I nominate:

Beo1 remote - marks whenever touched and how are you supposed to use Teletext with no numeric keyboard?! Borders on insanity to use with the Beocenter 1!

Beosystem 3300 - take one of the best looking B&O systems, paint it grey and give it vomit green coloured lights! What were they smoking that day!

Beocenter 2002 - the addition of a metal tape button to the appalling 2000 was surely a triumph of marketing over reality!  

Worst Rebadge: BeoSound 6

Worst Redesign: BeoVision 9

Worst Expression of a Potentially Brilliant Design: BeoSound 4

Juriest Still Outest: Beo 5

Worst Exclusion of an Aux Jack: BeoSound 3

Worst Interface: BeoCenter 2

Worst Digital Music Experience: IT'S A TIE!!! BeoPort & BeoSound 3200

Discontinued Too Early: BeoCom 3

Worst Non-B&O Accessory: The GN Netcom Wireless Headset for the BeoCom 3

Worst Product for Homes With Walls/Floors/Ceilings/People/Other Electronics/Etc: BeoLink Wireless

Most Under-exploited Concept: Wireless Link 

I'm sure many of these will be addressed in time and as David Lew... I mean 355f says, there will be some "nice prices" on the way.

(Sorry I almost blew your cover DL!) 

Peter :

I rather like the BV9, BS4 and Beoport - I would give all house room! I also think the BC2 interface, especially with the new audio feedback, is brilliant!

I agree Peter. Other people are more interested in my BS4 than the BV7-40! Although people pass comment that it's a 'large TV', almost no-one bothers with it. However, people go over to the BS4, take a look, wonder how the glass cover opens etc.

I also prefer the BV9 over the BV7-40, it's just too large for my place, sound isn't as good as the 7.2 and too expensive.

TripEnglish:

I'm sure many of these will be addressed in time and as David Lew... I mean 355f says, there will be some "nice prices" on the way.

(Sorry I almost blew your cover DL!) 

Oi - no one blew your cover either as a B&O dealer when you first started posting here Trip >:|

Beolab1----A9-------Wrong!

Henry-----Beotalk 1200-----Very wrong!!

Trip------Beoport---------Very, very wrong!!!

My A9 has had the same batteries in for nearly two years, I have only inadvertantly switched TV on once. When I come home on a dark night, it's great to be able to switch the house lights on whilst sitting in the car. It makes my home homely before I enter. I wish I could change the code to Sat instead of TV though.

I agree with Leon about the Beotalk 1200. Once set up, it never let's me down and announces who's there loudly, so I know whether to answer or let the 1200 answer.

Trip, how can you vote for the Beoport? It's brilliant.Especially if you spend a lot of time at the computer as I do.

Why has nobody mentioned Beovox 1? Fancy bringing out a passive speaker in this day and age. As far as I am aware, there isn't a contemporary B&O master with a passive output. Bet you don't sell many of them, Trip!  (Please correct me if I am wrong)

Since the question was about the worst product ever designed, I would vote for BeoCom 6000, I can't stand this phone, I bought a BeoCom 4 because I found it much more "logical". For me BeoCom 6000 is only plastics, complete asymmetry with that triangular base (what function has a triangle on a phone?), and a handset designed only for right-handed people, ugly keys (triangles, squares, circles, my God, are we learning geometry or giving a call?), not to mention the absence of hands-free mode, decent ringtones and backlit keys (but that is also something I regret about BeoCom 4).

Beo5 is also a terrible design for me, same for Serene or Serenata (a phone with no numbers, and 4Gb of music that you can't use for your ringtones, only B&O could do that!), but many people like those products, so design must really be a very personal thing! 

Dear all:

I agree with A9--too limited, feels cheap, breaks easily; BeoCom 3 should be redone; one of the few B&O phones with a speaker function; I am trying to find one on ebay.  B&O should bring it back, with some updated tech and design touches.  

Dario 

Sorry, you're wrong. I sell loads. However, I'm aware that our McMansions make in-wall speakers a hot property in the US, so in EU it may not make as much sense. Not to mention the building codes that would interfere with putting a powered device in a wall. 

If they were freestanding I'd probably agree, and it's not that I'm a huge fan, but as a dealer I like that I can sell my own brand of product and know that I can support them after the sale the same as any other B&O speaker.

As for the BeoPort, I'm basing my opinion on the "blind" operation in another room, not as the local conduit for BeoLabs next to your computer. 

Jandyt:

Why has nobody mentioned Beovox 1? Fancy bringing out a passive speaker in this day and age. As far as I am aware, there isn't a contemporary B&O master with a passive output. Bet you don't sell many of them, Trip!  (Please correct me if I am wrong)

The BeoVox 1 is designed to only be used with the BeoLink Passive. An active 'install' speaker would make absolutely no sense. Imagine leaving a pair of BeoLab 4000s in the garden...

I use a Beoport with my Mac and iPod Touch. In that guise, it is fantastic!

I am afraid I disagree with Andy -  the Beotalk 1200 is awful! No integration with the phones and no internal battery for the clock. And hopeless if you don't have the instruction book! I only use mine because it was a present from my wife Jo!

I own a Beo1 remote. Everything about that product is wrong, from a B&O brand elements point of view.

That gets my vote. A perfectly useless bit of nonsense that causes more irritation than solution. And I also suspect it's something of a miffed designer's joke on management:

Ah yes - I forgot about the Beo1 remote.

However if you removed the keys and internals and replaced them with tiny drivers & crossovers they would still make better speakers than the X25's.

