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
Mr 10 Per Cent is right. Chris, the youngsters of today are very very very different to the youngsters of your day even my day! The ones that i've met spend all of their money on travelling. They've grown up with a laptop and everything is on their smartphone. They are into getting an education and then seeing as much of the world as possible. They've witness the rise and fall of corporations etc. When I talk to them about hifi, they are not interested. I'd say 98% have never heard of B&O but know BOSE very well. To me the A2 is a very cheaply made little Made in China thing that's not even nice looking and good sounding that's out there for one simple reason - to make B&O a buck fast - simple How people can say it's decent sounding is totally beyond my belief. A lot of people think B&O is the new messiah and seriously need to get real!
Mr 10Percent:I got an A2 for Xmas. I constantly moaned about the Jambox Jawbone brick or whatever it is called. Constantly sounded like a nanny-goat p155ing in a tin (well not tinny, but very muffled). Lots of boom, lots of squealy highs and painful.Excellent if your having a garden party. For having music on your desk it is painful. Thus the A2. And there is the nub I think. We have become accustomed to any gadget released has to be dirt-cheap, the best quality, weigh half a gram so it can fit in your pocket, run 400 formats wirelessly from across the galaxy, from an iPhone, have an energy footprint sufficient to power Europe from a single charge (forever and ever) and still sound better than a pair of properly calibrated Beolab 5 loudspeakers.It is a little toy for gods-sake, designed to make a quick buck for B&O and made to give semi-decent noise, casually, while in a non-music room or outside or where some background music is required. If i'm in a hotel room working late or on a nice quiet picnic, it has a place. If im in my lounge where my mainset-up is or my home desk - it has none. People need to get real about this sort of stuff. 10
Ah, you know... A little B&O here, a little there
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
BeoMegaMan: Exactly! This site used to be full of advocates, now it's just non-advocates who hate B&O for doing anything right for the company. A product that is the size of a paperback, designed for small listening and everybody thinks it should sound like BL3 for 399? Get real. Best selling B&O to date less than a month in. I guess everyone is just dumb right? If B&O missed some of the expectations of some of you on this forum than so be it. Reading the comments suggest that most of the negatives said, show that those responsible have an agenda against most anything new anyways. Armchair generals will always complain and complain more if out on the front lines. It's a Bluetooth speaker with CD quality audio abilities. Don't like it, buy the Bose etc. and go to their forums... If they even exist
BMM,
For the record, I am an advocate and have the A2. I like it and I think the product it is certainly worth the £120 (think; taxi, a few pints, a club, a few more pints, a kebab and another taxi on a Saturday night) more that my Jambox Jawbone even though it does have less features. It sounds a world apart.
But as you say, it wont ever sound like Beolab 3 for that price. Ever.
I bought the A2 because I can, because i'm old school, I like nice things (which B&O visually do well at) that I have a use for but to do I buy with eyes closed about its limitations, shortfalls or possible un-competitiveness?......never.
I do think many people have unrealistic expectations of B&O and I'll go so far as to say that I believe this forum contributes significantly to reducing B&O shop foot-fall and sales. B&O may also do their fair bit as not to help their own case but the real acid test is to go to a shop, check the product out and decide if it is for you and if it meets your expectations? Then, ultimately, vote with your wallet.
10
Chris Townsend:" A product that is the size of a paperback, designed for small listening and everybody thinks it should sound like BL3 for 399? Get real." Can you name anybody who has remotely said anything like that? PaulW, as you know i work with a group of people who earn a minimum of approx £60,000. Not a single one would go into a B&O shop for a surround sound system, for the fear of it costing far too much. But they would all buy a Bose system that costs £500 more!!!! Why? Because Bose got the small business early on by selling them cheap Chinese sound docks costing a couple of hundred pounds. To get the big business, you need to get the small stuff first.
Can you name anybody who has remotely said anything like that?
PaulW, as you know i work with a group of people who earn a minimum of approx £60,000. Not a single one would go into a B&O shop for a surround sound system, for the fear of it costing far too much. But they would all buy a Bose system that costs £500 more!!!! Why? Because Bose got the small business early on by selling them cheap Chinese sound docks costing a couple of hundred pounds.
