted with analogue outputs, exotic audio formats or exotic and outdated wireless protocols. The weird tablet integration of the BeoSound Moment is everything else than logical. I have a tablet computer, I do not want more than one, so if it is part of a design concept, mine should have been dockable. Otherwise it should not be visible at all, like the portable computer was not identifiable or detachable in the BeoSound 5. What should I do with several tablets or handheld devices around me? Any device collections like the many TV decoders some people are keeping around their sets or the numerous remote controls on our coffee tables twenty years ago are a sign that something went wrong. And B&O should be different here and present us an universal solution. Very disappointing.

And yes B&O are still the only manufacturer to support older equipment that you have with remote usage or some linking up!

Try that with your old Samsung/ Lg or your Sony tv ect!

It is a shame what is going on with B&O! But hope they survive!

I heard there is maybe a Chinese company looking into B&O but only hearsay Who knows what's going on?

I wonder if the 'verdict' (as far as it can be spoken by now) would be different, if our wifes/girlfriends were contributing to this thread.

MM

Steffen:

vikinger:

As I posted earlier, the form of an early beomaster with the touchscreen pad inserted would have been a much more elegant solution.

- You mean, like this: 

Not really!

But several Beomasters like the first type of BM2000 had a  flush tuning wheel on the right hand side. The topsiide area occupied by the tuning scales and sliders could be replaced by a tablet dock. 

What I am probably not considering when looking at the Moment and its base is that the whole thing is really quite small, yet the base looks too bulky in comparison with the detachable part.

Graham

Thanks for all the Replies re NL/ML Converter to older Master link system yes guess we will have to be patient and hope they have thought of the many customers that are transitioning over to a NL solution as newer product are released.

David Andel:

bayerische:

Shown the Moment to 6 of my friends now.

None of them likes it.

Same here. The first reactions were always some sort of hesitation.

1) Design:

Visible wood is more or less incompatible with modern design following the Bauhaus tradition. There are seldom exceptions where wood is well hidden or integrated, like the black edition of the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman but it remains an exception. There might be a bigger market in Scandinavia or the US for speakers or audio systems containing wood, but if you invested in objects made mostly of glass, black leather and chromed, brushed or polished metal then wood isn’t an option at all. I fear that traditional B&O customers are not pleased with this newer wooden approach and will be alienated. Wood is interrupting the B&O design continuity which is especially disturbing as their products are considered as timeless objects justifying even the highest investment. The BeoSound Moment unfortunately looks like an intruder that might be tolerable only if photographed from some very specific angles or not surrounded by anything, otherwise it’s no eye candy at all in an B&O landscape based on Jacob Jensen and David Lewis. The form factor has some potential for destroying design harmony wherever you place the Moment, especially in smaller rooms or when combining with anything else B&O did since the Millennium, except perhaps the BeoLab 18 or A9 speakers. Updating the BeoSound 5 hard- and software would have been so much better.

2) Technology

Like I discussed here before, the apparatus has absolutely no use for me if it does not connect digitally to the BeoLab 5. Sound systems in this price range should not compromise the transmission chain and S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) is a well established standard for over twenty years, only HDMI could have been an alternative. The BeoSound Moment indicates, well, the moment I’m giving up on B&O. I waited endlessly for something technically sophisticated and am always confronted with analogue outputs, exotic audio formats or exotic and outdated wireless protocols. The weird tablet integration of the BeoSound Moment is everything else than logical. I have a tablet computer, I do not want more than one, so if it is part of a design concept, mine should have been dockable. Otherwise it should not be visible at all, like the portable computer was not identifiable or detachable in the BeoSound 5. What should I do with several tablets or handheld devices around me? Any device collections like the many TV decoders some people are keeping around their sets or the numerous remote controls on our coffee tables twenty years ago are a sign that something went wrong. And B&O should be different here and present us an universal solution. Very disappointing.

You have a very good point here.

My "B&O Moment" at the moment is a Mac Mini hidden in one of the peripheral boxes behind my Beovision 9. 

Basically this product could have been an updated BeoSystem 3. Say BeoSystem 5. 

What I like about my Mac Mini is it's multitude of capabilities. I also have an Apple TV. From the Apple TV I get access to Netflix, my media library (for movies) etc.

The Mac mini serves as a quick-access storage for movies, but it's primary role is it's my Jukebox. It has an impressive I-radio station list via iTunes, and all my CD's are ripped in lossless quality, and it also naturally stores all my iTunes music purchases. Connected digitally to my Beolab 5's, just like I want it.

I'm not an iPad user. I use a Laptop, when browsing the net, emails etc.

I do have an iPad, the first model from 2010. While desperately slow now, it still works for my limited use, being the App letting me control my music library. 

So, at the price I payed for my Mac Mini 599 euro if I remember correctly, it has worked flawlessly for 4 years I think. Well that's beside the point.

