I have a number of catalogues that I am very fond of but discovered the 1979 US catalogue only recently. See what you think - I think it is fantastic. You can find it in the list near the top if you are a silver or gold member.

What a treat! I have always wondered about the internal construction of the MMC cartridges and there are now several pages on that, not to mention the other "inside" information on various pieces of kit. Thanks!

Wonderful.

Fine instruments for the reproduction of music -- good theme, excellently presented, with lots of substantial information explaining why B&O is better and different. No wonder that this moment in time also coincided with the beginning of B&O's absolute heyday as an audio company.
Compared with today's catalogues, thin on facts and full of gloss and interior decoration, it's quite a difference. A treat.

It made me dig out my UK catalogue of the same era!  One can see an element of similarity - but not the in depth techincal extras available in the US version.  A far cry from the US "catalogues" I picked up in the mid 90s.

I can only agree with the previous comment about the heyday. 

Brian 

Hi Peter,

This is also a favorite of mine! I love the photography and the way its laid out gives a sense of a company the really focuses on the R&D of products seeking to produce the best possible, there is also so much technical data in the catalogue which really makes it impressive .. yes less decor pics today, please..... My assumption is that perhaps this may have been the year that B&O launched into the US market as the whole catalogue seems to be an introduction to B&O......

Another favourite (although I cant read a word) is the 82 dutch, very nice photos of each beosystem grouping, especially the 8000/6000 and 2400, I also like the 78/79 (british?) catalogue which is similar to the US edition and lastly the 76 Danish, again nice beosystem grouping photos and lots of classics such as the 6000 quad with trumpet stand Tv's and speakers. This also seems to have the technical data 'introduction' componant to it.

Its wonderful to be able to go back read, see the photos and really feel the brands integrity, and history. 

Thanks Peter, it's simply awsome. And it's just the audio part! I wonder if there was a video US catalogue back then as well.

The quality of B&O's catalogues has really declined in my opinion. I remember the Catalogues from the 90-ties, I enjoyed them. 

Are B&O becoming maybe possibly slightly... frugal, these days?

Thanks for that Peter.  Superb catalogue!
Wish they still made them like that, instead of the silly 'magalogue'.  You could spend a full day reading that!

Andy T.

Furniture makers and architects who design concrete buildings are great fans of B&O, they have managed to turn the catalogue into a display forum for their products, rather than it being a showcase for the A/V products.

Hear, hear!

The US was started in 1970 and Video products did not become part of the US range until the MX5000 was launched in 1988.  The catalog you all are talking about was created in the US not in Denmark but an advertising firm in Minneapolis led by Mr. Donald Phillips.  He created the image for B&O in the early years in the US until the the Danes decided that all marketing material must come from Denmark.  This is now why the current catalogs are so generic and boring.

He did a wonderful job. As has been pointed out, it borrows from the European catalogue of the time but also adds some wonderful details. The exploded Beocord 5000 gives one some idea why B&O technicians would blanch when one of these came in! Informative and interesting - how about a special run on the present range? Maybe we could design a similar catalogue for this year's range as a Beoworld exercise?

The photos were all done in Denmark by Mr. Ib Sorensen in his Struer studio.  Hence the tie to the european catalogs.  Don wanted more details to show the quality and the engineering that went into the products.  Its amazing more of this is not done today.  B&O still fights the image of just a pretty face with nothing special underneath.   We know it's not true but perception becomes reality unless you show it.

I was quite instrumental in working on the 2006/7 catalogue, where I set the goal of trying to reintroduce substance into the tale.
That was hard going - but the interviews with Dave Moulton, John Mathieson, Hélène Grimaud, Bart de Wever, heads of audio and video, and others survived the grind of resistance, more or less. In spite of this, the reaction afterwards was that "next year we're going back to more pictures and less text."
What happened next year was the magalogue, where my only involvement was the interview with Frede Kristensen from Classic Audio (and that interview was de-Jensened in editing, I'm afraid.) B&O has fantastic, incredible stories to tell - and should tell them.

A brand such as B&O has to keep telling stories of substance, in order for the market to grasp and understand this substance. The catalogue Peter drew our attention to with this thread does that wonderfully. I hate the interior decoration aspect of B&O - it's not furniture, dammit! 

I would enjoy reading the 1979 catalogue much more, too. But I am sure if my wife were given the 1979 catalogue and the 2008 "magalogue" she would definitely prefer the latter because she would definitely be more interested in seeing other people's interiors than learning about the design of the MMC cartridge. Maybe B&O have decided to make their cataloques more "girl-friendly"

I started keeping each catalogue in the late 90's...

my favourite catalogue is the 2001 catalogue and the 2005-2006 with the Beosound 9000 6 silver cd's on the back

i really like the 2001 catalogue it has alot of interesting pictures and i really like the image with the girl who has wings like an angel looking down at the beosound 3000. And the Beosound 1 metal grilles floating in the air. And the image where a mas is sleeping with two beuatiful beolab 4000's on each side his face like two pillows. A really innovative catalogue. The new catalogues are kind of boring but i still like them.

Would have to say the "bright yellow" catalogue US of the 1980's, just gorgeous photos from the 6500 system down the line....9500 ..4500, Beolab 5000/3000 panel speakers, penta's and RL series, MX/VX 5000/5500, turntables RX and TX, Attica furniture, MCL lighting. This catalogue seem to have it all. But again the gloss photos just brought out the products from off the pages into the mind. Would liked to have had customer stories included but oh well! Can anyone tell what exact year this catalogue was published??? There was also a purple AV- MX/VX catalogue that accompanied the general "bright yellow" one. This one was done also in the same photographic luster.

Best regards,

Dave