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
- Flere
smile and enjoy the moment
There will always be a successor, wether it be round the corner or not...
Would I buy BeoLab 5 brand new? If you plan to keep them for 10-15 years and enjoy them, yes... they are amazing speakers and I bought a pair, brand new, myself in 2010.
Would I buy a pair now with a view to 'upgrading' in 2-3 years? Possibly not unless I was offered a great deal on some new ones.
I think the BL5 are getting towards "end of life" - and believe me, this only translates as "really been around too long, but they're still world class. However, I'm Tue Mantoni - and my mantra is to make each product have a finite life-cycle, no matter how good it is.."
Whatever the general consensus though, I agree with Tue's principle from a business perspective. It makes sense in todays consumer world.
From a selfish perspective, as a pre-owned B&O dealer, I'd rather the life-cycle was as long as possible so that what I was selling at 6-10 years old still looked "current" and made me a sale to eager buyers. However... I'm torn between the two. I want the best for the company, and without B&O I'd have no business - and on the other hand I'd like to make lots of money please... and thank you.
As it stands the pace of model/range deletion is decimating prices of 'old' (yet still technically modern) B&O products and my margins have literally evaporated overnight. I now rely on huge turnover with tiny margins as opposed to low volume and high margin. I'm not complaining by the way - it all balances out, but by crikey it's much, much harder work!!!!
Anyway, in true BeoWorld style, I veered off topic.. but back on topic I'd say buy a good pre-owned pair if you like to upgrade - or new at a great price. Or, if you're looking to sit on them forever, who cares.. pay the money and enjoy!
If you're looking for the latest new toy.. sit on your hands for now.
Lee
Interesting question as I have recently been thinking about BL5. They are great speakers, but deploy 10-year old DAC and other sound technology that may not be quite advanced to handle the new wave of hd audio. Prices are now close to $24K in the US - and at this price i would expect something more matched to how audio would be consumed in the next 10 years.
I would wait for the next wave of innovation, or as Lee mentioned, a great price on a used one.
BV11-55, BS9000, BL1, BL19, Transmitter 1, Beo4, Beocom 6000, BeoTalk1 200, Sennheiser HD600, McIntosh MHA100
The sound of music doesn't change. If a speaker sounded top of the bill, it still will do so today. In fact, music through speakers can be 'too perfect' for me; live music played at a concerthall sometimes sounds 'less perfect', and than I think isn't the music reproduction becoming too perfect? In the end, it's all about hearing the real thing, and not something that has been studio-mastered and played through 'the best' speakers, making it better than live music.
4 beolab 5, beolab 9, beolab 10, beolab 5000, beolab 8000 mk2, beolab 6002, beolab 3500, beovision 7 55 mk2, 2 beovision 11 46 mk4, beotime, beosound ouverture, beosound essence, beoplay A8, beomaster 900 RG de luxe and the collection continues...
I've sold nearly the entire B&O speaker product range, and BL5 is the best I ever heard. It's the one last thing I must obtain.
BeoLab 5, BeoVision 7-55 MK2, BeoSound 5 Encore, BeoSound 9000, BeoLab Penta III, BeoLab 8000, BeoLab 6000, BeoLab 2, BeoLab 7-6, BeoSound 8, BeoTime (analog clock), Beo 4 remote.
As a proud owner of a BL5 I only can say it is a great speaker. In fact is one of the few speakers around who could play at a reasonable sound quality level with that power in a small room. I owned a pair of B&W 802D but after moving in my new house no way I could get them play to please me...
So good sound does not get outdated, however, the BL5 is not a "standard" speaker like a 802D. The rest is a little bit outdated like the DAC or the way you operate the speaker in a non B&O setup. So there is room for improvement...
I second Lee's point of view, I would not get a new BL5 at the current list price, the price increases of the last years are a little to much for my taste
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Present: BL90, Core, BL6000, CD7000, Beogram 7000, Essence Remote.
Past: BL1, BL2, BL8000, BS9000, BL5, BC2, BS5, BV5, BV4-50, Beosystem 3, BL3, DVD1, Beoremote 4, Moment.
olvisab: I paid them 7000 euros (2006 speakers)
I paid them 7000 euros (2006 speakers)
That's a very reasonable price, well done!
We have all of our BeoLab 5 software updated to the latest levels, which seems to make a difference.. We also calibrate them in our 5,000 sq/ft warehouse too, which also makes a difference!! If the customer finds them too much they can always re-calibrate in their (usually!) smaller room - but most people leave them as they are..
