mbee:

A "standard person" with standard computer skills will NEVER

It's not impossible though and the personal hotspot thing is widely promoted by Apple. Plus no reason why B&O can't include it in their Beolit manual.

Anyway, moot point. It can be done and we'll see how/if they promote when it's....finally released.

Paul Winn:

Hi Moxxey, there is no way anyone other than rich B&O lovers will pay over £350 for this. At the end of the day it's a mono speaker in retro plastic. The BS3 is purely bonkers - it's madness!

I said the same thing - you can't put a "made in China" sticker on a plastic device, in an Apple store, and price it up at B&O prices, but my dealer was adament it would be closer to the BS3 price than £300. Remember that many people think the Zeppelin is overpriced at £400! Beolit has to come in at £299 for me, max.

My dealer said to me that the price tag will be about 700 euros... And he said it sounds better than the sound 8!!

Paul Winn:

Hi Evan,

Yes certainly did. The B&O name doesnt really mean a lot to them as half are not into the image of the brand and the other half work with me in radio were of course we use the pro and semi pro stuff from Apple, Pioneer, Sony and Tascam.

I find it interesting that they are liking the retro looks and feel to the product but not surprised at the same time. Judging by this response of say 40 - 50 young professionals, I think that this will be a hot seller at the Apple stores especially as BOSE have started their television ad's here in the UK for their bluetooth speaker aimed at a similar market. It will be interesting to see the rest of this range.

Hope you are well Evan!

 

I am doing great Paul, hope you are too!

Have you bought your BeoSound 8 yet?

The Beolit 12 initially struck me as ugly but now I am starting to imagine all the places I would put it in my space! Starting to like this thing...

Maybe with all that retro styling it won't look to out of place next to my 3000-2...  

moxxey:

Evan:

@Moxxy, there is a picture of the product label on the FCC/CE (whatever it is) site showing the label. It already says China.

Yeah, I know. But I still think it's a mockup/demo unit created for pushing through various regulations. I don't think it's a finished end-user product. It's rough around the edges, lacks controls and so on.

Oh clearly - I agree. I wasn't actually saying that beolit 12 was made in China, I'm sure that was a Danish effort, right down to the label!

Paul. ... When is the last time you liked a B&O product?

Everything I read from you is negative.

Didn't you hear? Paul loves his Mini!

I also don't know where he heard it was a mono speaker. In three pages I've seen very little correct information.

 

 

 

 

I have to say I don't get it either.  You spend time on a board for a luxury av brand, then keep saying everything is expensive.  I don't see why someone would spend thousands on a watch when you can buy one for less than £100, that's fine, I don't spend amy time on Rolex forums slagging off everything they do and saying they should be cheaper.

rednik:

I don't see why someone would spend thousands on a watch when you can buy one for less than £100, that's fine, I don't spend amy time on Rolex forums slagging off everything they do and saying they should be cheaper.

Wrong. I own plenty of very expensive Panerai watches, but I and others often moan that they should be cheaper :)

Some forum users moan a bit and it's something you just need to live with. The written word isn't anything like how we'd speak in person. We have various US software stores and you should see some of the emails we get from customers - sometimes they go straight to the swear words. They'd never do that in person.

If everyone was just positive all the time, life would be very boring indeed. That's why I think American's don't understand us Brits. They think we're very negative, talk things down a lot, but it's kind of an ironic negative. ie. we're really positive, buying products and so on, but just have high expectations and, as I said, writing words can come across as more negative than you would get if you spoke to the same person face-to-face. Mind you, on the flipside, some of the American over-zealous "that's AWESOME!" talk drives me nuts, too :)

Moxxey's point of view is really the only one that will allow you to participate in internet forums without wanting to tear your head off. The reality is that an enthusiast site, by nature, is going to be populated by passionate people, all of whom feel they have some personal stake in the machinations of the product or brand of said forum. It doesn't mean that some things I read don't get under my skin, but it's true that we're all just communicating spontaniously and epigramatically and that can lead to plenty of misunderstanding and percieved hyperbole. 

moxxey:

Mind you, on the flipside, some of the American over-zealous "that's AWESOME!" talk drives me nuts, too :)

I don't , thanks Derek!

I'm not really into this 'Retro'-thing. (thank You for the picture of the Beolit 600, Shinobi'52. I knew I'd seen this before, but couldn't remember the model). 

The reason B&O survived the sixties, when 15-20 other danish radio/tv manufacturers closed (and hundreds around Europe) , was because they started to make something different. Before that, B&O mostly looked like any other brand.
If it hasn't been for Jacob Jensen and David Lewis' futuristic and timeless design, there would have been no B&O today.

And now -in 2011, they say: 'Hey -let's make something that look like a transportable radio we made 50 years ago'...

Since the late sixties people could always recognize a B&O product. This Beolit 12 look like so many other retro products -made in China or Malaysia etc. -on the market today.

I certainly don't hope that's the road B&O is going down with their design... What will be next...A new Beosound 'X' for your livingroom, with a Teak cabinet -inspired by the 'Jet' or 'Grand Prix' models..?  

@Mjmedio.  If you'd read my earlier posts you'd have realised that I was saying wonderful things about this BeoLit! 

Ha yes Trip I do love my MINI, its sips petrol and has low CO2 emissions. Us Europeans are aware of the shortage of oil and are concerned about the environment!!!

