I thought of posting this under the What System thread, but then I thought why not start a thread on the topic of successful demos you all have done at home ... where we have knocked the socks off our family, friends, or guests ... and they have gone *wow* and had a B&O lightbulb moment.

[ now admittedly this demo had some Apple *wow* in it too ]

Friends were dropping by to catch up over some wine and nibbles.

In preparation I attached my Macbook to the HDMI and analogue audio connections of our BoeVision 8, loaded up the iPhoto book I have made of our latest trip, started iTunes on one of the Genius Mixes, I loaded a CD and an SD into my BS4, and we were ready to go ... 

I selected PC in the family room where the BV8 is and L-PC in the sitting room where the BS4 is so on arrival the guests were greeted to pleasant music from their entry at the front of the house (BL 6000s) and as they walked through to the back (BL 3s)

As we sipped the wine I asked casually if they wanted to see the montage of the trip ... and handed them a wireless Apple control to step through the iPhoto book ... so the first *wow* was how great the layout of the pictures looked, and I disclaimed all credit explaining it was Apple auto-magic

Then we got to the second *wow*, I said "yes, this is coming from my Apple" and dropping out of iPhoto I flipped into ITunes and:

- showed where the music was coming from

- showed a tourist HD video podcast of London's borough market

- played an audio podcast from Oxford University

- and played an HD episode from a TV series.

One friend then said "don't you play CDs any more?" 

So then I gave the third *wow* and:

- played a CD from the BS4 in the sitting room

- explained that the BS4 had a memory card that my BeoSound 2 (translation for audience "MP3 player") and played music from the card

- and then I accessed "RADIO" to finalise the demonstration

So the other friend picked up the remote (Beo 4), hefted it and said "it's heavy because of all the batteries it needs to reach the other room".

So I said "not really", and explained the system was "networked" and the same audio sources were available in the bedrooms using any of our Beo 4s.  

Fourth *wow*.

And all I set out to do was show the holiday snaps :)

So what is your *wow* story ?

Usually, turning on my BV8 is sufficent to get a lot of Wow...

Playing iTunes music on the various beolabs (using Airport express and not Beolink) with the iPhone as a remote creates some wows too... It's just science fiction for some people!

People love my BS4500. They always say wow! when I tell them it is from 1988. That's when they start asking a whole bunch of questions about the website and the nearest dealer.

At the same time everyone is like "Bang and who?" in the states. All they know is Bose as high end.

evman140:

At the same time everyone is like "Bang and who?" in the states. All they know is Bose as high end.

My personal demos have ranged from the following excerpt to folks that knew what they were looking at, but sadly, you are right! B&o is basically unknown in the states...

A young lady listening to my BM6000...

Visitor: You have an 8-track player!?!?

Me:

I am glad Apple was mentioned. Regardless of your gear or your visitors' interest/knowledge or lack thereof, the one thing that floors everbody is picking up the iTouch and playing music on demand...

...Oh, I have an iPod, could you come over and set mine up to do this?

My sister came by a few weeks ago with her husband.

I said: I got that tv picked up.

When it was for sale I asked him if he could help picking it up.

My sister: Wow it looks like new!

Me: It's from 1998.

I then demonstrated how Beolink works.

My sister: Ah Beolink.

Not bad for an 11 year old Beovision AV9000.

It can be quite irritating when you have to explain everything to them. I wish B&O would really catch on over here. I feel like I am the only person in the mid west that knows anything about B&O.

evman140,

I too am feeling alone here in the midwest.  All too often people will think you're talking about Bose if you say B&O, so I just say Bang & Olufsen...which ususally gets the Bang & "What?" response.

Everytime we have visitors they all take looooong looks at our B&O items, but usually say nothing, if they ask , I reward them with a little encouragement to play

I live in Montreal, Canada and I have to say that B&O is just little better known that in the US, but always regarded as elitist.

A good story is that I sold a pair of my reconditioned CX100's to a friend of mine and I helped him install them. My friend had these gigantic old speakers he wanted to get rid off.  Just about finished installing them when a buyer for them showed up to buy those big ugly things. He was directly smitten by the nice sound coming apparently of those big speakers and bought them on the spot at full asking price. When he was outside getting this car ready for loading those big speakers up, we realized those big speakers were already disconnected and the sound came from ..........the newly installed CX's ......
Now we had a dilemma , either confess to the buyer that what he heard came not from those big speakers but from the little CX100's or let the deal go through and sell those old big speakers .....

Well, I confessed and the buyer didn't go through with the deal but ended up buying a pair of CX's from me.  

My friend never forgave me for that and even less so for me introducing him to B&O.