I live in a townhouse at the moment, so my BeoLab 5 simply cannot be played loud - but one thing I do find about them is the strength of mid and top end at low and medium volume. I do rate the BeoLab 9 very highly indeed, but listening to the BeoLab 5 straight after is like someone just strapped a turbocharger to the 'beak' of the 9 and let it breathe too....
I'm very lucky in the fact that I can get to listen to these speakers either 'one after the other' - or just side by side, for as long as I like.. It's a perk of the job, and I'm very lucky in the fact I get to make a living from a what started as a hobby... well, a passion if i'm honest.
I will say though - don't be afraid of buying some BeoLab 9's. They really are a fabulous speaker... They kick the BeoLab 8000 straight out of the park - and they also do the same to a pair of BeoLab 3 with a BeoLab 2 'in the gang'. I'm not sure if Geoff Martin had a hand in the 9's, but I'm guessing he did.
Getting back to the original question, BeoLab 5's are still the best. I love mine, but at the moment have little need for them - so may sell them and slot some BeoLab 9's in their place until I find my new house, complete with dedicated BeoRoom... Then, I'll either buy some 5's again - or see what's around!
It always bemuses me to see these kinds of threads. I think a lot of people don't have as much experience as I have had listening to hyper expensive "audiophile" take no prisoners kinds of speakers. I have to say, compared to most of what is out there at even higher prices, the Beolab 5 is an astoundingly good speaker, perhaps the best I've ever heard, including Genesis Monitors, Wilson Labs, Thiel, Dunlavy, etc. And at a lower price than many, not even counting the need for high power amps! I haven't heard every high end speaker but believe me I've heard more than my share, and it is amazing how often I came away really unimpressed. A lot of ultra high end speakers are sold less on how they sound than on adherence to some design philosophy or another that really isn't based on much but seems to manage to get a following among people who are frankly far to susceptible to marketing hype.
Worrying over the type of DAC is insane in my opinion. There's no reliable listening tests I've ever heard of that point to superiority of alleged High Def formats...there are a few theoretical arguments where 24 bit dynamic range might just possibly be usable in a home environment, but in the real world you are unlikely to ever find that, and if you do that kind of dynamic range is not pleasant. You strain to hear soft notes and get your ears pinned back at loud ones. You may get that if you sit in the band but not if you sit mid hall. High Def audio is a solution in search of a problem, and a marketing way to get you to churn equipment and rebuy your music.
Given the fact that the largest possible influence on the speakers is how they interact in the room, DACs and such are worrying about a fly fart in a hurricane. The only area I could see an improvement in the 5 at all would be an improvement in it's room optimization approach, which would require calibrated mics and probably an outboard processor to work over a wider range of frequencies than just the bass. But as Geoff Martin has pointed out with his speakers, you can overdo that and get a very narrow sweet spot, which is counter to the B&O design philosophy, and counter to the design of the 5 using the acoustic lenses. As it is, it has the closest to a perfect, unvarying directivity as a function of freq I've ever seen in a speaker.
To each their own, but this is my view of the matter. As for WISA, if you are willing to spring for a speaker of this magnitude, run some wires!
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
9 LEE:but one thing I do find about them is the strength of mid and top end at low and medium volume. I do rate the BeoLab 9 very highly indeed
9 LEE: I will say though - don't be afraid of buying some BeoLab 9's. They really are a fabulous speaker... They kick the BeoLab 8000 straight out of the park - and they also do the same to a pair of BeoLab 3 with a BeoLab 2 'in the gang'. I'm not sure if Geoff Martin had a hand in the 9's, but I'm guessing he did. Getting back to the original question, BeoLab 5's are still the best. I love mine, but at the moment have little need for them - so may sell them and slot some BeoLab 9's in their place until I find my new house, complete with dedicated BeoRoom... Then, I'll either buy some 5's again - or see what's around! Lee
Hi Lee! I have to say I agree with your opinion of the 9s. I had underrated them based on how I first heard them, but when finally I had a chance to hear a pair setup properly I was stunned with them, such a sweet, open midrange and enough bass to be satisfying if not the depth of the 5s. I finally had a chance to obtain a pair for a good price, and they do indeed trounce the 8000s, which are now in my dining room! Until I ever manage to rationalize the price of the 5s they will do most nicely...
In my opinion, the Beolab 5s are the perfect speaker. The complete sound they provide at all levels is truly incredible.
One thing to remember is that the 5s are the only speaker B&O have produced that the sound was designed before the aesthetics. I think this says a lot about the speaker.