The Moment could have been a BeoSystem 5 IMHO. Or similar. Do we "need" another thing to put forward on display? Not me. The visual experience of my Beolab 5's on the sides of my Beovision 9 (full-HD) is perfection. I love my Beolab 5's to death, and my Wife loves the Beovision 9, well I do too! We've said if it breaks, we buy another Beovision 9. In fact, heck I'm even thinking of buying one as a "spare". Yeah, it's a "dumb" TV by today's standards, but since it can control peripherals such as my Mac Mini and Apple TV it does not matter to me. I simply love the look of it, as it is perfection. To me.

A smallish box like the Beosystem 3 updated, with some internal storage, a good media player, internet connection etc would be the perfect solution for me. Preferably also video playback trough it. Today honestly we are in a world, where sound and video live side by side, and having something just for Audio, is dated.

Since there's probably 1 home in Europe that does not have a tablet at home . The "visual" part of the moment could have been a cleverly developed app to control it all. I get the limitations of this, especially if you want to change volume etc quickly. 

B&O... I have money to spend, give me a reason!

As mentioned, the Moment isn't giving me anything new (besides the mood wheel) that isn't visually fitting for a B&O product IMHO. If it would have been a perfection in design, something I would have to look at daily, I could justify it. As I justify buying Art, or a watch or a car that I barely use. 

 

 

Tried to reply to this thread 8 hours ago... Under Moderation. 

 

Why Beoworld? 

bayerische:

Tried to reply to this thread 8 hours ago... Under Moderation. 

 

Why Beoworld? 

Apparently all moderators have had a life for at least that long. I'm afraid the other option would be to have plenty of kitchen spam. The same ****** still has thirty ex-display kitchens to clear - business is very slow it seems...

tournedos:

bayerische:

Tried to reply to this thread 8 hours ago... Under Moderation. 

 

Why Beoworld? 

Apparently all moderators have had a life for at least that long. I'm afraid the other option would be to have plenty of kitchen spam. The same ****** still has thirty ex-display kitchens to clear - business is very slow it seems...

:D:D:D:D

 

Seriously those guys still at it?!

 

 

You poor souls!

My previous reply went straight to moderation. 

Thanks Mika!

Millemissen:

I wonder if the 'verdict' (as far as it can be spoken by now) would be different, if our wifes/girlfriends were contributing to this thread.

Ah, simple answer: my wife wouldn’t buy such a machine at all – as a matter of fact nothing from B&O. Have you verified "their" multimedia equipment before they met you? Disappointing …

David Andel:

Ah, simple answer: my wife wouldn’t buy such a machine at all – as a matter of fact nothing from B&O. Have you verified "their" multimedia equipment before they met you? Disappointing …

My wife loves it, and is threatening to leave me if we don't get matching Beolab 5's.

Our next and all wedding anniversary theme? Aluminium

Funny how a lot of people have longed for a new BeoSound, a new audiosystem.

Now, when it is almost here, they don't need it at all, because their tablet, MacMini etc already does everything (so they think!).

MM

Millemissen:

Funny how a lot of people have longed for a new BeoSound, a new audiosystem.

Now, when it is almost here, they don't need it at all, because their tablet, MacMini etc already does everything (so they think!).

MM

What? You expect consistency? 

@ Millemissen

The situation is not funny.

Aesthetics does not please everyone. It is just a big brick station with a big tablet in aluminium/wood panel.

MoodWheel and PatternPlay Apps are interesting. It would have been better to sell these applications through AppStores.

I fear the lack of commercial success for the BeoSound Moment because is it still expensive. Only real passionate and loyal customers to the brand will appreciate it.

BeoBoy68:

Aesthetics does not please everyone

You can never please everyone. I guess there has never been a B&O product that pleases everyone...

"The one who tries to make everyone happy, makes no-one happy."

Can you just imagine a month ago, if you were told and regardless of whether it's for you not, that B&O had released a new Beosound at CES that many of the top websites put in the top ten pieces of new equipment you should buy!

Not looking good is it

BeoBoy68:

@ Millemissen 

Aesthetics does not please everyone. It is just a big brick station with a big tablet in aluminium/wood panel.

 

I think the design is much more classic than the oversized webcam design of the 'Phantom' from 'Devialet' for example.

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Brigantinus:

I think the design is much more classic than the oversized webcam design of the 'Phantom' from 'Devialet' for example.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The PHANTOM from Devialet is a speaker integrated. We can not compare it with the classic BS Moment Audio System from B&O. Personnally, Devialet did a very good job; a "State of Art" in compact sound.

Agree for your sentence about beauty.

Steffen:

You can never please everyone. I guess there has never been a B&O product that pleases everyone...

"The one who tries to make everyone happy, makes no-one happy."