He now has quite a collection of  the B&O 'classics' , much to his wife's dismay..... lol

i had a lot of "wow" moments with my friends,just pushing my home theatre (BV4-50,BL3,BL2,BL4000,BL7.2) with the dvd of BLACK HAWK DOWN movie....16bit audio version.Amazing,the helicopthers were landing in the living room ^^.

One thing the everybody notice is the beo4 is really heavy(i comment,this is not plastic garbage) :):)

Interesting Elephant. As a guest, my reaction would probably have been "WOW", what a show-off!!

What did you follow this up with, showing them your stamp collection for the next 3 hours?

kokomo:

Interesting Elephant. As a guest, my reaction would probably have been "WOW", what a show-off!!

What did you follow this up with, showing them your stamp collection for the next 3 hours?

 

No :-)

I had to sell the stamp collection to pay for the Beo 4

I recently had a party where I had the BL4000s cranked up so we could hear them outside.  More than one guest commented along the lines of "Wow, those little speakers really sound great"  One asked "where's the sub?"  Another, asked "where's your amp?".  When I told him that the amps are built into the speakers, he was stunned.  I then showed him my BS9000 and BS5 (in another room with BL8000 + BL2)...  "Wow, I always thought B&O was overpriced crap - this sounds awesome."  The BS5 then drew a crowd with everybody getting a chance to spin the wheel.  When I showed how I could control the volume with my phone, I could see that some were beginning to recognize that I have a sickness...  I try not to show off my gear... I like it better when people are drawn in by their own curiosity.

As to the perceptions of B&O in the US, I was involved in a meeting with folks from my company's R&D group (I live in the midwest but work for a CA software co).  I heard one of the product managers make an analogy to the effect that "we don't want to build B&O speakers - you know, put all the money into the looks and not worry about the performance".  I was going to ask him if he had ever actually listened to a B&O speaker, but it wasn't the time or place.  I'm also not sure that many actually understood the analogy either (given the low profile of B&O).

Stan

Exactly Stan, my shop teacher would always say "we aren't building a swiss watch!" 

That saying is a bit more common than the B&O iteration.

I always get a massive "wow" when I change the volume of my tv (BV7-40) with my beocom2 when somebody rings - not only wow but also very useful  - that and the curtain.

The BS9000 always gets a good response - children are always hugely impressed and when we were chatting with friends with some random background music there was always a pause in the coversation when the changer did its thing. Great!

Hello

It's great to hear all of these stories..

Mine of late have been a little different..usually centered around beoport freezing..not being able to switch between N.RADIO/N.MUSIC. Technician coming again next week to try and give me back some functionality (yes im using a dreaded MAC- apparently beoport is compatible with MAC according to B&O website!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

People however are always impressed with the beolab 9's, even before they are switched on. (I have a white pair).

I had a friend over recently to listen to some 80's vinyl on my white beogram 7000 (with new SMMC1)- he was amazed. Human League never sounded so good!!!

Visitors look suspiciously at the beocentre 2. Too polite to make comment until they see it open and then they gasp. Then everyone wants to touch it and put finger prints on it!!!

Another friend described my B&O like an Alfa Romeo car, great to look at, fantastic performance when it works, but often doesn't. On one level I agree..we really have had a lot of difficulty linking our products and getting them to work properly (BV8-40 in living room with beolab 9's, mac computer, beoport, DAC and beocentre 2, beogram 7000.... a Beocentre 6 in a link room used as tv and music source). I don't think what we have is so complicated but apparently not many customers here (Sydney) go to the level of integration that we have...

Here's hoping next week will finally resolve these issues and I can come back with stories about wowing our friends at an upcoming party at the end of October.

I've attached a pic of our new TV.

David Coyne

Stan:

I could see that some were beginning to recognize that I have a sicknes

Sad isn't it :D

Stan:

you know, put all the money into the looks

Looks ≠ BeoLab 5s !

danezro:

I change the volume of my tv (BV7-40) with my beocom2

yes !

for me that is another great example of the integration.

I use mine even when people aren't ringing just because it is conveniently to hand ...

And it provides a powerful override when teenagers have the Beo 4 :D

david coyne:

BV8-40 in living room with beolab 9's, mac computer, beoport, DAC and beocentre 2, beogram 7000.... a Beocentre 6 in a link room used as tv and music source). I don't think what we have is so complicated but apparently not many customers here (Sydney) go to the level of integration that we have.

Hi David,

sounds a great set-up ... can't see the picture :-(

To me the integration of it all is the magic that continues to make the wow factor

Of course the whizzz of the 9000 CD change is special.

So is the opening of the 3000/3200 doors ... I must confess the BC 2's wings don't give me that wow.

Each piece of kit usually has something special wow feature that has pushed the limits of design or technology, but over time it is the integration wow where "the whole that is greater than the sum of the parts" of which the beocom volume control is a great example

Note to self: buy the keyring for Christmas :-)