kokomo:

According to Loewe, they will open six more Galerie retail stores in the UK this autumn. They'll be located in Chichester, Kensington, the Lake District, Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton.

This will bring the total number of Loewe Galeries worldwide to 250 by the end of 2009.

The Kensington Galerie in London joins Loewe's other London Galeries in Hampstead, Battersea and concessions in Selfridges and Harrods.

Kevin Kelly, Loewe UK's managing director, says: "This second phase of Galerie openings endorses the great success of our existing Galerie stores since they launched a year ago."

Loewe Galeries can also be found in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Copenhagen, Rome, Vienna, Moscow and Hong Kong.

The opening of the new stores will coincide with the launch of Loewe's flagship Reference TV.

Seems to contrast somewhat with B&O's contraction of retail outlets.

You forgot Roermond, this was the first Loewe Gallery in Holland!

But don't forget that Loewe products are not available in North America as they abandoned this market several years ago.

Jean

I cant see the point of most of the loewe products.

They don't look good  physically, and there picture and sound is ofter comparable with asian brands of 1/4 the cost.

It could just be me, but i also find them incredibly difficult to use.

I was asked by a relative to connect up a new dvd player to her loewe tv. Plugging in the scart was easy, but having to delve through 50 menu's to assign and map the dvd button to the relevant scart port was a complete nightmare.

couldn't agree more

if i couldn't justify buying a bno i'd buy a pioneer or sony

loewe are imo pretty mediocre at best

and the user interface reminds me of klingon , terrible UI and terrible remotes

Flappo The Grate:

couldn't agree more

if i couldn't justify buying a bno i'd buy a pioneer or sony

loewe are imo pretty mediocre at best

and the user interface reminds me of klingon , terrible UI and terrible remotes

Whilst I may agree with you (and others) about the products, the point of my posting was not an attempt to convince you or anyone else to buy one nor to say that their products are in some way superior (or even comparable), but just to point out that they seem to be expanding rather than contracting their retail operations (USA excluded!).

This may not be an indication they are doing well in the market, rather it may be a desperate attempt to get them out of some trouble with a positive marketing strategy, I don't know. It just struck me to be in stark contrast with very recent postings reporting B&O retail outlets closing all over the place.

If for example, Mercedes were closing dealerships and BMW were expanding theirs, there would be little merit in posting comments such as "I would never buy a Mercedes, they're  rubbish " or "BMW are better" is there?

Have to say that I think they look rather good - the reference range particularly. I like the electrostatic speakers and the TV sets have always looked good. No specialist dealer up here or I would go and have a look and listen.

hi all i was invited to see the loewe reference 52 inch 200hz lcd the other day and i will say that the picture quality is incredible it also looks the part aswell. it  has a 500gb hdr built in and i also got the chance to listen to the electrostatic speakers to, they sound okay if i'm honest but not as good as some of the b&0 speakers i've heard. imo i think that they took some style cues from the bv9 and wrapped it up into a really slim profile but thats just my op.

the funny thing is i went down to the new store in kensington to check out some of the tvs and have always had a soft spot for the individual range as i like the style and the minimalism. i also like the bv8-40 but didn't like the design of the protruding speaker.

i had the oppunity to bring a couple of dvds to view on the loewe and jumped to a few of my favourite scenes of i robot and spiderman 3 and i have to admit that i wasn't that blown away with the picture. i had a thought in my head of what i thought the picture quality would look like and i was quite dissapointed with what i saw.

theres a feature on there called digital movie mode which is supposed to smooth motion and although it was activated it didn't look that impressive to me the dvd was upscaled but in my existing setup i watch alot of upscaled movies aswell as blurays and my philips tv produces what i think is really sharper and clearer picture.

not being happy with the picture that i had just saw i left there and went to a b&0 store i asked for a demo on the bv8-40 and watched the same scenes that i had watched on the loewe and the picture and sound totally blew me away i couldn't believe what i was seeing and hearing the upscaled picture on the bv8 looked so much sharper and richer in colour and the bass that was coming out that speaker had my mouth wide open.

