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ARCHIVED FORUM -- April 2007 to March 2012
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This is the first Archived Forum which was active between 17th April 2007 and 1st March February 2012

 

Latest post 01-02-2012 5:04 PM by vikinger. 123 replies.
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  • 01-17-2011 7:51 PM

    • kai
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    Beosound 8 quality

    Hi

    Just wondered on what your thought are on above unit, I installed for a customer, and while I thought it looked ok, I thought the build quality was not up to Bang & Olufsen usual standard, and I did not like the remote, why not make it work with Beo 4. Also when docked with an iPhone, Itouch it does not look right, look good with the Ipad, what I find strange is they discontinued the Beosound 1, for the price the sound was very good, why not just take the cd unit away and put a dock on it. Come on Bang & Olufsen, looked into the crystal ball and produce some products that will create the want factor again,

    :)
  • 01-17-2011 8:35 PM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    The beosound 1 has been discontinued? 

    Beosystem 7000/6500- Beolab 4000 - Beosound 1 - A8 - Earset 3 - Beo4

  • 01-17-2011 9:59 PM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    I literally cannot keep these in stock. We're selling as many as we can make. So I think that the "want" factor is alive and well out there in the real world. 

    And it does work with the Beo4

    There is scarcely anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey. - John Ruskin

  • 01-18-2011 1:56 AM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Had a quick play yesterday - sounds great and I had no problem with build quality. As fas as I can see, the only problem to start with was supply. As Trip says, they seem to just walk out of the stores!

  • 01-18-2011 2:27 AM In reply to

    • jc
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Regarding the succesful sales B&o will see themselves confirmed this is the right way to go. As a comercial business, making money is a primary objective for B&o.

    Playing an iPod on the Beosound 8, soundwise you're dependend upon the quality of DAC in the iPod, or am I wrong? (apart from the codec ofcourse) 

  • 01-18-2011 3:56 AM In reply to

    • kai
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Well that's good to hear it's doing well, and that you can control it with the Beo 4. :)
  • 01-18-2011 5:43 AM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Sound is of course one of the subjective things but personally i think the sound spectrum of BS8 is quite thin compared to other docks. It was not the quality i would have expected from B&O, even if it's only an iPod dock.

    Bigger failure IMHO is that you cannot control everything from the BS8, you need to go between the player and Beosound. I asked about this from 2 dealers here in finland and the first one explained that B&O didn't get some kind of license from Apple (?) to do a rotary control. The other dealer told me that B&O wasn't able to manufacture rotary control up to their standards with this schedule...? Both explanations sounded so absurd i wasn't able to comment them in either of the situations.

    If the BS8 remote were available as an independent product sold without anything else, i'd vote it as the worst B&O product so far.

    BS8 is nice looking though. :)

     

    -Olli

  • 01-18-2011 5:52 AM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    redfresnel:
    the first one explained that B&O didn't get some kind of license from Apple (?) to do a rotary control.

    I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple had managed to patent a rotary control, perhaps in a limited context for this purpose. After that, it's a question of licensing, and how much extra would you like the BS8 to cost to have one? Big Smile

    -mika

  • 01-18-2011 6:45 AM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    As much as it'd take for being able to control everything from BS8.

  • 01-18-2011 8:26 AM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    jc:
    Playing an iPod on the Beosound 8, soundwise you're dependend upon the quality of DAC in the iPod, or am I wrong? (apart from the codec ofcourse) 

    Actually yes. The BeoSound 8 is one of the few products that's taking the output from the digital pins and using our own DAC. It's one of the advantages of some higher end docks. 

    There is scarcely anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey. - John Ruskin

  • 01-18-2011 8:44 AM In reply to

    • Puncher
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    TripEnglish:

    jc:
    Playing an iPod on the Beosound 8, soundwise you're dependend upon the quality of DAC in the iPod, or am I wrong? (apart from the codec ofcourse) 

    Actually yes. The BeoSound 8 is one of the few products that's taking the output from the digital pins and using our own DAC. It's one of the advantages of some higher end docks. 

     

    It's a shame B&O don't help themsleves by advertising the technical features and inbuilt engineering more than they do!

    THIS B&W page makes sure you know about the engineering effort and expertise that has gone into the latest Zeppelin Air (including "audiophile" DAC for internal and exterrnal sources) - The BS8 hopepage is quite bland and uniformative in comparison (IMO, of course)

    Generally speaking, you aren't learning much if your lips are moving.

