What's your current "WOW" product in the line-up?

Just a question, mainly to see if i'm just getting a bit blase with the brand as I see it every day... but I just realised there aren't really any products in the current range which I look at, smile, and think "yes, that's why I love Bang & Olufsen..." like I used to.

I'd say the BeoVision 12 has the wow factor for me - and it looks incredibly classy, but the other stuff (good though it is) just doesn't grab my coat lapels and give me a shake like it used to.  (Don't get me wrong - I do love the brand and the products !!!!)

Is it me? Is it the product line-up? Do I need counselling?

Lee ....

As a very happy 11 owner, I'd have to say the Beovision 7-55 :-)

I can't think of any more advanced TV on the planet, when seen as a complete package. I accept the 7's been around for years and am confident a replacement might surface in the next 12 months.

I am afraid I agree with you Lee. In previous times, I have seen a new product and thought, I must have that. The Beolink 7000 was one such item which caused me to buy a whole new set up to work with it!

It is difficult for B&O though. Physical media is no longer really around and so design is tricky to be different to the normal. The BS5 is different to get away from touch screens and hence more difficult to use. I still think they need to lead in speech recognition and take the whole thing to the next level. Probably too expensive for B&O though.

I still like the BeoTime - I like the humorous styling!!

I smile at my Playmaker every day - although 'he' does not see it.

'He' is tugged away in a cupboard, but always at my service!

Greetings Millemissen

I agree with you Peter. It was the Beocenter 9000 that got me and I had to have one even though I had a perfectly fine Beomaster 1900 system.

Nothing since has had the same effect. The TV range is just too expensive for my pocket but even if  I could afford/justify the outlay the picture quality has only recently been good enough on the flat screens to be tempting.

I am definitely becoming blasé about the brand.  However I am starting to feel the same way about other brands also. 

I really like the Beovision 12 and would buy it maybe in about six months but there is the matter of the Beosystem 3 that is also needed.  Beosystem 3 will probably be replaced by the time I am ready.  I think uncertainty of B&O's future higher end products plans is a problem.

Current lineup? What about the BeoPlay A9? Visually stunning!

You know, here's my irony about B&O and the products I own....

I think the BeoCom 5 has the 'wow' factor, until I use it, and it often fails to perform (can't find base, cuts off the call etc). There aren't any other phones like it, in looks, design and finish. But it doesn't perform and they still haven't fixed it. That somewhat sums up modern B&O!

Other than the failing BeoCom 5, the BL3s also do it for me. Design, size and performance tick the right boxes.

Beovision 11-55. To replace both my current audio and video setup. But I cannot justify spending that much money on a tv at the moment. But if I could I would certainly buy one.

I think the A9 is just amazing. Great sound, unique looks - i think of my old stack hifi from years ago and the space it took up, the wiring etc - to think an A9 simply replaces all that and gives a better sound is amazing.

I also love the BeoLab 12-1's on a floor stand - they look great and the sound is something that surprises everyone - how can something so slim sound so brilliant! I think of them as being the replacement for BeoLab 6002. They are a new styling, almost 20% cheaper, and sound loads better. Thats three good reasons to not just want a pair of used 6000's.

You can hit me, but the beosound 5 Encore would have been my perfekt audio product. But there was no software update to play ALAC and no airplay integration..... so I am still waiting for an update or another audio product. I wanna have the option to control it like in the "good old days", using a mechanical wheel and the display in front of me OR with my iphone (one touch and the album starts to play).

The normal beosound 5 is no opportunity for me, because I don`t pay so much for a 1Tb storage without mirroring.

Your right Lee and others, nothing grabs me and I no longer hear You Must Buy It, in my head when i see and touch a product... I have a BV10 that was the last product that did it to me. And the shops are well just very old fashioned and not very inviting. I have purchased some Play products but they have been a function over form buy more than a passionate one

Lee, you don't need counseling.

 

BL5 still does the magic for me. Must be B&O's best product ever.

 

I still like the BS9000, and the Beocenter 9500, and Beosystem 4500. (Hopefully buying one of those soon.)

