seethroughyou:

i suppose i just need time to accept the design and the way in my eyes in looks anorexic..

To be fair, you are right, in some ways. It took me a while to get used to it and I'm still not convinced about the user-interface. Album covers are too small. My other concern is the BM5 which I feel is too large and difficult to hide, without a cabinet. Should be Mac Mini sized at the most. I'm assuming the only reason it isn't smaller, is that it has to be designed to fit in to the BV9 too?

However, I guess there's very little design work you can do with a digital media device, design-wise?

Hey Seethroughyou,

I think given your doubts about the design sensibilities of the BS5 (and in my opinion I think you are right, it does nothing for me as a piece of industrial design)... I would suggest that you stay with the BS9000, it is a design classic, icon, and statement... looking as good today as when it was launched in the 90's... I don't think we will be saying that about the BS5 in 10years... 

As Christophe said earlier, connect your BS9000 via beoport or do it wirelessly with an Apple airport express to your itunes library... and you have digital music at your finger tips when you pair this with an iphone or itouch... remember the BS5 also is static, it can't be moved around, the iphone/touch can move around your whole home... and you would still have the beloved BS9000 as a statement piece!

The beauty of the above setup is that it costs so little to do, so that in a 1 years time you could still consider the BS5 if you decide its the better way to go...

Well hope you manage to make a decision,

Laurence.

I changed my BS9000 to a BS5/BM5 some months ago. In my house the music got much better with a more crispy and clear sound. In some tunes I can now hear things I didn´t heared before. I have two old BL8000 and I guess with better/newer speakers the sound would be even better.

The easy search for music is also great and the Internet Radio is fun. I uses the Photo album out on my BL7K but the Internet browsing is just some extra thing I have tried two times.

Offcourse the BS9000 was a litte more happening on the wall when it changed CDs but it feel a little history...

I look forward for updates in the near future but as for now the product actually pleases my wishes and needs.

Brgds Ingvar

IngvarW:

I changed my BS9000 to a BS5/BM5 some months ago. In my house the music got much better with a more crispy and clear sound. In some tunes I can now hear things I didn´t heared before.

CD mastering can be quite poor, especially CDs from the first few years they were released and latter-day CDs where the mastering seems to be very flat. Try the Duffy album as a very good example.

On the flipside, digital DRM-free tracks from iTunes seem to be far brighter as they are clearly sourced from the original master, rather than recorded from CD. iTunes tracks are now uploaded by the record company, who produce the tracks from the original source, so the clarity and dynamism is often better than the same track(s) on the equivalent CD.

I'm not up on the technology, but I would keep the BS9000 purely from an aesthetic point.  The 9000 is the flagship of B&O design.  Just my opinion.  Cheers.

In defense of the Duffy album - it's a marvel of production that they've managed to get it sounding as it does. It's meant to sound like an old-skool 60s Motown album, which is does pretty well. Unfortunately, because it's all based on plugins and computer-recording tech, it still sounds a little to 'good' to be an authentic soul record, and hence sits in an awkward position between a technically great recording, and that authentic sound. In the end, it just ends up sounding flat and IMO a little boring to listen to.

If you want to hear how modern 'authentic' production can still sound great, listen to the Jamie Lidell albums, particularly his latest - JIM, it's brilliant.

RE compressed music, I'm personally happy with anything of 256kbps AAC 90% of the time. 256k MP3 isn't quite the same, but as the entire iTunes store is now at 256k AAC, I feel digital downloads have really come 'of age'. Still, you don't get to hold a physical CD or record when you download music online, and the last two albums I bought from iTunes (Aronas by Aronas, and The Sleeper by The Leisure Society, both of which are stunningly good albums) and that's something I miss. I don't feel I 'own' either of those two albums - I know I can listen to them if I want, but I still feel like I don't 'own' them.

Obviously being a student I don't own a BeoSound 5, so I do wonder if the BeoSound 5 gives it's owners a feeling that they're actually holding/interacting with music they've downloaded...

Alex:

If you want to hear how modern 'authentic' production can still sound great, listen to the Jamie Lidell albums, particularly his latest - JIM, it's brilliant.

I'll tell you what, I bought that 'Empire of the Sun' album from iTunes the other day and it's superbly mastered. Sounds brilliant on the BL3s and BL9s (BL5s have gone...).

As I said before, iTunes-sourced music isn't ripped from CDs any longer. It comes direct from the music company. Therefore the quality of recent iTunes tracks is superb.