Chris.

Okay - sticking to the question the worst product ever designed, as opposed to the worst performing product, here we go..  I will name a few, then name my candidate.

HDR1   -   Well, okay, let's 'design' the HDR1.. ohhh...kayyy... right.. "Hey David, fancy a beer?".. "sorry?"... "we're off in 5 minutes".. "go on then!".. right.. this HDR1... err... "oi, assistant, slap it in that DVD1 case and let's call it a day.. nobody will mind"

RX2 Turntable  -   If simplicity is beauty, i'll take complicated..

BeoVision 4  -   If in doubt, put some brushed Alu on it..  Oh, and stick its guts in a cabinet. And put some brushed Alu on it.. This was a real opportunity to be different.  It was a missed one.

However, my winner is - the beautifully delicate BeoSound 2.  Made to be carried everywhere - rhobust, easy to operate and as delicate as a butterflies wing!  When i say easy to operate, it's easy if you're an award winning memory-magician.  A product designed to be beautiful in the glass display case, but show it the world and it looks like scratched up piece of junk.  "Put it in a case" i hear you say.. well, why don't you cover your Ferrari in cling film and newspaper to stop it getting stone chips? 

Lee 

Peter!  Thank you!  Lee, with all the respect due someone who could oust me from the forums on a whim...You're WRONG about BeoSound 2.  From back to front: the BS-2 is made from Stainless Steel, not Aluminium, and from the beginning it was intended "to take on the patina of use by its owner" which I think I quote correctly from the marketing department...User interface?  Please!  just try to use an iPod Nano (I have 3) without looking at it.  If you arrange your music with any thought whatsoever, you can easily navigate a BS-2 without ever taking it out of your pocket...although you will get a look or two in the checkout queue.

My nominee is...the AV-7000!  Hey Guys!  NO HDMI ports!  Of course that isn't entirely fair, but then again....  The AV-7000 was, at best, a half-baked attempt to get into Home Theatre.  At least it did light the way to the modern BeoSystem 3 PUC; but c'mon, really!

Russ 

I love it!!!

This thread warms my heart (even though the initial question had a negative connotation). Every time one of us gives our nomination, someone is there who loves that product! This is, to me, what's unique about Bang & Olufsen. We end up forming emotional relationships even with products that may objectively have some problems. 

I love that people like the BeoVision 9 despite its ungainly stature!

BTW, Peter, using the iPod Touch is cheating! The reason I've never loved BeoPort is that its blind operation doesn't lend itself to large music collections, but it stands to reason that if someone is making high $ investments in things like BeoPort, they probably have large music collections! The iPod Touch does seem to be a nice solution, though.

And now I must speak up in support of my beloved BeoSound 2! I love its design! It's practically indestructible and has outlived 6 generations of iPods for me. Admittedly it takes a bit of a commitment, but for someone like me who doesn't purchase content protected material, the interaction can't be beat. Even with my limited memory I can easily navigate through the 25 or so albums and playlists I've filled it with. Vastly prefer it to my iPhone.   

Damn it Russ!!! 

Stop talking crap about the AV7000! Do you know how many doors in my house would be flapping open and closed without my collection of AV7000s!?

I nominate: BeoCord 3000.

And if you dont consider that its supposed to be kept hidden away: BeoSystem 1 and 2...  

RussR:

 ...From back to front: the BS-2 is made from Stainless Steel, not Aluminium..

I never said it was made from Aluminium (and thank you for spelling it correctly.. LOL) !!!

Sorry for offending the BS2 lovers in here, but honestly.. "patina" to me means "knackered" !!   If i went to see a car full of scratches and dents and the salesman said "ahh.. yes - that's the patina sir" i'd pour my coffee over him!!

I would just like to add that I love my BeoTalk 1200. Once the voice announcement is set up correctly it works amazingly well. I have the actual people record a message in it when they come to my house and the next time they phone I hear their voice. The call reject feature is also great. I add all the call centre numbers and anyone else I dont like into the rejection list, then next time they call all they get is an engaged tone.

all those awful rebranded samsung trinkets that do nothing for bno's reputation or bank balance

and at least half the stuff made in the 80's on the cheap , that twin cassette deck monstrosity springs to mind - even jj made mess ups 

the beocentre 2000/2 from the early 80's was dreadful too , never seen so much plastic and fake wood on one product before or since , made a binatone look like a linn sondek

of the current range i'd nominate the bv8 and it's ludicrous dust trap design , plus the god awful stand that looks like a reject from an alba catalogue 

Chrisreunion:

Since the question was about the worst product ever designed, I would vote for BeoCom 6000, I can't stand this phone, I bought a BeoCom 4 because I found it much more "logical". For me BeoCom 6000 is only plastics, complete asymmetry with that triangular base (what function has a triangle on a phone?), and a handset designed only for right-handed people, ugly keys (triangles, squares, circles, my God, are we learning geometry or giving a call?), not to mention the absence of hands-free mode, decent ringtones and backlit keys (but that is also something I regret about BeoCom 4).

I love my Beocom 6000's! Almost every cordless phone on the market seems to shout 'Look how many buttons I have got' when you put it on it'as stand, the Beocom 6000 looks restrained and fabulous  and displays no buttons at all when on it's charger.

Conversations are always crystal clear even when a long way from the phone and navigation with the shared numbers in the PSTN unit using the wheel is as easy as any phone have used. If I wanted my home phone to be like a mobile phone I would use my mobile phone instead!

Simon

I think it's fair to say that B&O's designers have achieved their target...