 

But current line-up don't have me too much on the edge of my seat, besides the BL5's.

The only product of this caliber that they have left in the lineup is the BeoLab 5. I remember when I was younger visiting a B&O showroom at the Houston Galleria (don't even think its in the Galleria anymore) and having the salesperson play Pink Floyd's "Time" for me on those speakers. While these days the amount of money B&O chooses to charge for them is absolutely outrageous when compared to something like the B&W 802 Diamond (and of course you'll need a good amp for those), they are still the "halo" product for me in the B&O stable. That said, I don't think B&O is likely to replace them with anything once their run has expired. And once those are gone, there's really no "wow" product left.

There was a Beovision 7-40 on Ebay a couple of days ago with the center channel speaker attached and I looked into it further because I was curious. It's a very cool product, but there's just not a whole lot you can do with TV in general. The one hilarious IRONY about TV however, is that B&O are probably one of the FEW companies in the WORLD still making money on TVs right now. The Japanese are absolutely taking a bath in this segment and probably LOSE money on a lot of the TVs they sell. 

another Beomaster 2400...... always seems to work for me

Ricardo:

another Beomaster 2400...... always seems to work for me

Agree with Richard, I´m back in the 70s-80s my last "modern" buy was a Beosound 3000 and BL 4000, BL 8000 since then I didnt see anything interesting.

A BM 1900-2400 for the look, a BM 4000 look and sound, a BM 4400 for the sound or a beautiful BM 2000, no one ever hooked up to copy that one.

 

Well, my BS9000/BL8000 setup was a WOW and must own for me. Since then nothing much, I might have been interested in a BS5E but it's too crippled compared to the BS5/BM5 setup, which is too expensive. No ML, etc. The BL5 is the current lust after WOW product to me, fascinating aesthetic, and incredible sound, but too pricey for me at present and probably future. I'll probably get a BL2 someday though.

I think it's harder and harder to make WOW products in a day when the products are getting less and less diverse. No more CD players, tape decks, etc. Just a speaker and a device to stream to.

Hi Lee et.al

 

Hope everyone is well.

I still love my B&O...

However points 3 and 5 have resonance with me. I really do find I know more about a number of products than the sales staff.  RE point 5, well yes, pre loved is often a better option, even when shipping from the UK to Australia is factored in.

I also agree that some of the older products had greater 'wow' factor.. I still cannot bare to part with my beocentre 2.. it is just such a beautiful and classic piece of AV equipment.

To be fair to the Bang and Olufsen staff in the Sydney stores they are very courteous and professional and they do love a chat about their products. I can't really fault them.

My next purchase will probably be a Beosound 5... after that probably a television to replace my Beovision 8-40 (Lee, Ill be talking to you about that purchase!)

Best Wishes

David

BL5 or BL3, I suppose.

Still BV7-55, watching TV is a "treat" ...

Well televisions and even some of the speakers are wow compared to other products in the market. For example BV11 is stunning in much the same way as my beloved Avant, and to be fair, not nearly as expensive as a 32" Avant at the time. This is a good thing. A very good thing. Having said that, the BV11 is also not "that" much better that some of the best stuff out there. Where the Avant was clearly much better than everything else. IMHO.

While I agree that we are beyond physical media, I also don't think we have to completely move away from the physicality of objects that deal with software. When it came out for example, the iPad was a wow product. B&O could build wow software for that wow product, but it does not. Some very young and very intelligent people are building wow software for the iPad.

Back to b&o a/v, why should we all have to hide our playmakers? Just because we don't have to insert a physical object into them in order to get sound, doesn't have to mean that it should look like a poorly designed smoke detector. I really like the functionality of the PM, but someone should be able to design a circuit board enclosure with room for connectors in a prettier package. Probably not me, but someone who actually has talent. And would it have to cost that much more?

