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This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022

 

Reliability Issues

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Escapist
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Escapist Posted: Sat, Feb 6 2021 3:47 PM

Hello all

I’m glad to be in the forum.

My love affair with all things B&O started a few years back but is going a bit sour now.

I have had so many issues with the equipment I’m getting fed up every time I return home after leaving the house for a while that I face hours or resets and now even board failures.

Issues so far:

Remote controls look fine but tv doesn’t respond.  They don’t tell you they are low on batteries so now I know to change them but silly design.

Beolab 20 - one failed and expensive to fix as B&O say my fault.

Avant 75 - have had two fail in different homes.  One was eventually fixed under warranty (mother board) but other one is HDMI board and B&O refuse to pay.

Beovision - HDMI board and B&O refuse to pay.

Can’t remember how many times I’ve had to reset speaker connections, sources etc. So so fragile. 

I have no other electrical products with these issues.  I have surge protection on all items yet B&O are saying it’s my fault.  Dealer trying to argue my case but after spending well over 100,000 euros on their products I’m less than impressed at the reliability and the way they disown customers.

 

Am i unlucky? I do feel that B&O equipment is especially unreliable and that their customer service is poor.  They should be looking after customers when the issues are with their equipment.

 

 

 

 

Sandyb
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Sandyb replied on Sat, Feb 6 2021 6:57 PM
Sounds like you have been yes - they’re far from perfect no arguments there, but my 2 BV screens and various speakers have been fine in the 5/6 years I’ve had them

There are those who’ve had unacceptable problems and B&O have a spotty record at times in addressing these. A good helpful dealer can help at times
laseralex
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Escapist:

Beolab 20 - one failed and expensive to fix as B&O say my fault.

In what possible way could this be your fault?  If this is still under warranty it should be fixed at their expense, period.  The same applies for any other items under warranty.  Unless they can prove damage caused by deliberate acts like wiring the AC power cord into the NL port or submersion of the unit into your swimming pool, failures should be covered under warranty.

For things out of warranty . . . well, unfortunately electronics do sometimes fail. B&O gear should be no more or less robust than similar equipment from other suppliers.  (I design electronics for a living.  B&O has access to the same components as LG, Sony, etc.  Unless they have completely failed in thermal design, the HDMI chip in B&O's board will be no less reliable that the same chip in another brand's TV.)  Of course one expects to receiver better support for a 10,000 Euro TV than a 1,000 Euro TV, but the likelihood of a repair being needed shouldn't be any higher.

If you don't get satisfaction from your deal, perhaps try another dealer, or contact Struer directly.  Someone who has invested 100,000 Euro in B&O gear should get great support.

Sources: 2x Beosound Moment • 4x Beosound Essence Mk II
Speakers: 3x Beolab 8000 • 2x Beolab 6000 • 2x Beolab 3 • 3x Beolab 2
Integrated:  1x Beosound 2 • 1x Beosound Level • 4x BeoPlay M5 • 1x BeoPlay A6
Control:  16x* Essence Remote  • 1x Beoremote Halo

* Yes, really! 🤦‍♂️

Escapist
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I hear you on the dealers!

My U.K. dealer on the south coast are useless a s refused to even try to help.

my Spanish dealer in barcelona don’t just sell B&O amd are honest about the poor reliability amd service. They are also very kind so they helped me get my U.K. issue resolved. They pushed via Denmark and once I had B&O U.K. on it the issues were fixed free of charge.

my current issues are in Soain and the dealer is angry with B&O for being unfair (claiming it’s my fault two TVs and a speaker broke when mugging else did - only B&O stuff - and are nos arguing with head office again. I’ve spent over £200k in all with B&O so I expect some service but my dealer has pretty much told me I should give up on B&O for the future as they are the worst manufacturer to deal with. 

It’s a shame. I like the styling and unique combination of sound and vision but they are way overpriced for what they are so you kind of expect a lot of support. My recent Harmony was 18k euros where the same LG screen I out in the gum was 1,400 euros. That is a lot to pay for a speaker and brand. 

anyway, I guess my post was to find out how common reliability issues are and how good service is; also how best to push B&O to fix things! 

Escapist
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They say that there was a power surge.

unlikely as I have surge protection across the house, items were plugged into a surge protector locally and nothing else at all broke...

For me B&O is very fragile and delayer says far more so than any other brand they sell.

 

 

 

 

Mikipidia
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I don’t believe that statement to be the case at all, sorry to say. I’ve had my own issues with them, ofcourse, but i honestly can’t phathom a dealer saying they are way more fragile than any other brand. If nothing else my experience with their products is the complete opposite. They’re not perfect, for sure, but bl20’s just breaking like that sounds very unique to me.