the picture looked so life like and very very sharp after reading some owners complaints about the film mode i asked if they could turn it off and to my surprise the picture still looked amazing. i definately think that the bv8 had the more high end picture i will admit though that i'm still torn between the design of the loewe and the picture of the bv8 i think if the bv8 had a watered down design similar to the bv7 it would be a no contest situation but i suppose the design of the bv8-40 could grow on you after a while.

i had a loewe ( for 3 days ) , it was an experience i would rather forget

terrible service , poor quality product and zero backup

at least i got a full refund and put it towards something decent

loewe strike me as bno wannabees without the depth of quality and sheer class that seperates bno from the herd

as for the car analogy i'd liken them to audi , a pretentious company that would love to be in the same league as mercedes and bmw but just fails completely ( had an audi that was awful , got a merc - that's exc )

nuff said

Hi

I have never heard of or seen any Loewe shops in Sweden. However, around where I live, it has been a small trend that B&O shops has started to sell Loewe as well. Sort of splitting the shops. A nice move I think. Probably too difficult to survive with only B&O. I have a Loewe Connect myself and we are quite happy with that TV. I can not agree with people who find Loewe complicated to use. We find it very simple with a very good UI. Design is a matter of taste of course, but I like both B&O and Loewe.

B R

Clakke

hi flappo the great what screen do you have at the moment? and do you find the picture to be a major step up from the loewe tv you had for three days.

No, No, No Flappo, my car analogy was NOT meant to be taken as an endorsement or comment on the quality or otherwise of any particular make of car, so the introduction of your AUDI comparison misses my point entirely!

I was just making the observation that Leowe are apparently opening more retail outlets whilst, according to reports on this forum, B&O were shutting down some of 'theirs'.  

It matters little or nothing if Loewe are total & complete rubbish, put together with string, candle wax and old cardboard cereal packets! The fact is they seem to be doing OK as regards opening shops. That's all I was saying.

Nuff said!

It would seem that Loewe have positioned themselves where B&O used to be, that is selling attractive products sufficiently superior to the mainstream to be able to command a premium, and still be affordable to a sizeable number of customers. B&O have long since abandoned this market, and I would suggest are suffering now as a consequence. We can only hope that B&O can weather the storm, but I for one would like to see a return, in part at least, to more affordable attractive products, that are within reach of a wider customer base.
Perhaps B&O will take notice of the success of Loewe!

Neil.

Neil:

It would seem that Loewe have positioned themselves where B&O used to be, that is selling attractive products sufficiently superior to the mainstream to be able to command a premium, and still be affordable to a sizeable number of customers. B&O have long since abandoned this market, and I would suggest are suffering now as a consequence. We can only hope that B&O can weather the storm, but I for one would like to see a return, in part at least, to more affordable attractive products, that are within reach of a wider customer base.
Perhaps B&O will take notice of the success of Loewe!

Neil.

Hi

When we bought our Loewe Connect, it was like you described. Now, it is time to get another TV. I have compared the prices from Loewe and B&O and have found out that Loewe prices has gone up quite much since last year. The difference is actually not that much anymore, if any at all. We have not decided yet. I am just greatful that we don´t not have to buy so big screens, since we have a projector. Damn how expensive it has been with TVs that looks descent. Maybe we should go for Sony/Samsung/Panasonic or...?

B R

Clakke

We have a Loewe Spheros HD 42", purchased as a floor model from one of the last remaining Loewe retailers before they left the US market. It has an unusual resolution - 1024x1024. The plasma picture is amazing on HD, less impressive on SD (our old nothing-special Panasonic tube beats it). Sound is also very ordinary, has built-in very boomy "subwoofer", and build quality is also lacking (there's a plastic cover behind the TV covering various cables, that never stays on). However, we got it for a good price, the exterior design looks great, and it also has B&O-esque "curtains" and motorized stand.

The Loewe fits so well into our living room and has rarely given us problems, so it's staying there for awhile. Just wish the sound and SD-upscaling were better.

Leo