Be prepared for big surprises if you are considering buying the new BeoSound/Master 5 system as the B&O does not disclose any installation manuals or guidlines to their customers. The only thing you get to know is how to install the BeoSound 5 on the wall. But absolutely nothing about cables needed or anything about settings etc.

They freely share in their manual that you first need to transfer your music from your PC to the Master-unit - but not how!

This is of course important to us customers/users of the equipment so that we can make the proper installation and also make necessary changes once we are planning to replace our PC, which normally happens every two or three years.

As of now, B&O is just expecting you to have an installation engineer to come to your house for the installation and by that be 100% dependent on them for any changes that you might want to do regarding other peripherals like PC, internet modem or WiFi router or just transferring some of the equipment from one room to another.

While being back home to Sweden for a short visit in early June, I ordered one complete system and was promissed that it will be available two to three weeks later as I was returning for some weeks of vacation two months later. At my return, to my surprise, it was still not available and it took another one week+ of my totally three weeks of vacation before I could pick it up.

Once, I got the system and started to set it up, I also started to realize that the information provided was far from complete. Being a seasoned PC user, I normally wouldn´t have any problem in setting up a system like this. During the rest of my entire stay, the dealer including support from B&O, Denmark didn´t manage to get my system work even to the limited extent of transferring the music files that I already had on my PC using B&O Player/Port. This was in spite of numerous telephone contacts and a so called B&O expert coming to my place.

One funny thing is that they even have some hidden key combination on the BeoSund 5 panel to hit to be able to reach the complete maintenance menu.

I have sent a complaint mail to B&O, which took them more than a week to respond to as follows:

Dear Mr Elerud,

We are pleased to see that you are the owner of Bang & Olufsen products. However we are sorry that you are not satisfied with the BeoSound 5. We regret to hear about the problems you have experienced in the installation process. This product is meant to be installed by the Bang & Olufsen dealer and therefore you will not find the installation guide for this product. At this time we do not have plans of changing this procedure. However we do acknowledge your feedback of your experience about this.

What is the learning lesson from this terrible experience? Just be careful what you are buying and be prepared for some technical issues before you hopefully can enjoy your expensive sound system. In my case, in spite of ordering in proper time, I never got the chance to ever enjoy it during my three weeks of vacation in Sweden. I wonder if I will be able to enjoy the system coming back next summer.

Mats

Dear B&O:

If you want to *support* your dealers, give them products/prices that drive clients into the showrooms.

This chronic lack of information on install and operation (think Beo 5 as well), is, IMHO, one of your *core* "incompetancies."

Offered  with respect, your humble servant and fan

Barry

I am sure we can help you - I have emailed you.

Dear Peter,

we have already had a direct dialogue through e-mail based on your generous offer to assist. I am very greatful for that. I just wanted to express my big disappointment with B&O after being a loyal customer for more than 40 years.

Even if the dealer, due to lack of training had a part in the problems, they are having a meeting with a regional representative of B&O shortly and will bring up the matter. From my point of view, B&O has to change attitude and provide proper installation and maintenance manual to their customers and not making them dependent on technicians.

Chhers,

Mats

...and procuce product that do not need a PHD to install...

I completely agree with you. We pay top price and expect a good product with the best and most convenient service.

I appreciate that for you guys wanting/willing/capable of self installation it must be a pain. In my case I could not have done the installtion myself as it involved drilling under a partion wall to place Beomaster in my study and Beosound in my lounge. All the cables are hidden and it looks fantastic. It did cost me £700 on top of the price of the system. Worth it? I guess so as even my wife can't find anything to complain about. Agree I am a bit dependent on the B&O guys though.

Gary

While I completely agree with the sentiments of this thread, I do have some sympathy for the dealer. 

The big question mark in every BS5 install is the network.  Aside from some issues that were eventually traced  to hardware or cable faults, most problems seen here (not complaints about functionality) seem to revolve around getting BeoPlayer or BeoConnect to work properly with the BS5 which eventually comes down to networking.

I doubt if there are any two home networks that are exactly alike.  Meanwhile, B&O has never sold a product that required a network to operate properly.  How are these poor service folks supposed to become networking experts over night?  They must deal with the Windows OS mess - one might run into Vista, XP, possibly 2003 (and, coming soon, Windows 7) which all work slightly differently with respect to network configuration and firewalls.  There are many different routers out there, and each one operates somewhat differently.  And, then there's also the Mac stuff.  This is a lot to learn...  and it would be difficult to hire somebody to handle this because competent networking people do not work on the cheap, and I don't see that there are enough BS5s being sold to support this salary.

With the resources found on this site, I had no problem installing my BS5 - I didn't want the dealer to install because I was pretty sure I would be able to do it with less fuss since I know my network and my computers (I have a mix of apple and windows and some wireless and hardwire).  I did struggle a bit with mating the BS5 with the table stand - a task probably better left to the dealer installation folks because now that I've done it a couple times (don't ask why), it's not that hard.

