Taken from B&O's latest financial report:

"A new audio concept will be launched in the second half year,
which will set a new standard for the way people can enjoy
music in their homes of the future. The concept is an important
step in the direction of the new ways in which people will
experience music in the converging digital world. "

Has anyone got more precisions on what could / should be the long awaited BeoSound 5 ?

It surely has to do with that... 

http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/thread/42018.aspx

P. 

Looks like "back to the drawing board" with this new high end system...

Lets hope Beosound 5 is out of this world when it finally arrives. It seems so long since we first started talking about this. Has anyone got any idea of the price?

Craig 

I think its suppoused/rumoured to be lab5 territory Craig

Craig:

Lets hope Beosound 5 is out of this world when it finally arrives. It seems so long since we first started talking about this. Has anyone got any idea of the price?

 

Craig 

Craig, I can perfectly understand your position. Me too, I hope that B&O are not working so long on the Beosound 5 that at the moment it comes out, it will be outdated already.

The price? I'm sure it will be more expensive than the BS9000, as Peter described the materials as very exquisite in an earlier post, iirc. Somehow, I fear that the combination of the number "5" and the prefixe "Beo" is going to be very expensive! (BV5; BL5)

mobeyone:

I think its suppoused/rumoured to be lab5 territory Craig

 

Looks as though I need a Lottery win then before I get one.

Craig

it will be available next year (march) in North America.

regards....

I'm wondering how expensive B&O can go with a digital media platform, because the concept should be some kind of BeoMedia, with only audio sources & connections: it should have a CD player to store all your CDs on the BeoSound, and use the CD key on the remote, maybe it would be also a CD recorder;

it should also have a radio feature, probably NRADIO/FM and DAB used under the RADIO key on the remote control (I would like that, this is what I do with my BeoPort & Lintronic converter: press RADIO to start NRADIO...seems so logical to me);

and finally an AMEM function that would control AMEM and NMUSIC sources (which should be the same on this product);

obviously, it would have a USB input and SD card reader to play & store music from/to your BeoSound 2 and 6, and you should be able to record any source on the SD card or BeoSound 6;

to get proper information, I imagine a huge display (it will be a BeoSound, so no video connection for display), I even think the product would be a master unit with hard drive & CD drive & all connections, and a separate display panel could act as a sensi-touch remote control (think 2-way communication back!). But in that case, I don't see the point in focusing on design if the master unit is hidden somewhere, because what do you need to see when playing MP3/WMA files?

I hope the revolution B&O talks about will be in the BeoLink capabilities of that BeoSound, maybe it will have a full digital audio transmission  (only FM is still analog those days, all other audio sources are digital!) , with a built-in wireless transmitter..

This is all speculation of course, but I can't imagine anything more expensive than BeoMedia for such type of audio master.

We are not talking about audiophile sources, discrete components and tube preamplifiers, but compressed music.. or maybe it will have this translucent aluminium they were talking about a few months ago!! who knows...

According to a previous post (by Roger) the price might be close to 2xBL5 !!!

http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/post/38384.aspx 

But why only audio?? Isn't that a step in the wrong direction? Isn't an update of BeoMedia what we are waiting for?

/M 

You may be right about BeoMedia, ever since I bought BeoPort I stopped using my BeoSound & eventually sold it 6 months ago!

I think that BeoSound 5 could have been an updated BeoSound 9000 (which is still B&O's best seller I think), with a socket panel like BeoCenter 2, that would have integrated  a hard drive, DAB and all audio connections, and even maybe some kind of BeoPort hardware, (imagine connecting your BeoSound 9000 directly to your PC through USB!) , this would have left some space inside BeoSound 9000 for an SD card reader/recorder and a larger display (à la BeoCenter 2).

If you look at the present BeoSound range, there's been no real audio system until BeoSound 4, the  BS 1/2/3/6 are all portable systems. And unless you want FM radio, you no longer need an audio master: all B&O DVD players can read CDs..and MP3/WMA files.

This is how I see the product possibly emerging:-

Core:- A music server. High-end CD drive, DACs etc... Ample HDD capacity for lossless digital recording. Usual refinements like ML, PL etc...Unlike other products on the market, kept strictly windows OS, with USBs to expand HDDs as required.

Interface:- The box will be either like the BC2/Beomedia and hidden with a really swish user interface as previously discussed on this forum. Tranilluminated alu, touch glass LCD????

Alternatively, we could see just the HDR2 box concept. However, I think the really interesting thing will be the user interface. I think this user interface is amongst us now in the form of the Beo5. I can see that this has been designed as 2 way. The whole back of the screen is IR transparent plastic. Why would this not be die cast zinc alloy (like Beo4) ?. I could imagine a system whereby the tracks are listed on the beo5 like we see in Beomedia.

10% 

I can only hope that it will concentrate on the core. A high class audio system, with excellent built quality,easy control and reduced to the really essential functions, more high end than multimedia.

High end is for me the only reason to justify high prices. Multimedia with compresses audiofiles is a nice gadjet for the kids, and i even welcome that B&O offers this in entry level systems, but on a certain level, this is ridiculous. Who buys BL5 and maybe a "BS5" at these prices to play MP3s ? I still use my old CD7000. Music starts here, if the CDtray slides. It makes so much fun to search the CD by hand, and insert it on the tray. If i use MP3 on the computer, i´m a "skipper", i often change the tracks. On the 7000 i listen.

Alex:

Whats wrong with this guy?

I was just thinking this to myself. 

peacha:

nufin u cheekie person u dis denion

I think peacha is a wind up merchant.