In the May 2007 issue of "What Hi-Fi?" the BeoLab9s are given 5 stars, the maximum possible rating. I'll quote the summary:

Great rating.

Thanks for sharing the summery with us.

Regards, Robert

djs:

In the May 2007 issue of "What Hi-Fi?" the BeoLab9s are given 5 stars, the maximum possible rating. I'll quote the summary:

For: A totally convincing and involving sound, combined with striking looks; compact, but sound much bigger.

Against: Need dedicated leads to connect then to preamps; you can buy a lot of amp and spaekers for GBP5000.

Verdict: Like the bigger BeoLab 5s, the new 9s defy expectations by working not just as style icons, but in pure hi-fi terms, too.

Must confess that my opinion of this rag continues to plummet. Not a proper review and not detail you could not get from the official site. The earlier review of the BL3 was also appalling with the reviewer seemingly unaware of any of the features. I am still waiting for a double blind test of power leads by them. Reviews of these items going into ecstasy about one product over another  makes me doubt anything they write. To be believable. a little honesty in testing procedures would be nice. I realise that these comments seem strange as this is a positive review of a B&O product,  but  i frankly despair at cable reviews.

Peter:

Must confess that my opinion of this rag continues to plummet. Not a proper review and not detail you could not get from the official site. The earlier review of the BL3 was also appalling with the reviewer seemingly unaware of any of the features. I am still waiting for a double blind test of power leads by them. Reviews of these items going into ecstasy about one product over another  makes me doubt anything they write. To be believable. a little honesty in testing procedures would be nice. I realise that these comments seem strange as this is a positive review of a B&O product,  but  i frankly despair at cable reviews.

i read the diapason (frensh hifi and music magazine) and the fono forum (about the same in german) monnthly. they both offer hifi reviews every month, especially the diapason. for the 5-6 years i get these two magazines, i never found a single mentioun about b&o. strange or normal?

Lets start another Cable debate. Seriously though the price of some of these cables is just plain ridiculous. Nordost are one make that springs to mind. Just look at Ebay.

 http://electronics.search.ebay.co.uk/nordost_Cables-Connectors_W0QQfromZR34QQsacatZ116849

 In particular look for the Valhalla ones.

Craig 

I have found out that we can set the forum to automatically delete any post that contains certain words more than once! Don't make me use my power!

Hmmm, £2000 on cables, or £2000 on albums? Which would be better spent? Let me think about that one...

I spent a bit of money on some SCART cables - money well spent - they had a special locking device so they don't fall out. I find cables work much better when connected!

I defo don't want to start any debate about cabling in general, but I'd like to know how a £500 mains lead can improve the quality of the electricity from the 2p a metre twin and earth cabling to domestic sockets in houses? I know you can go mental and rewire your house with crazy cabling, but how many people who buy £500 mains leads actually do this, and what about the ancient cabling leading up to domestic supplies that you can do nothing about? It seems crazy to me...

 See - I didn't mention speaker cables once there!

Peter:

I spent a bit of money on some SCART cables - money well spent - they had a special locking device so they don't fall out. I find cables work much better when connected!

Smart move getting SCARTs with locks!
How about a pair of Jorma PRIME cables? Two 1 meter lengths will set you back the price of a pair of BeoLab 5s ...
Add a metre at the cost of GBP 2000/m.

Madness. Very popular with Japanese Hi-Fi people.

 http://www.jormadesign.com/jormaprime/jp_1.htm 
 http://www.swedishstatement.com/6_prod_jd.htm
 

Pity,Peter that you didn't think of this cable malarkey before the shootout in Newcastle!

It would have been interesting if listeners could distinguish between 'proper' B&O cable and bell wire.

Andy T.

jandyt:

Pity,Peter that you didn't think of this cable malarkey before the shootout in Newcastle!

It would have been interesting if listeners could distinguish between 'proper' B&O cable and bell wire.

Andy T.

 Waste of time. I have seen don't know how many different tests, blind, double-blind and whatnot, and the evidence is not conclusive when people are comparing setup to setup.

Kind of fun how riled up people get about B&O cables. There was a multi-page review of the BL9s in a Scandinavian magazine, where they actually gave the speakers a very good rundown -- but the cable issue (thin, stock issue, cheap connectors) was touched upon several times. Hard going, accepting the B&O philosophy, when you have cables such as the PRIMEs going the totally opposite route. The writer of the article had discussed cables with B&O engineers, who told him that they couldn't hear a difference and couldn't measure a difference ...

In the article he comments: "Well, maybe everything can't be measured."
 

HiFi News seems to be the best, and the other publication (Audiophile or something) which reviewed the BeoLab 5s in HUGE depth (several page review) and rated them very very highly seems to be another credible one.

 

Does anyone have a scan ( or a PDF ) of the HiFi News review of the Beolab 5 's  by any chance  ??? 

Peter:

Must confess that my opinion of this rag continues to plummet. Not a proper review and not detail you could not get from the official site. The earlier review of the BL3 was also appalling with the reviewer seemingly unaware of any of the features. I am still waiting for a double blind test of power leads by them. Reviews of these items going into ecstasy about one product over another  makes me doubt anything they write. To be believable. a little honesty in testing procedures would be nice. I realise that these comments seem strange as this is a positive review of a B&O product,  but  i frankly despair at cable reviews.

For the BL5's if got:-

Audiocrıtic, Hifi News, AV guide, Sound and vision and Ultra audio reviews.

someone tell me how to upload to the site and they are yours.

 

10%

djs:

Against: Need dedicated leads to connect then to preamps; you can buy a lot of amp and spaekers for GBP5000.

You might be able to buy a lot of amp & speakers for GBP5000 elsewhere - but will they be as perfectly matched as in the BL9s, given that, by default, they are built to match exactly

Mr10Percent:

For the BL5's if got:-

Audiocrıtic, Hifi News, AV guide, Sound and vision and Ultra audio reviews.

someone tell me how to upload to the site and they are yours.

 

10%

Very kind of you but we might run into copyright problems.

I think apart from the AVGuide Review, they are all freely available on the web.

10%

In that case, send them to me and I will upload them to the manuals site! I'll PM you my email!

soundproof:

jandyt:

Pity,Peter that you didn't think of this cable malarkey before the shootout in Newcastle!

It would have been interesting if listeners could distinguish between 'proper' B&O cable and bell wire.

Andy T.

 Waste of time. I have seen don't know how many different tests, blind, double-blind and whatnot, and the evidence is not conclusive when people are comparing setup to setup.

Kind of fun how riled up people get about B&O cables. There was a multi-page review of the BL9s in a Scandinavian magazine, where they actually gave the speakers a very good rundown -- but the cable issue (thin, stock issue, cheap connectors) was touched upon several times. Hard going, accepting the B&O philosophy, when you have cables such as the PRIMEs going the totally opposite route. The writer of the article had discussed cables with B&O engineers, who told him that they couldn't hear a difference and couldn't measure a difference ...

In the article he comments: "Well, maybe everything can't be measured."
 

Been there, heard that! My response is that I leave metaphysics to the philosophers - not the audiophiles.