I also think that B&O also seems to want to reinvent it's design vocabulary. I don't see where they reinterpret their heritage. Many brands do rely on their heritage for thoroughly modern designs. This isn't limited for mass production items like Fiat 500 or VW Beetle. I can think of something like a Bentley Mulsanne. While a fresh design, and a thoroughly modern vehicle, there are design elements that clearly speak to the marque's design and motoring performance heritage. It is difficult to see (in visual design) the lineal heritage of the BL5. It may seem superficial, but I think it's important to see, hear, know, and feel these things.

Sometimes it seems as if B&O is too cerebral. This of course makes no sense to people who think I don't have a brain because I think it's ok to spend many thousands on a TV that I can buy at a mass retailer for a few hundred. But I do think that most of the people on this site probably understand. ;-)

My 2 cents.

i think most of them are wow products

wow - it costs THAT much !?

@ Flappo.....nice answer....

Sometimes it's only the price,that makes it just out of reach for some and want to buy but end up getting something else!

I must admit that, without being too conservative, most 'WOW'-products in the current lineup are the older designs, like the loudspeakers BL3 and 5. The TV's still look good too. Some of the Beoplay products are great lookers with the definite B&O style/WOW-factor. That includes the beautiful new headphones H3 and H6, which are absolutely great, also compared to the older headphones. 

However, when I looked at the Beolab 14 set, I thought it was a joke. But then it wasn't. Sadly. 

jc:

I must admit that, without being too conservative, most 'WOW'-products in the current lineup are the older designs, like the loudspeakers BL3 and 5. The TV's still look good too. Some of the Beoplay products are great lookers with the definite B&O style/WOW-factor. That includes the beautiful new headphones H3 and H6, which are absolutely great, also compared to the older headphones. 

However, when I looked at the Beolab 14 set, I thought it was a joke. But then it wasn't. Sadly. 

Sometimes the "wow" comes from the background story - such as the BL14 speaker rings and how they are manufactured.

I think that sometimes B&O spends too much R&D (and worse, TIME) on seeking a marketing advantage through materials, when that advantage is not obvious.

A classic is the description I was reading today of how Tue explained that the leather of the H5 H6 (don't know where I got H5 from !) headphones was sourced from New Zealand as the farmers there do not used barbed wire and therefore the leather has a perfect, unscratched, finnish ...

Very little comes close to my original "wow" (earlier B&O was just "nice") as the Aladdin's Lamp ... followed by the 7000 remote

Probably not WOW enough for you guys, but I do currently enjoy my H6 headphones very much. Never leave the house without them. <3

JC, the H3 headphones are not a patch on the build quality of the Forms or A8 earphones.

Yes they use more up to date technology, but when I put them on my kitchen table next to my other earphones, I felt they were not of B&O quality, and certainly not worth almost double the price.

Don't fall for the individually milled for perfect bass nonsense, as I covered up the vents and it made not one jot of difference. Just cosmetic guff.

When you compare them to comparably priced earbuds and consider the quality of the cables and sound quality, yes I thought WOW, these could just as well be £25 TDK MT300's!

 

Interesting topic, Lee! I guess we all ponder upon this once in a while..

For me, it just struck me yesterday as I came home from a short vacation, visiting friends who loves music as much as I do, but istening to various non B&O equipement..

The first thing I did when I got home was to turn on my B&O setup and I just stood there in the middle of my living room, listening and looking at my Beolab 8000, and I was saying to my girlfriend: "Wow...I missed those speakers"

Amazing wow factor after all these years and still in the lineup ( at least to me.. ;) )

/Peter

 

@Peter: unless you were accompanied by your girlfriend on that vacation, I think after that statement of yours she might have smashed the speakers with a hammer...

Peter:

I was saying to my girlfriend: "Wow...I missed those speakers"

Hope you did not say that out loud......... but  know the feeling  ;-)

Haha!! @jc and valve1

Luckily she was with me on the vacation..and she actually agreed with my statement

But, I know what you mean..   Sometimes I am guilty of just focusing on finding the Beo4 to get some music going as soon as I get home from work... But she is cool and aware of my priorities.. ;)

/Peter 

( not in the dog house yet..)