  • 01-18-2011 9:13 AM In reply to

    • Chris
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    I completely agree about the lack of technical explanation, and all the work and research B&O puts, is always ignored. Something that might go some way to answering the critics of B&O. The Zeppelin has B&O ICE in it by the wayWhistle

    A Beovision 10-40 in black and red fret on order, Beo4, Beo6, many A8's, a pair of white and yellow Form 2's, Beocom 4, 28 inch Avant RF DVD, Apple TV and a wife that loves this stuff as much as i do! 

  • 01-18-2011 10:35 AM In reply to

    • Tim
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    redfresnel:
    i think the sound spectrum of BS8 is quite thin

    I am not sure, that I got the meaning of this sentence right, but if it means that the sound quality of the Beosound 8 is poor there are only two possibilities:

    1. You work for B&W, Bose or Sony

    2. You used poor MP3s

    I do not call myself a real audiophile but I do care about good audio quality: And it is easily noticeable, that with poor source MP3 the Beosound 8 sounds not very well. But if you use an audio-file (lossless) ripped from a very good CD (I used a CD from Denon, with classical music - a really good sounding CD) the Beosound 8 blows the competition out of the water! Of course it is not a beolab 3, But the B&W Zeppelin sounds so unbalanced in comparison and the bose sounddock just sounds to "loudnessy" if you know what I mean - Sony just sounds like it looks: cheap.

    Whatever you say, there are always things to cry about (think Beolab 3 - OH! The acoustic lenses are only made of PLASTIC!) the beosound 8:

    - The remote is to light (ok, I agree to this one),

    - It looks to much like a dock,

    - It does not look like B&O (well i think it does!)

    - It is made for products of this horrible fruit-company (how dare they!),

    - there is too much plastic (oh come on), not enough metal (500% more than the competition, they hardly use it at all because it is to expensive), 

    - The remote has not enough functions (Did you notice, that you can sleep an alarm with the remote in the morning?)

    - It has no FM-radio (read: internet radio, CD, Television, DAB, Bluray, other generic audio/video source,...) 

    - It has no real link room capability

    - It has no Airplay

    Please come on!

    This thing is an iPhone/iPod/iPod nano/iPad Dock, and it has to provide good sound.

    And it is hands-down the best sounding iDock on the market! Made by B&O! For below 1000 EUR!

    This thing is a bargain regarding the sound it delivers- not more and not less!

  • 01-18-2011 11:00 AM In reply to

    • Tim
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    redfresnel:
    f the BS8 remote were available as an independent product sold without anything else, i'd vote it as the worst B&O product so far.

    The remote is to light, it should have bean made from cast iron (or whatever the Beo4/5/6 is made of) but it works good and it looks great, the surface is made from metal.

    Did you even look at the remotes of the competition? Show me only one (!) remote that has better material and looks! 

    Please wait I'll help you out:

    Remote of B&W Zeppelin:

    http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/images/full_reviews/bowerswilkins/zeppelin/remote_big.jpg

     

    Bose Dock: Old and new remote:

    http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/08/SoundDock_Remotes.jpg

    Sony remote (down left):

    http://www.sempre-audio.at/images/News/Sony/Sony_RDP-X50iP/Sony_Docking_Station_RDP-X50iP_Bild_Breit_670.jpg

     

    or were you talking about the new Sony super remote with the ultimate-black-plastic-brick design:

    http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/2009/06/sony-nas-z200ir-wi-fi-enabled-ipod-dock-remote-detail.jpg

    Shouldn't we compare this Sony remote to this one:

    http://www.uncrate.com/men/images/2010/12/bang-olufsen-beo6-remote.jpg

    And now - let's look again at the beosound 8 remote:

    http://www.augustman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_1653_1348x1007-606x453.jpg

    It may be B&Os worst product till now (how you say it), but it is hands-down the most beautiful iDock remote on the market (and works as advertised by the way).

  • 01-18-2011 11:38 AM In reply to

    • Step1
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    tournedos:

    redfresnel:
    the first one explained that B&O didn't get some kind of license from Apple (?) to do a rotary control.