To get the big business, you need to get the small stuff first.
Not sure where the £60k comes in . That's where you're still counting your disposable income and prioritising ; holiday,car, house etc.
there were not many impressive cars in the carpark at the local dealers Avant launch but people some of whom had prioritised investing in a previous Avant years ago . The TV is not an investment in the same way nowadays and people are scared of putting their money into something that's going to become obsolete far sooner. A friend who buys and sells airplanes was telling me ,over a pizza , last week how residuals curves are different now. Everything has changed. The Beolit and A2 are gifts which could be made into a lead into people prioritising B&O spending. A set of tyres for a decent car cost over £550 so the same for a Beolit can be accommodated in the monthly spend . Anything bigger is planned over three visits to the store.
Beo Century ,Beoplay V1, Beocenter 6, Ex-Beolit 12, Beotime , A8. Beolit 15 , Form 2i , Beolab 2000, Beoplay A3.Beosound 1
I heard the A2 in at my dealer. Pretty nice product, nothing for me because I can not find any use for it.
Was I impressed about the sound quality, well... yes and no. But I was't impressed enough, as when I bought my first B&O product: the Beolit 700 radio back in those days. It sounded a lot more musical to my ears...more analog.
"Believe nothing you read and only half of what you see, let your ears tell you the truth."
I was in the Union Square area of San Francisco on business late last year, after the business day, I decided to walk in to the B&O showroom nearby.
When I walked in, as per other B&O showrooms, there was a sense of calm, with some music playing I couldn't tell where it was coming from. The attendant was speaking with a customer at desk near the center of the store. The store, like most small boutiques was in the "shotgun" shape, very narrow and long.
I walked to the back, drawn to the Beolab 20 / Beovision Avant along the back wall. As I passed the center of the store, where the customer and attendant were, I noticed the music was coming from an A2 on the desk. As I reached the back of the store, the volume was increased. I did a double take because I didn't believe how full the sound was relative to the small form factor of the A2. I was impressed, especially as a former owner of a Beolit 12.
Now, it could have been the shape of the store, where I was standing, or a number of other variables, but I was taken aback by how much sound came from that slim little box.
mjmedlo:It's bizarre to me that ther is this much critique over a product that is $399. I have found the A2 to have similar sound to the other products in the range. I am curious about the collection of those of you that don't like it? What is in your B&O collection? And for the Bose boys ... I heard a Bose used at an outdoor wedding recently. It is not in the class of the A2 ... At least for me. I admit I am a big B&O fan... But I'm not naive to the competition. Bose simply is not one. If you want to talk about B&W or meridian or Wilson.. Ok... I can't get in to the idea that Bose and b&o are equals. Bose is much better at one thing .... Marketing. Otherwise, they're very generic.
After buying my A2, it's quite a good product, given its price. Very easy to setup, I felt the bass was adequate for the size of the unit. Would recommend to anyone who does a lot of outdoor activities, or away from home. Works flawlessly with my spotify over Bluetooth, can't fault this at all!
Paul W: Mr 10 Per Cent is right. Chris, the youngsters of today are very very very different to the youngsters of your day even my day! The ones that i've met spend all of their money on travelling. They've grown up with a laptop and everything is on their smartphone. They are into getting an education and then seeing as much of the world as possible. They've witness the rise and fall of corporations etc. When I talk to them about hifi, they are not interested. I'd say 98% have never heard of B&O but know BOSE very well. To me the A2 is a very cheaply made little Made in China thing that's not even nice looking and good sounding that's out there for one simple reason - to make B&O a buck fast - simple How people can say it's decent sounding is totally beyond my belief. A lot of people think B&O is the new messiah and seriously need to get real!
Paul, while you and I often share opinions, I would call the A2 cheap. Yes it's made in China, but that isn't always a bad thing. Sure it would be "better" if it was made in Struer, but then again, the electronics board in it would most likely be made in China. Ultimately making the product "assembled" in Denmark. But how would it be "better"? I don't think it would be assembled better, or having better materials etc, for the price I really think you are getting your money's worth.