New: Beovision Harmony, Beolab 50's, Beolab 28's, Beolab 18's, Beolab 17's, Beosound Stage & LG, Beosound 2, Beoplay M3, Beoplay A1, Beoplay Portal, Beoplay H4 gen 2, Beoplay E8 3.0

Mikipedia on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Mikipedia

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Old: Beosound 9000 mk3, Beolab 3's, Beovision Eclipse, Beolab 1's, Beolab 2, Beovision 10-46, Overture 2300, beolab 8000's, Beolab 4000's, Beovision avant 32" etc. etc.

laseralex
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Escapist:

They say that there was a power surge.

unlikely as I have surge protection across the house, items were plugged into a surge protector locally and nothing else at all broke...

Please excuse my language, but that's complete bullshit.  For decades all power supplies have had significant surge suppression built-in, so unless there was a direct lighting strike on your building there is no way power surge would cause this problem even if you didn't have additional external surge suppressors.  Further, as you said yourself, no other equipment failed so power surge can't be the problem.  Finally, if the problem is with the HDMI board then power surge is not possible: the HDMI doesn't connect to the wall power outlet, it connects to another electronic device with low-voltage signals, so power surge into that HDMI port just isn't a possibility.

For the amount you have spent you should get fantastic support.

 

Sources: 2x Beosound Moment • 4x Beosound Essence Mk II
Speakers: 3x Beolab 8000 • 2x Beolab 6000 • 2x Beolab 3 • 3x Beolab 2
Integrated:  1x Beosound 2 • 1x Beosound Level • 4x BeoPlay M5 • 1x BeoPlay A6
Control:  16x* Essence Remote  • 1x Beoremote Halo

* Yes, really! 🤦‍♂️

Stan
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Stan replied on Sat, Feb 6 2021 7:54 PM

Lightening strikes can do weird things.  I had a lightening strike near my house, and it took out the MasterLink boards on my BS9000, BS5, BV8 and NL/ML Converter, but didn't bother my BL3500 or Active. It also took out my cable box and intercom system.  No other electronics were damaged.  No power supplies were damaged in any of my B&O.  My BV8 lost HDMI and ML capability... IIRC, these are both on the same board so they were both damaged.... but don't know if the jolt came through the cable box to the BV8 to the ML'd products or the jolt induced a current in the ML cable or some combination of both.  In any event, being a lightening strike, my insurance covered it (and then raised my rates). 

 

laseralex
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Stan:
Lightening strikes can do weird things.  I had a lightening strike near my house, and it took out the MasterLink boards on my BS9000, BS5, BV8 and NL/ML Converter, but didn't bother my BL3500 or Active. It also took out my cable box and intercom system.  No other electronics were damaged

Yes, a nearby strike can do very odd things, but I don't think that's the case here.

When I was just starting my electronic design career I had to design some one-off equipment that was being installed on the other side of the USA.  Cables running in conduit connected equipment roughly 1km apart from the master unit.  I knew nothing about lightning suppression at the time and had no mentor at the business, so I designed fragile equipment.  During the first storm I was told that sparks were coming out of my controller.  Oops!

When I redesigned the system to survive the location I threw every surge suppressor known to man into the circuit.  The following year they had a direct lighting strike to one of their buildings, and lost about 20 pieces of electronic equipment, all made by large multinational corporations.  Only my box survived, because I had 5 times the suppression that would normally be designed into such a unit for mass-production. 😂

 

Anyway, I agree that a nearby lightning strike can take out all kinds of equipment, in an unpredictable way.  If the original poster is being told his device has lightning damage, he should request photographs of the damaged board.  Lightning damage will show exploded ICs and burnt traces on the PCB between the connector and the surge suppression devices.

Sources: 2x Beosound Moment • 4x Beosound Essence Mk II
Speakers: 3x Beolab 8000 • 2x Beolab 6000 • 2x Beolab 3 • 3x Beolab 2
Integrated:  1x Beosound 2 • 1x Beosound Level • 4x BeoPlay M5 • 1x BeoPlay A6
Control:  16x* Essence Remote  • 1x Beoremote Halo

* Yes, really! 🤦‍♂️

Griebel
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Griebel replied on Sun, Feb 7 2021 4:22 PM

Let me share my 20+ year experience with B&O products I owned or still use in different places. I let you judge if I had just bad luck or if there are reliability issues with some of the products:

 

B&O products with issues:

BV6-26: Back panel broke; was replaced

BV7-32: DVD player had read errors; was replaced under warranty; BeoLab 7 power supply dead was replaced

BV7-40 MKII: Display panel was defective, PC32 digital sound card, PC14 AVS and PC5 digital card all defective; all pieces were replaced while under warranty

BV7-40 MKV: PIM card defective; BeoLab 7 crackling sounds; all replaced or fixed

BV7-55: Graphic card was replaced under warranty; back panels broke and were replaced

BeoPlay V1-32: Motherboard was defective and replaced

BeoPlay V1-40: PCB01 card was defective and replaced under warranty

DVD2: Stopped working; took several months until the cause was identified; arm of front panel broke; fixed it myself