    I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple had managed to patent a rotary control, perhaps in a limited context for this purpose. After that, it's a question of licensing, and how much extra would you like the BS8 to cost to have one? Big Smile

     

     

    This is why I have no respect for Apple and do not support them in any way - they seem to take ideas that have been around for a long time in one form or another and slap a patent on it. I just hope more manufacturers start fighting this ridiculous company! FFS HTC somehow managed to infringe 20 apple patents with their phones and ended up fighting in court! How utterly pathetic! Not sure what the outcome of this was / will be I might look actually..

    Olly.

  • 01-18-2011 12:14 PM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Tim:

    redfresnel:
    i think the sound spectrum of BS8 is quite thin

    I am not sure, that I got the meaning of this sentence right, but if it means that the sound quality of the Beosound 8 is poor there are only two possibilities:

    1. You work for B&W, Bose or Sony

    2. You used poor MP3s

    I do not call myself a real audiophile but I do care about good audio quality: And it is easily noticeable, that with poor source MP3 the Beosound 8 sounds not very well. But if you use an audio-file (lossless) ripped from a very good CD (I used a CD from Denon, with classical music - a really good sounding CD) the Beosound 8 blows the competition out of the water! Of course it is not a beolab 3, But the B&W Zeppelin sounds so unbalanced in comparison and the bose sounddock just sounds to "loudnessy" if you know what I mean - Sony just sounds like it looks: cheap.

    I don't work for any of the companies, sorry.

    I was going to add about the sound being thin that i have listened to other docks with the same mp3 files. They are 192kbps/44kHz and some people may say i should use lossless or 256kbps+ bitrate or something else but these files are for an mp3 player which is portable and has capacity of 8GB. I don't know how much for example lossless files take space but i'd guess quite a lot. If someone here has earphones with which they can really hear the difference between 192 and 256 for example outside when jogging then i understand, but i still think usually this is not the case. BS8 is however indeed for mp3 players and not an interface for xTB capacity media server (like BM5). Of course it's up to you how good quality files you use but all i'm saying is that i have listened to several docks with the same files and compared the sound and in my humble opinion BS8 did not sound as good as i expected. I also consider the sound thin meaning the lack of low and high freqencies.

    I don't know about the quality of Denon player, i used MacMini when ripping.

     

     

  • 01-18-2011 12:30 PM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Step1:

    tournedos:

    redfresnel:
    the first one explained that B&O didn't get some kind of license from Apple (?) to do a rotary control.

    I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple had managed to patent a rotary control, perhaps in a limited context for this purpose. After that, it's a question of licensing, and how much extra would you like the BS8 to cost to have one? Big Smile

     

     

    This is why I have no respect for Apple and do not support them in any way - they seem to take ideas that have been around for a long time in one form or another and slap a patent on it. I just hope more manufacturers start fighting this ridiculous company! FFS HTC somehow managed to infringe 20 apple patents with their phones and ended up fighting in court! How utterly pathetic! Not sure what the outcome of this was / will be I might look actually..

    I ifind this pantent thing quite ambiguous. Nowadays it seems to be ok to patent things as long as you are not a huge company. I am not for Apple on this one but if you mean the patent should have been owned by for example B&O for decades now, i just would like to know why it isn't. Maybe there is difference in thinking between these two.

    -Olli

  • 01-18-2011 12:43 PM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    redfresnel:

    Step1:

    tournedos:

    redfresnel:
    the first one explained that B&O didn't get some kind of license from Apple (?) to do a rotary control.

    I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple had managed to patent a rotary control, perhaps in a limited context for this purpose. After that, it's a question of licensing, and how much extra would you like the BS8 to cost to have one? Big Smile

    This is why I have no respect for Apple and do not support them in any way - they seem to take ideas that have been around for a long time in one form or another and slap a patent on it. I just hope more manufacturers start fighting this ridiculous company! FFS HTC somehow managed to infringe 20 apple patents with their phones and ended up fighting in court! How utterly pathetic! Not sure what the outcome of this was / will be I might look actually..

    I ifind this pantent thing quite ambiguous. Nowadays it seems to be ok to patent things as long as you are not a huge company. I am not for Apple on this one but if you mean the patent should have been owned by for example B&O for decades now, i just would like to know why it isn't. Maybe there is difference in thinking between these two.

    -Olli

    (First of all, let me stress that I do not know if there actually are any patents involving this particular issue)

    This is business as usual on the mobile phone front. Apple, Nokia and others sue each other all the time over real or alledged patent infringements, then comes somebody like Qualcomm and sues them all. These are often settled and I have no idea how much money actually moves around these issues, and which way.

