What is wrong with FLAC?

Nothing

Dude1:

Thank god. The BC2 is a dog. The BS1 sounds awful. The 9000 is starting to look a bit tired in my opinion. Maybe these will force the company to start bringing some innovative, modern products to the market.

I think your analysis is correct but what innovative modern product will there be?  It is really odd there has been no announcement of any new player of any type except Beosound 8.  I suppose they might think a music player that plays music from Apple's new iCloud is innovative and that's probably true.  However who wants to listen to 256 KbPS music on a Beolab 9 or Beolab 5?  Although I have an iPhone4 and an iPad2, I have no need for a Beosound 8 or anything like it.  I guess I'll save my money and wait until next year.

As an owner of a Beosound 5, I am using it more but it is still clumsy to use.  Where is the two way Beo6? 

The BeoCenter 2 definitely should have been updated with blu-ray. As the cost of blu-ray players can now easily be found for around $100 USD, blu-ray has become more common. Since every blu-ray player can also play DVD, that makes the BeoCenter 2 redundant in home theater setups. I believe that in the early days of blu-ray, the excuse by B&O was that the drive mechanism would be too large and/or noisy, but with the advances in technology, modern blu-ray players are extraordinarily thin and quiet. Also, the omission of HDMI and upscaling on the BeoCenter 2 was unforgivable. Moreover, most current blu-ray players are internet tv enabled to include access to Netflix and Hulu. The BeoCenter 2 was clearly a perfect example of how B&O should have been making regular technological updates for this iconic design. Particularly to justify the price.

Alex:

I understand why B&O have done this, but what is worrying is that this leaves a lot of the B&O customers no option but to listen to MP3 through their systems (BeoSound 5 still doesn't support Apple Lossless).

While it is true the BS5 does not support Apple Lossless, it does support FLAC and lossless WMA so to say we BS5 owners have "no option but to listen to MP3" is certainly not true.  As a prior poster posted, "what's wrong with FLAC?  Nothing"... except it doesn't play in my iPod... so go cry to Apple... not that they'll listen...

For me, FLAC is the way to go for ripping or downloading.  Using Max, you can rip CD and store in FLAC one place, and shoot whatever format you need directly to iTunes at the same time.  Use BeoConnect to send FLAC files over to BeoSound 5.  Once you get the rhythm, it is pretty easy.       

Hey Linder don't forget Apple iTunes 256kpbs is an aac file. As good as 320kpbs mp3 which is dam decent. (it's the bit rate that all radio stations in the UK receive their music).

I think that we will have a wait a little while until Tue has been with B&O a while before see some more audio products that he has direction in!

Personally, I don't think that we will ever seen B&O making a stand alone Blu-ray player. Give it a year or so and it's all going to be streaming/downloads trust me, the youngsters have been doing this for years for their movie watching! I do like HD movies from iTunes as I can stream it to Apple TV, watch it on my iPhone late at night on the train, watch it on an iPad and my MacBook - multi dimensional i guess!

After 2 pages of pontification, I can confirm the BeoSound 9000 is NOT discontinued.

Lee

9 LEE:

After 2 pages of pontification, I can confirm the BeoSound 9000 is NOT discontinued.

Lee

I think was mentioned in  Tue interview also!!

The BS9000 will stay in the product line for now, in some regions this is a very important (and sold) product, especially Russia I think. Not many are sold in Denmark anymore.

alenvprekrsku:

What is wrong with FLAC?

I can't sync it with my iPhone or Apple TV (it won't even play or load up in iTunes), and there seem to be no bits of software which work as well with tagging large FLAC libraries as iTunes does with Apple Lossless. I know Apple Lossless (ALAC) is proprietry to Apple, but it'd be nice if B&O showed some half-vested effort to integrate high-quality sound with the biggest media company in the world...

Alex, there is FLAC player for iToy:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flac-player/id390532592?mt=8

beojeff:

The BeoCenter 2 definitely should have been updated with blu-ray. As the cost of blu-ray players can now easily be found for around $100 USD, blu-ray has become more common. Since every blu-ray player can also play DVD, that makes the BeoCenter 2 redundant in home theater setups. I believe that in the early days of blu-ray, the excuse by B&O was that the drive mechanism would be too large and/or noisy, but with the advances in technology, modern blu-ray players are extraordinarily thin and quiet. Also, the omission of HDMI and upscaling on the BeoCenter 2 was unforgivable. Moreover, most current blu-ray players are internet tv enabled to include access to Netflix and Hulu. The BeoCenter 2 was clearly a perfect example of how B&O should have been making regular technological updates for this iconic design. Particularly to justify the price.

Fully agree with you beojeff! I so much would love to buy a B&O BluRay player in the design of the BC2. B&O should even consider to have BluRay 3D as an option as well. Maybe with the new CEO, just maybe.

Yesterday, I saw this new blu-ray player from Samsung: brushed aluminum, ultra-thin, 3D, wi-fi, with internet tv, side-slot loading, and wall-mountable. I cringed thinking that the BeoCenter 2 should have been upgraded to blu-ray. At least this player wouldn't look out of place among my B&O.