I was starting this post on the BeoLab 10 high res thread, but thought that it might need its own thread as I started to go a bit off topic.
In the past few days I've viciously defended the prices and technology of our televisions, especially the BeoVision 7, but one of the things that I will not defend is the design slump on the video side.
The BeoVision 9 looks like it was stung by a bee. It's ridiculously large for being a "flat panel" television. Think back a decade ago when the Avant was crafted to hide its girth and appear as a picture on a wall before that was a reality. The BeoVision 9, with its rolled frame and big rear end look as though Mr. Lewis was deliberately trying to add mass. By comparison, the BeoVision 5 seems so sleek and well resolved. If you showed them to someone who had never seen either one they would certainly assume that the BeoVision 5 was a refined later version of the BeoVision 9.
The BeoVision 4 has always been complemented for its elegant frame, but has never captured a lot of hearts with its looks alone. Now it seems Mr. Lewis is applying is same puffy frame to the BeoVision 4 (bye bye compliments!) and putting the IR knob on the top (didn't they learn their lesson with the 9000's vacation switch?). And they're not stopping there! It's growing a center channel beard!
The BeoVision 8, in comparison to the BeoVision MX range that it replaces, looks aggressively cheap. I'm looking across the room right now at an MX5500 and it looks so elegant perched on its stand. There's not much more to say. The picture is fabulous and the capabilities are indispensable, but it doesn't get my pulse racing.
Of course this is all my opinion! If you're smitten with any of these designs, that's fantastic. I just feel like Mr. Lewis has yet to find his footing in a "flat" vernacular. The BeoVision 7 is almost an anomaly in how perfectly it's designed. It's perched on a beautiful stand, giving it visual lightness beyond many other flat panels. Its sandwiched panels of glass and aluminum communicate thinness on what is a fairly deep television set. It lifts its head as it wakes up and, like the Avant, has always made me think it could be looking back at me!
Everyone's entitled to a few duds, and David Lewis has had an absolutely remarkable run of success. I also have no intention of joining the "retire him" bandwagon. I just think that he spent so long trying to work around the depth of CRT televisions that when they actually became flat, he wasn't sure how to work with them. I don't see any reason why flat TVs need to be 2 dimensional, but there are more cunning ways to add visual depth than adding actual depth!
I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on this!
There is scarcely anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey. - John Ruskin