I'd go out on a limb and say Beosound Ouverture pleased just about everybody in the 90s

I guess it was easier with displaying and playing physical media: so much mechanical "magic" could be designed into the products.

In the world of medialess music, B&O thought outside the box with Moment (and Beosound 5) as they did with Ouverture in the era of CD & casette. I think pleasing everybody in a world where music is consumed with so many different kinds of multipurpose devices and in so many different ways, is indeed impossible.

That, or the revolutionary product (in design & operation) is yet to be invented (iPod and iPhone excluded ).

Yet the Moment was well-received at CES, for its novel approach to music and the use of wood. There's not much interactive wood out there, in this age of glass, metal and plastic.

So as Engadget often asks its readers about new products: What would you change about The Moment? Much of that has been discussed in this thread, but what kind of product would that end us up with?

Jeff:

Millemissen:

Funny how a lot of people have longed for a new BeoSound, a new audiosystem.

Now, when it is almost here, they don't need it at all, because their tablet, MacMini etc already does everything (so they think!).

MM

What? You expect consistency? 

No, not at all - but I  guess none of the posters have seen, touched, tried the Moment in the flesh.

And therefore should be a bit more moderate in judging if the 'can do the same as...'.

Who has by now really experienced, what the Moment actually could deliver?

We must not all like the same - but first we need to know what it is, that we dislike (or like, for that matter).

MM

BeoBoy68:

@ Millemissen

The situation is not funny.

Aesthetics does not please everyone. It is just a big brick station with a big tablet in aluminium/wood panel.

MoodWheel and PatternPlay Apps are interesting. It would have been better to sell these applications through AppStores.

I fear the lack of commercial success for the BeoSound Moment because is it still expensive. Only real passionate and loyal customers to the brand will appreciate it.

You might be surpriced, when you see and try it in action - I can't tell!

But it surely is not just 'a big brick station with a big tablet in aluminium/wood panel'

I don't know, whether you then will need it or not------ only you can.

You may still dislike it thereafter - B&O can't please all, as we know.

Whether it is worth the money they charge for it - for you or for others - is hard to know,

but a B&O product never came cheap, and still they sold a lot in the past.

MM

What a wonderful discussion this has turned into!

The fact that the Moment triggers so different reactions tell me that the design is good. I remember the words from the late Davis Lewis: he didn't care too much if people loved or hated his design, he wanted a reaction. So, a well done design job by Thorsten Frackenpohl and Andre Poulheim.

I'm with Mr10Percent on this one, but I must admit that I find the look of the Moment with two matching BeoLab 18's in the same wood just as iconic as the BeoSound 9000 and the BeoLab 8000 back in the late 90's.Sure, the Moment is very small compared to the BS9k - but still striking visually. Still creating a reaction.

Roger

 

"What would you change about The Moment?"

Only 3 things : 

1. Add more lightness to the base. Too massive for my eyes
2. Add a wired digital out (beolab 20 are the latest speakers, they have a Toslink connexion : why not using it?)
3. Use a "window" with square corners on the tablet, like a beoworlder photoshoped. Add more consistency to the design.

Otherwise it's the product I was waiting for, enabling digital multiroom and choosing music for me...

1: Of cource it is a matter of taste - I did not feel that the base (the SoundHeart) was massive seeing it in real life.

2: Why not connect it with WiSA to the BL20 - then you have 'your' digital connection. Or to a (newer) BV via NL - for that matter!

3: Handling the 'Jukebox' (what you call a tablet) to me did not feel like holding an Android/Apple tablet in my hand(s). It felt more like holding a big remote with a giant touchscreen-display. The rounds of the screen part did not disturb me.

Actually it was quite nice holding in your hand(s) - the wood feels kinda soft holding it with the display side up.

MM

Here is one pic - not the best I admit, but there might be more to follow.

Anyway cheers

MM

 

Looking good! Would be nice if the display was Squared off and the black surround covered,

I am sure they could have done it so - or different....

You name the price!

This was their choice - fells right holding it.

MM

So you already have one at home! Lucky you!

Can you share Some pictures of the base?

What's your set-up? NL to your V1? Music On a Nas?

Looking forward to your experiences!

Jan

Bv7Mk3:

Looking good! Would be nice if the display was Squared off and the black surround covered,

I'm less bothered by the "round" corners, it's the black surround (with the thin silver edge) that ruins it for me!

Is that really all it takes to 'ruin' the Moment for you?

MM

 

 

@MM 

Was the wine of an outstanding year and suitable to the demo

From the description of it's capabilities, I suspect the full utility of the Moment won't be apparent until you've owned it for a month or so and it has had time to learn your music preferences and habits.

Which brings up a question I still wonder about. Given two setups with the same music collection, using iTunes Genius and MOTS to seed a playlist from the same song, how would the playlists differ? Given I'll probably never know someone with a BS5 and iTunes setup I doubt I'll ever find out, but it would be interesting.