    The difference is that Nokia's patents usually involve some hard core engineering, while Apple's patents centralize on user interface, external design and stuff that is quite easy to stumble upon by accident without any purposeful infringements. Apple has recently patented for example a logo being used as an antenna, and using a rotary control to emulate a rotary dialler of an old phone.

    My view is that patent applications for silly little obvious things shouldn't be accepted to begin with, but that's US patent office for you...

    -mika

  • 01-18-2011 1:29 PM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    tournedos:

    My view is that patent applications for silly little obvious things shouldn't be accepted to begin with, but that's US patent office for you...

    Agreed. :)

     

  • 01-18-2011 1:39 PM In reply to

    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    redfresnel:

    tournedos:

    My view is that patent applications for silly little obvious things shouldn't be accepted to begin with, but that's US patent office for you...

    Agreed. :)

    How dare you question the US PATENT OFFICE! Super Angry

    • B&o bottle opener
  • 01-18-2011 7:48 PM In reply to

    • Stonk
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    burantek:
    How dare you question the US PATENT OFFICE! Super Angry

    Ordered. That's the wife's birthday present sorted. Cheers JaffYes -  thumbs up

     

                                                                                                  

    If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

  • 01-19-2011 4:56 AM In reply to

    • Alex
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    redfresnel:

    I don't work for any of the companies, sorry.

    I was going to add about the sound being thin that i have listened to other docks with the same mp3 files. They are 192kbps/44kHz and some people may say i should use lossless or 256kbps+ bitrate or something else but these files are for an mp3 player which is portable and has capacity of 8GB. I don't know how much for example lossless files take space but i'd guess quite a lot. If someone here has earphones with which they can really hear the difference between 192 and 256 for example outside when jogging then i understand, but i still think usually this is not the case. BS8 is however indeed for mp3 players and not an interface for xTB capacity media server (like BM5). Of course it's up to you how good quality files you use but all i'm saying is that i have listened to several docks with the same files and compared the sound and in my humble opinion BS8 did not sound as good as i expected. I also consider the sound thin meaning the lack of low and high freqencies.

    I don't know about the quality of Denon player, i used MacMini when ripping.

     

    I can only assume it was something to do with the room acoustics in which you heard the BeoSound 8, or that the position switch was incorrect; was it mounted against a wall? When I've listened to the BeoSound 8, I've been very impressed with the bass extension and power. More impressive than BeoLab 6000s for instance IMO.

     

    chris:

    I completely agree about the lack of technical explanation, and all the work and research B&O puts, is always ignored. Something that might go some way to answering the critics of B&O. The Zeppelin has B&O ICE in it by the wayWhistle

    Some more technical data would be nice, but then again that goes for all of B&O's products IMO. At the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding (ie, the sound quality).
    I hope I don't offend anybody here, but I've always thought the Zeppelin sounded absolutely god-damn terrible, beyond any level. The Bose dock absolutely blows it out of the water IMO, as do other (much, MUCH cheaper docks). Then again, ALL of these docks seem to sound absolutely terrible. The BeoSound 8 is the first dock I've listened to which I'd be happy to live with as a sound system, and it's really not that expensive for an amplifier and pair of speakers. The build quality is outstanding in comparison to the other products out there too IMO, and considerably better than some of B&O's other products.
    £800-£900 on a pair of speakers would break down as £400 on the amp and £400-500 on the speakers, which is at the higher-end of budget hifi.
    B&O have hit the nail on the head with the BeoSound 8 IMO.

     Weekly top artists:                   

  • 01-19-2011 5:39 AM In reply to

    • Tim
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Alex:
    or that the position switch was incorrect

     

    That could easily be the case - with a decent MP3 at 320Kb and direct comparasion the Beosound should easily win against the competition.

  • 01-19-2011 5:40 AM In reply to

    • Tim
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Alex:
    The BeoSound 8 is the first dock I've listened to which I'd be happy to live with as a sound system,

    +1

    Smile

  • 01-19-2011 6:17 AM In reply to

    • jc
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    Re: Beosound 8 quality

    Personally I think MP3's even at 320 kb do sound thin, compared to FM radio on my Beosound 3, so that will be the same for the beosound 8. Anything other than lossless is responsable for a worse-than-can-be sound on your dock.

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