Production move to Asia isn't B&O's fault it's our fault. Europe is giving away it's industry "for free" to the Chinese every day.
Back to the A2. I think it sounds great! Honestly believe it to be the best sounding portable speaker in it's size class out there.
To young people. You're very right about them, however it's not just "young" people. I don't think I'm young at 33, but there isn't a single one of my friends or people I know that would today shill out 7K for a TV or 20K for a set of speakers. They wouldn't spend 2K on the TV and 4K on the speakers. What they buy is a 500 euro TV. Most of my friends don't have a music system at home. Most of my friends don't really "listen" to music. They hear what they hear on the car radio, perhaps from their phone on a beach, or.... The confusing way (to me) of listening to music videos on Youtube!
There's a few of my friends that actually have a proper set of speakers/amps/surround etc at home, but "proper" is a very broad word. In these cases it's a system of the gigantic sum of 3000 euro including the TV, amp, subwoofer and 5 speakers... So indeed, I guess it's hard to sell high-quality, high-ticket items. Not so much because these people couldn't afford it, it's more about they wouldn't use it/need it/not interested.
I must admit, while I seem to be a buddy with my new Beosound 5. It wasn't easy to set up. With all the converting, using apps to connect the Bombaster 5 to my computer, loading files onto the BM5 (thankfully able to drag and drop folders directly into the BM5 using "finder", as the Beoconnect software only lets you drag files, not folders.... It's a vastly complicated machine. Most people I know would have used it as a boat anchor! People today have very short tempers, and want something working straight out of the box... Well Apple does a mighty nice job at this, but so did Bang & Olufsen with the A2.
Too long to list....
bayerische:Production move to Asia isn't B&O's fault it's our fault. Europe is giving away it's industry "for free" to the Chinese every day.
Do you really think that we European consumers are the real reason. China is a country of choice for outsourcing any production at acceptable materials, low wages, low machine costs and low transport costs to Europe. And second, we have a problem with skilled workers currently available to fill the potential jobs. A lot of trades that were once occupied by European workers have been lost. When was the last time that you met anyone who is a TV or audio repair technician or quality control engineer for instance? Other jobs have been taken over by fellow workers from the EU who are able to accept a lower salary.
Chris: bayerische:Production move to Asia isn't B&O's fault it's our fault. Europe is giving away it's industry "for free" to the Chinese every day. Do you really think that we European consumers are the real reason. China is a country of choice for outsourcing any production at acceptable materials, low wages, low machine costs and low transport costs to Europe. And second, we have a problem with skilled workers currently available to fill the potential jobs. A lot of trades that were once occupied by European workers have been lost. When was the last time that you met anyone who is a TV or audio repair technician or quality control engineer for instance? Other jobs have been taken over by fellow workers from the EU who are able to accept a lower salary. Outsourcing and the consequent layoffs are part of an economic reality for a business that faces intense competition and constant pressure on profit margins, so B&O has to do the right thing for their shareholders.
Read my post again FULL STOP
Good news. Seems like the A2 is a big success. I've just read, that it has sold over 50.000 already. It's then one of the fastest selling B&O products ever.
Not enough to save the Company in itself - but it is good news for B&O in these days when everybody is talking about the bad economy.
(edit) oh - I've just seen that MM was quicker than me and brought the good news in another thread ;-)
Steffen: Good news. Seems like the A2 is a big success. I've just read, that it has sold over 50.000 already. It's then one of the fastest selling B&O products ever. Not enough to save the Company in itself - but it is good news for B&O in these days when everybody is talking about the bad economy. (edit) oh - I've just seen that MM was quicker than me and brought the good news in another thread ;-)
... but enough to create a WOW effect. Unboxed mine two days ago and showed to a few colleagues already... they just ordered theirs... the A2 has a "gotta have" appeal and I think it is a good strategic entry into the brand again.
Great sound,no wifi dropouts.
So far a great product!