Wow, it looks very cool in pictures! The price is over the top though, even for B&O! Anyway, I have some questions that somebody in the know will hopefully be able to answer:

1) Are the specs (connections etc., etc.) sufficient to ensure FULL HIFI quality (if ripped in CD quality) - i.e. is it "worthy" to be connected to Beolab 5 speakers?

2) If I'm correct the Beomaster 5 serves as the "brain" and the Beosound 5 as the navigation point. If so, is it possible to connect several Beosound 5s in different rooms to one central Beomaster 5, thereby effectively creating a type of link system with navigation screens in each link room (if not, you would presumably be controlling in the blind in link rooms which obviously makes no sence what so ever!). 

3) Can you operate the system via the TV screen (like Beomedia) - this is really necessary since B&O appears to not offer two way remote! If it is indeed possible to operate the system via a TV screen, could you potentially just buy the Beomaster 5 and skip the Beosound 5 and "just" operate the whole thing in a similar way the Beomedia works?

4) Will the Beomaster 5 replace the built-in Beomedia in Beovision 9?

5) When importing music from the PC, is it possible to import play lists? If not, then it's really a deal breaker!

 6) I agree with the complaint that the unit doesn't include a DVD drive (meaning you will need an additional "box" which, by the way, B&O will stop producing according to their new strategy plan!?!) and a radio. You could of course listen to internet radio, but I guess internet radio is often distrubuted in compressed quality (?)and therefore not "worthy" of a HIFI system.......? 

The answer is Yes for all your questions...

And for point 6... FM is not CD quality, so a not so compressed N.RADIO can be just as good.

Regarding point 1, if you use the Lossless format, you have the same quality as with a CD. If you send the signal through SPDIF to Beolab 5, then there is no loss at all...

Otherwise the DAC is supposed to be of a very good quality.

(Why can't I edit my own posts, in this Forum).

My Mistake Sorenfelden, regarding point 2... only one Beosound 5 per beomaster 5.

But rumour has it that there will be in the future some modules for link rooms.

Phil, have you got an 'edit tab above your post?

By the way, your user name is much better than your previous one. More friendly.

I do not have the Edit tab in any of the Beosound 5 forum thread!!! Strrrrange....

I have only discovered recently that I could have a display name.

I remember this happening when we started the Beo5 forum. I don't have an edit button either on this forum. I'm sure Keth will sort it soon.

Sorry! My fault! The forum was set up quite quickly and originally was not made so anyone could write to it! I have altered that but don't often play in these areas so missed the Edit button! It is on another page!

Sorted Peter, thanks.

The specs does not seem to tell whether it supports 24bit/196khz playback. So anyone knows whether it does? Anyways so far it doesn't look very exciting. I thought will the new CEO, B&O will march into the whole high end vision and audio territory.

wonderfulelectric:

I thought will the new CEO, B&O will march into the whole high end vision and audio territory.

I would imagine that this would have been in advanced stages when the new CEO came in? way too late to step in and make changes.. 

The Beomaster has all the hardware necesssary. They can add the new link system just by software if theyw want. Let's cross finger!

mobeyone:

wonderfulelectric:

I thought will the new CEO, B&O will march into the whole high end vision and audio territory.

I would imagine that this would have been in advanced stages when the new CEO came in? way too late to step in and make changes.. 

Nah.... hardware changes to an electronic only takes a fews days to a few weeks nowadays. A home-brewed version of a Beosound 5 may only take a week to make, minus that scrolling wheel of course.  

wonderfulelectric:

Nah.... hardware changes to an electronic only takes a fews days to a few weeks nowadays.

No they don't!

PhilLondon:

wonderfulelectric:

Nah.... hardware changes to an electronic only takes a fews days to a few weeks nowadays.

No they don't!

If you are unlucky enough to need to change the "wrong" component, I have known certain parts to be on a 39 week leadtime (yes 39 weeks, it is not a typo)!

wonderfulelectric:

The specs does not seem to tell whether it supports 24bit/196khz playback. So anyone knows whether it does? Anyways so far it doesn't look very exciting. I thought will the new CEO, B&O will march into the whole high end vision and audio territory.