To be honest, I wouldn't want wireless 5s. I don't believe the replication can be as good wirelessly as it can with cables...
x:________________________
Have to agree with Jeff above. First of all, in classical speaker design, nothing much has happened since the 1950s, it's still "monkey coffins" with drivers attached, and passive crossover - and lots and lots of compromises.
A few are offering active speaker designs with signal processing, but you don't find many with the all-on-board processing that's built into a BeoLab 5.
Those speakers are unique and outstanding, particularly relative to their price point, which is comparable to what some neurotic audiophiles spend on the cables connecting their amplifier to their speakers.
Correctly placed BeoLab 5s deliver a sonic performance that outplays most other speaker set-ups you will hear. You will need a multiple of bass drivers alone just to match the precision of the bass. As Jeff points out, the performance is a function of the sonics having dictated the shape of the speaker. I owned a pair for a number of years, played to them through a number of different sources, and enjoyed the hell out of it.
Then I decided to go "all-analog" from records and reel-to-reel, just for the aesthetics, and therefore sold my BeoLab 5s. But if I was to go hunting for other speakers again today, I would get a pair, as I don't know of anything else that matches their performance, relative to footprint and price.
Some years ago, an acquaintance who was considering buying a pair of BeoLab 5s came to listen, together with his brother. Both are musicians, serious about HiFi and critical listeners. The brother who came along had spent astonishing amounts of money on different HiFi equipment through the years, and was skeptical about "digital speakers from B&O."
They sat down. We had an enjoyable time, there was excellent beer and snacks - we listened to their music mostly, which they had brought along. At the end of the evening, the brother announced: "So, basically, throughout all these years, I have just been wasting my time and not really heard the music?"
He was particularly impressed with the cohesiveness of the musical presentation from the BeoLab 5s - it is truly astonishing, if you're able to listen past your prejudices about ICEpower and B&O "being overpriced junk."
soundproof
The guys in the acoustic department in Struer much be very proud, when reading that post.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
seethroughyou:Olvisab, £7000 for 2006 units is a total no-brainer. I can fully see why you pounced on this deal. It's a phenomenal speaker that will bring you so much joy.
Incredible price, and not much wrong with them cosmetically it seems. Over here in the US you can get a product called Ospho, it's basically phosphoric acid. It turns rust into a gray coating, a dab on the rust would fix it, then you could paint over it or not depending on your preference as it works as a basic primer, you wouldn't need to prime before painting. Or you could just lightly sand the rust off. I treated a little rust on a blued shotgun barrel with it. Shame on me for letting it get rusty in the first place though.
olvisab:Thanks jeff for your advices. I had to check the kind of metal under the paint before doing anything. I think that I will sand them lightly with some water sandpaper I own. I used them for old lamps and eames fiberglass chairs. I love these water sandpaper , I would nearly brush my teeth with it . When I searched for a pair, the only thing I wanted to avoid is visible dents on the aluminiun parts, the big one in particular. Everything else is quite normal and can be solved easily.
I had to check the kind of metal under the paint before doing anything. I think that I will sand them lightly with some water sandpaper I own. I used them for old lamps and eames fiberglass chairs.
I love these water sandpaper , I would nearly brush my teeth with it .
When I searched for a pair, the only thing I wanted to avoid is visible dents on the aluminiun parts, the big one in particular. Everything else is quite normal and can be solved easily.
Love that kind of sandpaper too, wonderful for fine finishing. Should work perfectly and allow you to have fine control over how much you sand.
OTOH, the shotgun barrel came out a nice shade of Parkerized gray which looks very mil spec.
Well, thank you all. After scouting the Hifi scene a little bit, enjoying a few long and pleasant listening and viewing sessions at my local B&O dealer, I have decided to stick with B&O and upgrade my system. I will post some pictures soon in the Flash thread.
Beolab 50, Beolab 8000 x 2, Beolab 4000 x 2, BeoSound Core, BeoSound 9000, BeoSound Century, BeoLit 15, BeoPlay A1, BeoPlay P2, BeoPlay H9 3rd Gen, BeoPlay H6, EarSet 3i, BeoVision Eclipse Gen 2 55", BeoPlay V1-40, BeoCom 6000 and so much else :)
Michael:A customer at my retailer just bought a pair of BL20 to replace a pair of BL5. I asked and the reason was better sound from a more compact enclosure and better midrange. I'm curious about if it is true or just wishful thinking .
very wishful thinking...I listened to both recently and BL-5 still the winner