TV Competition too much for B&O?

Just set up my daughter's new 42 inch Smart TV by Sony. £360 in Costco. (This particular Bravia TV had a Brazil World Cup logo on the box, so this may have been a disposal like the B&O Pepsi H6's).

Multiple satellite and freeview tuners already built in (and not even mentioned in the advertising!) Smart functions looking rather better than my BV11. Very acceptable sound at moderate volumes. Gimmicks like crowd sound enhancement for watching football.

Easy set-up: just plugged it into an old Sky dish and it found 960 channels on Astra/Eurobird 28.5E. (OK, 900 of which will never be viewed.....!)

BV11 remains by far my favourite, but the reality is that a better sound system, motorised hinge and polished aluminium trim from B&O cost around £5k extra.

The days of being the masters of disguising bulky CRT's, and selling to willing buyers, are long gone. The standard mass produced TV is now not only good looking and technologically advanced but extraordinarily low in cost. How do B&O survive in this particular market?

Graham

 

Anyone like to guess which content caused quarantining and moderation of the above post?

Graham

Well their latest Beoplay products have been excellent in my view, as have the updated products. If the V1 could just be repackaged and its price brought down to the £1,500 mark, at the very least they'd be back to knocking out TVs roughly three time the cost of a decent similar sized set.

Im not having a go at the V1, but it's looks aren't universally appreciated and that's what the dealers would need. Myself included. A new MX or Beovision 1.

Hi Vikinger,

In 1989 I bought a B&O TV from Plumbs in Warrington with my first month's wages - an L2802 if I remember correctly for about £999 - and this lasted until 2000. I then invested in an early Fujitsu 42" plasma (with huge whirring fans in the back!), which cost ca. £6K - a huge sum for me at the time; this lasted until 2009.  Over this period I I watched the price of TV's steadily fall and the quality increase to the point where this week I was offered a 55", 4K/3D LG set with Blue-Ray player 'thrown in' for about £800 - almost too tempting to refuse!

Anyway, after years away I have just returned to the B&O fold, having recently bought a Beolab 18/Moment combo, and I've now been considering their TV offering.  Last week my dealer kindly demonstrated a 55" and an 85" Avant TV for me, and obviously the Avant range is superb and very desirable. However, although I'm now fortunately in a position to be able to purchase an Avant without losing too much sleep, I couldn't help thinking - like you - about the premium being asked by B&O given the price/quality of the competition; I'm sorry to say that I just couldn't see what I would be paying something like a five-fold premium for.

Perhaps I'm just too sensible these day (or just not rich enough!) in that I continue to try to see ''value' in the things I buy regardless of their cost. It seems now that TV's have become almost disposable commodities to be traded up as new technology emerges - and B&O may unfortunately have to acknowledge this at some point.  Of course there will always be a minority who are rich enough or dedicated enough to just have whatever they want regardless of intrinsic value - and B&O may flourish by continuing to cater for them if that market is big enough. However I don't imagine there are currently many 21 year olds fresh out of University considering buying a B&O TV with their first pay-check like I did all those years ago.  I think the B&O 'luxury premium' has just grown too large for their TV's to be accessible or aspirational for the 'middle-classes' as they used to be (in the UK at least..), and the clear availability of cheap, reliable and technologically advanced alternatives could easily leave B&O high and dry.  

Rather than an offering products priced only within the grasp of a small minority without the incentive of '0% Finance', perhaps the solution might be to appeal again to the middle-classes with an offering which is 'financially stretching but achievable', whilst pushing forward both with design and 'integrative technology' to create something clearly distinctive and desirable.  This may be an unpalatable, expensive or unfeasible direction for B&O to take - I can only hope their Marketing People know what they're doing...

 

vikinger:

Just set up my daughter's new 42 inch Smart TV by Sony. £360 in Costco. (This particular Bravia TV had a Brazil World Cup logo on the box, so this may have been a disposal like the B&O Pepsi H6's).

Multiple satellite and freeview tuners already built in (and not even mentioned in the advertising!) Smart functions looking rather better than my BV11. Very acceptable sound at moderate volumes. Gimmicks like crowd sound enhancement for watching football.

Easy set-up: just plugged it into an old Sky dish and it found 960 channels on Astra/Eurobird 28.5E. (OK, 900 of which will never be viewed.....!)

BV11 remains by far my favourite, but the reality is that a better sound system, motorised hinge and polished aluminium trim from B&O cost around £5k extra.

The days of being the masters of disguising bulky CRT's, and selling to willing buyers, are long gone. The standard mass produced TV is now not only good looking and technologically advanced but extraordinarily low in cost. How do B&O survive in this particular market?

Graham

 

If it's a W705(6) then I was late t'other Wednesday© as I was fixing a 32" version to my sons bedroom wall, everything you say for £280!!

Frightening really!

I'm not comparing this thing to a V1, but It will be the tip of an iceberg if it takes off like sound bars have....

http://www.whathifi.com/linsar/x24-dvd/review

Ha!!

I've just replied to a quote of your post and gone to the Mods!!

DVD? What year is this?

It's only a 24 incher.

Chris Townsend:

It's only a 24 incher.

Strange that this post did not get moderated.

@beocat47: 👍

I think, we all have to be little bit fair against B&O. In terms of pricing, B&O did do their job and dropped the price almost 50% against BV12. 

What we expect from B&O? Quality, design, clear sound, easy to use, multi room connection etc. These mean cost on development, material, production, software, adaptation. So, we can't expect low prices like LG or Sony offers. Don't forget that B&O has to purchase their panels from somewhere else. 

Last year I bought 2 LG smart TVs (47 and 55"). picture quality was brilliant. However, black was not black, sound quality was terrible (even they both have subwoofer), to reornagise the channel list was amazing difficult, to reach the menus and use smart tv options (video on demand, spotify etc) very difficult, unstable internet connection, just plastic every where etc. 

Honestly, B&O is expensive TV but you get what you pay! Much better build quality, possibily the best sound on the TV market, Full glass front, aluminium frame, design, accesibility (one button to homemedia, webmedia etc,), the best remote control in the world for a TV (Beo one) additionally microphone to set up the speakers, puc control, NL for multi room, flexibility with the motor stand/bracket etc. Should these be all free of charge?