This product was conceived and designed long before the new CEO was appointed - give the poor bloke a chance!

I have spoken to the new CEO, and i think he has some really fresh ideas.  I will be typing up my interview with him in a few days, but i really like his way of thinking - it's what i would call fresh, out-of-the-box, and he listens.  I think we will find B&O listening a lot more to what it's customer wants and asking questions rather than simply telling them what they want. However,  if you listen to a thousand different people with a thousand different opinions you end up so confused you cannot draw a conclusion - so i wouldn't expect every idea to be implemented!

Lee 

 

What about the quality of sound? Too many "engadget like guys" talk about bs5 without an idea of the quality of sound... I love Apple iphone and ipod touch, but i don't think the apple touch is a real hi fi system... so, we need to see and hear it in flesh to talk about the new stuff... just listen for example the monster duo... beolab 5 + beosound 5...

To be completely fair, I imagine the sound is just as good as the Beocenter 2 and BS9000 especially if the files are stored as lossless or very high bit rate if compressed. You cannot really make it better as the sound is coming from the original CD and if using the digital out of the BC2 and BS9000 with Beolab 5s, there is nothing you can really do except mess around with the sound! So will it sound better than CD? No, because at present it cannot! I suppose the DAC in it could be particularly good so using it with non digital speakers may have an advantage.

Is the dac in the beosound 5 better than in the beosound 9000?

Is the pre-amp better in the beosound 5 than in the beosound 9000?

A little digging later - the DAC is an AD1852. If any of you are interested in the specs, you can find them here! Seems to be reasonably respected though the AD1853 and AD1865 , though both being phased out, and AD1955 seem to generate the most praise. It is a multi-purpose chip capable of working in both DVD and CD scenarios.

The DAC in the BS9000 is the TDA1305 which is the same as is used in the Naim CD5. Not sure about the BC2 as I cannot find a circuit diagram!!

It seems it can play video - question I have is can it connect and read movies straight from PC or NAS.

 The later would be awesome fo rme not very happy with the Apple TV due to the messed up UI. 

Video and music files have to be transfered to the BM5 first...

jk1002:

................ not very happy with the Apple TV due to the messed up UI. 

you can't say that here, there'll be an uprising among the natives!

9 LEE:

wonderfulelectric:

The specs does not seem to tell whether it supports 24bit/196khz playback. So anyone knows whether it does? Anyways so far it doesn't look very exciting. I thought will the new CEO, B&O will march into the whole high end vision and audio territory.

This product was conceived and designed long before the new CEO was appointed - give the poor bloke a chance!

I have spoken to the new CEO, and i think he has some really fresh ideas.  I will be typing up my interview with him in a few days, but i really like his way of thinking - it's what i would call fresh, out-of-the-box, and he listens.  I think we will find B&O listening a lot more to what it's customer wants and asking questions rather than simply telling them what they want. However,  if you listen to a thousand different people with a thousand different opinions you end up so confused you cannot draw a conclusion - so i wouldn't expect every idea to be implemented!

Lee 

 

Oh cool. Tell him I want more compatibility! Act like the proper high quality sound and vision company is used to be and stop trying to take short cuts. Haha. Looking forward to hearing back from your interview Lee!

Cheers

Alexander 

Puncher:

PhilLondon:

wonderfulelectric:

Nah.... hardware changes to an electronic only takes a fews days to a few weeks nowadays.

No they don't!

If you are unlucky enough to need to change the "wrong" component, I have known certain parts to be on a 39 week leadtime (yes 39 weeks, it is not a typo)!

Erm... Are you speaking about changing the production line? The Beosound 5 has been in under development for such a long time. Modifying a product during its R&D phase is not hard at all, especially if you use off the shelf internal components. And of course I was referring to prior to Beosound 5s production.