BeoLab 4: Power supply dead; replaced under warranty

Beo5 (5+): Replaced most of the batteries

Beo6 (5+): Several screen panels went dead as well as one keyboard: most of the batteries

needed to be replaced

BeoRemote One: Battery holder broke when replacing batteries; replaced free of charge

BeoSound 3000: Doors get stuck when closing; never fixed it, closing them manually now

BeoMedia 1: Stopped working several times; capacitors were replaced and power supply; stopped repairing now, not worth anymore

BeoMaster 5: Stopped working several times; capacitors and motherboard dead; were replaced several times; still working

Earset A8: Cable got loose; unfixable

BeoPlay H3: Stopped charging; got 20% off new earset

BeoCom 2: Display goes off after a while; need to do a reset each time to get it back

 

B&O products that never had an issue:

BeoCenter 6-23

BV7-55

Horizon-40

Horizon-48

HDR2

Beo4 remote (5+)

BeoLab 2000

BeoLab 3500 (2)

BeoLab 4000 (3 pairs)

BeoLab 6000 (1 pair)

BeoLab 2

BeoLab 18

BeoSound 5

BeoLink Active

MLGW

ML/NL Converter

BLI

Earset 1

BeoPlay A1

BeoPlay E8 Sport

Beoplay H8i

BeoCom 6000 (3)

Serenata

Serene

A9 Keyring

 

The Beonic Man
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Surprised you never encountered any problems with the Serene! The hinges were constantly breaking on mine. I also have constant A1 dropout problems (there’s a current thread about this), the A9 keyring Was always problematic and pretty much useless and BeoCom 6000 problems, the base especially.

I had the BV7-40 Mark III television which was faultless but then I only had it for about a year before changing to a BV9. It’s difficult to know how well products are tested I suppose and then of course the question around how reliable can we expect technology to be and what is a reasonable expectation?

Generally I have been lucky I think as I’ve had different products from B&O over the years, most of which are pretty solid. 

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.

 

Griebel
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Griebel replied on Tue, Feb 9 2021 8:27 AM
The Beonic Man:

Surprised you never encountered any problems with the Serene! The hinges were constantly breaking on mine... the A9 keyring Was always problematic and pretty much useless

Very simple answer: I only used them for a short period of time Wink
oli
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oli replied on Tue, Feb 9 2021 9:35 AM

I am very surprised to read such bad experiences. I started using B&O with a Beomaster  901, Beogram CDX, and Beovision LX2500. And I owned a LOT of products while keeping them for a very long time. For example all the  LX and MX TVs I got didn't had a single issue before 15 years of use, and fixing them was quite cheap.  For loudspeakers,  it is the same, never ever got  a single issue from Beovox CX50 to Beolab 5, I still own a lot of them, I got almost all the range B&O made  expected the Penta,  that I bought used or new, I got  several beosound/beosystem that I kept 10 years or more in intensive use, without a single issue. 

My beomaster 4500 and 6500, like my beovision 7 are still working like a charm since day 1.

The only  products I avoided were the ones with a lot of embedded software, in which B&O is really not good, meaning all  the recent Beovision starting from BV14 and the newer series (Avant, Eclipse, ...). Even for the Beoplay range, no issue at all on my side. 

 

While talking of the Keyring A9, I bought one new in 2001, the day it was available. I still use it today like it was at day 1, without a single issue using it all days to switch everything off when I am leaving home, and  my keys and the A9 did fall down a number of times I can't remember. Just changing the battery, cleaning it up  from time to time, and that's it. the A9 is now showing a silk aluminium instead of the initial glossy one, but  working like at day 1. Same for my Earphone A8 bought in 2001, working like a charm plugged to my laptop and I spend all my e-meetings all the day long with them. I don't know a single trademark that produced an in-ear headset that had been able to last 20 years without breaking the plug or the cable at least.

Griebel
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Griebel replied on Sun, Jun 20 2021 3:05 PM

Griebel:

B&O products that never had an issue:

BeoCenter 6-23

BV7-55

Horizon-40

Horizon-48

HDR2

Beo4 remote (5+)

BeoLab 2000

BeoLab 3500 (2)

BeoLab 4000 (3 pairs)

BeoLab 6000 (1 pair)

BeoLab 2

BeoLab 18

BeoSound 5

BeoLink Active

MLGW

ML/NL Converter

BLI

Earset 1

BeoPlay A1

BeoPlay E8 Sport

Beoplay H8i

BeoCom 6000 (3)

Serenata

Serene

A9 Keyring

Need to edit my post. One BeoLab 4000 is dead today.... Angry

trackbeo
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trackbeo replied on Mon, Jun 21 2021 3:13 PM

Unprofessional software developers, and their failure to do regression testing, have made my BeoSound 1 **less** reliable than it was 6 months ago.

Additionally, developers' failure to provide for firmware version selection (i.e. "revert" or "downgrade") and management's determination to eliminate existing features makes me afraid to ever again load new firmware.  Thus the device is rendered *permanently* damaged, merely by the remote action of human brains.

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