And don't go pointing to Apple - the biggest challenge I had in setting up my network was getting my airport extreme working correctly...  yeah, the initial setup was really simple, until it decided not to work (for no reason on the final step and lost all my settings).  Many reboots and retries later, it decided to work as it was supposed to.  This part really annoyed me because I spent the extra money (vs. linksys, etc.) on the apple because it was supposed to be easy to install (and I've had battles with other routers in the past).

Obviously, this problem is not unique to B&O.  Go to any site where devices that talk on home networks are discussed and you'll find many problems.  I *do* think B&O's attitude that "the dealer's going to install it so we don't need to create detailed documentation" is a cop-out.  If there were better documentation, then perhaps, those of us who understand networking would be in a better position to help those who do not (which, unfortunately, seems to include most dealers).

Stan

I agree Stan. In my case I just could not face all the drilling and routing of cables under walls etc having just paid to have the house decorated and I needed someone lese to blame etc so my plan was to get that bit done and I could resolve any network problems. As it happened the connection took seconds (I'm using a mac etc) and (touch wood) its been fine ever since. About time I was the one who was hassle free!!

Gary

 I already sent this directly to you Stan, but as there are other parties interested in the subject, I just share with everybody.

Dear Stan,

I fully agree with you although these potential issues were not raised at all at the selling point, which of course shouldn't be a surprise. I do have mixed feelings about the dealer as they didn't have the knowledge (in spite of technical support over the phone from B&O) but they sincerely did try their best and still do after me leaving the country. However, the technician (network specialist) they sent didn't even know how to "open up" the settings/maintenance menu on the BeoSound 5 display. That was something I found out from the dealer in the store one week later just before leaving the country.

Please, understand my frustrations just having three weeks enjoying my vacation (with some music) and then all this hassle and the dealer one hours drive away from our vacation house on the southeast coast of Sweden.

If I had been aware of this web site much earlier (before getting fuming mad), it surely would have helped a lot. I.e. I now got help which probably will solve all the issues once I get to see my stuff again.

Cheers,

Mats

Mats,

It seems you have good reason to be frustrated/mad/etc.  It was never my intention to say otherwise.  I would be mad too.  I was just trying to point out the difficult position that B&O has put its dealers (IMHO).

Stan

Dear Mats,

your contribution is much appreciated. It matches with my concerns about buying the Beosound 5, even as a loyal B&O customer. I hope your feedback will make B&O rethink their attitude. Products like Beo5 and Beosound 5 incapacitates B&O's technically sophisticated customers AND dealers.

Kind regards,

E.

It seems that most of us are of the same opinion questioning B&O current approach with the BeoSound 5 system. My dealer is obviously going to factory in Denmark today and tomorrow after which, we will have a chat over the phone. Will be interesting to hear the feedback.

Have two questions about issues that some of you already might have encountered.

First of all, when using BeoSound/Master 5, are you supposed to use BeoPlayer or BeoPort. If not mistaken BeoPort has some additional features needed for more integrated installations with B&O products as BeoPlayer can be used as iTunes to play music just on your PC.

After copying most of our original CDs to the PC using BeoPort, while in Sweden, I had no problem in downloading the covers and titles. However, when I yesterday was trying to do the same thing (on the same laptop) here in Manila connected to another internet provider, not one single CD cover/title was downloaded.

Do you need to re-register BeoPort/Player if you change internet provider? If so, it seems little weired to me. Or what other problem could there be and how to fix it?

Mats

An alternative to this system is XBMC. To be honest, it totally blows the B&O away in terms of functionality, flexibility and configuration.. I'm running it on an XBOX which cost me the grand total of £50, but it can be installed it on a hidden/silent shuttle style PC, controlled via touchscreen TFT etc.

http://www.instantfundas.com/2009/08/xbmc-is-best-media-center-application.html

http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs

MatsElerud:

First of all, when using BeoSound/Master 5, are you supposed to use BeoPlayer or BeoPort. If not mistaken BeoPort has some additional features needed for more integrated installations with B&O products as BeoPlayer can be used as iTunes to play music just on your PC.

After copying most of our original CDs to the PC using BeoPort, while in Sweden, I had no problem in downloading the covers and titles. However, when I yesterday was trying to do the same thing (on the same laptop) here in Manila connected to another internet provider, not one single CD cover/title was downloaded.

Do you need to re-register BeoPort/Player if you change internet provider? If so, it seems little weired to me. Or what other problem could there be and how to fix it?

Mats

I am confused because BeoPlayer is the software that runs on a PC while BeoPort is a box that allows one to integrate their computer into a B&O audio system.  BeoPlayer can talk to the BS5/BM5, BeoPort as well as BS2 (and whatever the other MP3 player is).  A Bs5/BM5 more or less replaces the BeoPort, although a BeoPort can still be in a system with a BS5 - the BeoPort just no longer distributes N.Music/N.Radio via ML.

I have experienced periods where BeoPlayer cannot find covers and titles.  In my case, it corrected itself when I tried again after a day or two.  It doesn't seem like Internet provider should matter, but I really do not know how it works behind the scenes.  You can always try to re-register (the only way I know how to do this would be to re-install BeoPlayer).

Stan