BeoNut1: Let me ask you this as a side question: If I set up the BV7 / BS3 / Apple TV / BL5s as you describe, can I make it such that the BV7 screen stays off when I'm listening to music only (in which case I'd use my iPhone or iTouch to peruse and select music rather than the TV's LCD)? Yes, but this would require a Beo5 remote. Essentially

Running it through a BeoSound 9000 would do nothing to the sound from an Apple TV, the BeoSound 9000 only outputs a digital signal when listening to a CD. To see why the digital input on the BeoLab 5 produces a better sound, you need to understand what's actually going on in terms of digital signal flow. When listening to a CD with no digital connection

Using a B&O master such as the BeoSound 9000 will allow best quality on CD as only the digital information from the CD player is passed out to the SPDIF connection, while the BeoSound 5 would allow best quality when listening to digital media.

Essentially yes, although bear in mind that if you connected an Apple TV to the A.Aux input on a BeoSound 9000 or similar, the signal would not be passed to the BeoLab 5s digitally. I would look at your options. What are you going to listen to more musically, CD or Digital Media? If it's Digital Media, what quality is your music library? If it isn't

Depends on the version you go for. Your dealer will be able to pull the necessary information off B&O's technical website if you so wish!

CD would outperform it. The BeoLab 5s have the advantage of being 'completely digital', and they sound best if the entire system is connected like this (with SPDIF connections etc...). Vinyl could sound very good and warm, but it's full of distortion and other 'artifacts' which the BeoLab 5s would bring right to the front of the sound as they're so

Updating the software requires special cables, and is also not a simple 'plug it in and click the button'. There are many different modules in the mkIII 7-40, and it's important that you understand what each one does and whether or not the software in it will need updating. For example, update the software in one part without updating the software in

That's the other thing I like about the BeoVision 9 - it tends to polarize opinions. Some people hate it, others absolutely love it. IMO, any good design (from a visual point of view) should do that, otherwise it'd be boring.

I can't see OLED beating off Plasma for a while yet. It may have better tech specs when you get it out of the box, but I would want my TV to keep looking good for at least the length of a series of Top Gear!

j0hnbarker: Alex: What makes you say that? I was in the market for a new TV a while back which gave me a chance to really look at the competitors products and nothing came anywhere near a BeoVision 9, both in terms of standard definition and high definition performance. Come on Alex. I know you have a connection with B&O, but aren't you a sixth