You imply that Americans are unaware and don't care? That's only some of us. The Mini's a good seller here. We draw the line at your Fiats apparently. 

mjmedlo:

Paul. ... When is the last time you liked a B&O product?

 

Everything I read from you is negative.

 

Jonathan:

Paul Winn:

Ive bought B&O in the past but the sad thing is, would I recommend them to a really good friend? No way, i simply could not!  Sorry B&O but i've moved on. I find you overpriced, pretentious and you fail to deliver on performance! My B&O days are totally over and my life is nicer and more fun without them!

 

I don't mean any disrespect, but why are you here then??

You've asked him that before, to be fair.

You don't need to be a current pro-active B&O buyer to be on this board. I'm sure there are many people on here who love their vintage kit and have little or no attention of buying the new stuff. They simply aren't vocal about it! Most people don't say what they feel, they keep their thoughts to themselves.

I don't think it's our position to judge another board member based on whether he's not particularly interested in the current (or forthcoming range). If he thinks they are overpriced and fail on performance, fair enough. Looking back at Paul's posts, I would say he does contradict himself a lot. One minute he's all for a B&O product, then says they are overpriced and pretentious (mind you, a plastic Chinese-made Beolit 12, at £600, perhaps could be argued is overpriced - and I can't see that seling well in an Apple Store - I bet it's made for £20 ;)

I use a Bs3 everyday - mainly for FM ( yes Paul, FM !! ) but I also use it to listen to podcats ( mainly r4 factual stuff) quite abit.  Its good for music, but , imo, it excells at spoken word - so perfect for Radio4. 

So - if the new beolit is more music friendly - DAB, a bit more "depth" of sound, batteries, then I think it has a valid place and a ready market.

Price will be interesting - its up against the PURE & Roberts ranges, as far as I can see... neither of which are up above £300.  The BS3 comparison isn't valid to me - although it is still in the range, its a mono, FM, aluminium product from 6 years ago - in many respects its a legacy product - you may as well compare an early Sony mobile to a new Walkman touchscreen smart phone.

Currently, I use digital Radio ( R6) and streaming (spotify) on my link sytem everyday - but it is via a PC, into a line-in - via cable !!! -and accessed via AV/VTAPE on  my AVANT - so can also be accessed in the garden, kitchen, bathroom etc.

In truth, spotify is probably the most used source in the house - the kids all use it too.

I am interested in a beolit, for sure, subject to the price & specs.  Wonder if it will have rechargeable batteries ??  The picture suggests not.  Not "captive" ones, anyway.

 

I still listen to FM and much prefer it to DAB from a sound quality point of view. I think B&O badly needs a "proper" quality portable radio, an updated Beolit 600 if you like. The BS3 is too small, and the BS1 was too big. Whether the Beolit 12 fits the bill or not remains to be seen, but from the photo's posted it looks like a cheese grater to me!

Neil.   

Now this looks like an interesting debate - some of the theme of which carries on from the Unboxing Beolab 5 topic - about 'negativity' not being welcomed on the forum etc.  I'll go further, I really think the age of the portable radio is dead, and as for Moxxeys price point of £299 I think you are are least £200 short!!!  I am not sure that this forum is only to applaud everything B&O have done - I mean what is there to applaud about Beolab 4 at £1000 a pair?  I really hope that the pictures of the 'Beolit 12' are of a pre-production model, I am shuddering to think that B&O might even try and market that thing.

BTW I am hopeful that the administrators might allow me to change my user name to something more endearing and less controversial than KingofSnake - can I change my user name to Sepp Blatter?

 

 

KingOfSnake:

 I'll go further, I really think the age of the portable radio is dead, and as for Moxxeys price point of £299 I think you are are least £200 short!!! 

 

 

 

You may have a good point here... in Sept I went back into education to do a degree as a mature student.... quite a mix of ages in my classes, but I would say that , without exception, everyone under 25 (maybe 30 )  just lives via their phone.....text, messaging, music, radio, mail, web access etc etc.. The idea of buying a prtable radio would, i am sure, be laughable to most of them. 

In the same way, very few have a TV where they live- just use their laptops. 

Changing times.

 

KingOfSnake:

I'll go further, I really think the age of the portable radio is dead, and as for Moxxeys price point of £299 I think you are are least £200 short!!! 

I think you misread my post. I said it *should* be about £299 if it's a) plastic, b) made in China and c) being promoted in the Apple Stores (where people think the Zeppelin is expensive at £395).

I know it's going to be more than that. My dealer suggested BS3 price level and someone else said £600. At that price, I'm not sure if it will be quite as successful as the superb BS8, but I might be (and would like to be) proved wrong !

As for portable radio being dead, less so with the usual B&O audience. Indeed, I use my BS3 probably more than most devices - it's used when working to listen to Radio 2 in the background.

nice little beolit  , definetly a retro one..

moxxey:

You've asked him that before, to be fair.

I know, but there was no response...

I don't care, he can do whatever he likes, I was just curious as to why someone would be interested in knowing about products that he wouldn't recommend to anybody, let alone buy for himself 

I have a beosound 8 now. In addition to pretty much every other b&o speaker.

I can't wait to get a portable b&o device.

I have been stuck listening to too many Bose docks which have made me much more excited to hear the beolit.

I just hope it's in the neighborhood of the bs8 as far as sound.

And .... As an American, I can say I love my gas guzzlin Yukon, is AWESOME!

;)