is this Beosound just a glorified ipod? i have Beosound 9000/beolab 5's  and I have an apple mini on back of my BeoVision 7- 40 with itunes....what would be the advantage of getting the Beosound5, apart from the fact its lovely to look at?

If you treated it as a glorified iPod, then yes it is a waste of money.

If you treat it as a primary music machine to integrate with your other B&O products, then it becomes in my opinion a superb machine. This means, ripping all your music to lossless, appropriately filing music in logical sense, adding high-quality cover art.

I purchased my second BS5 a few months ago. Used model. It came with over 14,000 songs alraedy on-board. There was no logical sense to the file structure - albums/tracks appeared all over the show. Half the cover-art was missing. Some songs were in DRM protected AAC at 128kbs, a few Wav files at lossless etc... Looking at the mess, it is obvious the orignal owner, downloaded from probably a number of iPods, his/her PC and any other files lying around. I understand entirely why why original owner had got rid of it on this basis.

Once I'd sampled the whole directory and found the albums/tracks I liked, I re-ripped the same music from newly purchased CD's, and integrated it with my own original CD rips. It is now like having a BS9000 x 75 times over. i.e 450-odd CD's in wma, lossless with +500x500 px cover-art at your finder tips.

Do it right...and it is a stellar machine. Be lazy and you rue why you did not stick with an iPod.

10

Mr. 10:

Thank you for detailing this information out. A very good, concise explanation of what one has to do to more fully enjoy the much-heralded merits of this device.

That obviously should start at the store. Perhaps the B&O store that first sold your new treasure did not inform the original owner of any of these tasks ?  Or gave him, or her that option as an " nominal extra amount house call service, " which seems to be the trend these days.

Clearly by your description it is not simply plug and play, as many have been led to believe by the advertising. A little personal time, effort, and use of the grey cells will always reward the owner and enthusiast.

14,000 songs

SWISS_2:

That obviously should start at the store. Perhaps the B&O store that first sold your new treasure did not inform the original owner of any of these tasks ? 

I think the issue here is this product is not like previous products in so far that there is no standard physical media. As the technology matures, one would hope that it standardises. However, just now, the opposite appears to be true with greater and greater variations.

SWISS_2:

Clearly by your description it is not simply plug and play...... A little personal time, effort, and use of the grey cells will always reward the owner and enthusiast.

I think it is plug in and play but one must follow a chosen structure/rules as if one were physically storing CD's or LP's or tapes. How many of us have a random-ordered collection of CDs greater than say 100 cases? Most will place their CD's in some definable order. Also, with regards to the iPod, this is primarily a mobile device. Usually storing play-lists of favourate music and possibly only using the device on short journeys where other interactions are not necessay. The BS/BM5 is a completely different thing. It appears to me to be a traditional 2-channel hi-fi stereo which archives all your music collection as well. This I believe defines how music should be stored. I think people do not estimate that there is difference between the two.

I fully agree but want to mention espescially talking about the iPod that iTunes offeres many more options to sort your music files which are NOT compatible to the BM5/BS5 - so even having a well done library on iTunes does not mean it would work with the B&O combo;

and sometimes iTunes does not change the idTag properly - it sometimes is not WYSIWYG! If you are only a user this might leed to some problems which will reduce the fun and advantages with/of the BM5/BS5

only some examples:

had some tracks without artist - iTunes did not "write" the artist to the idTag (no chance - needed another software to do)
compilation: within iTunes no problem to tag as one album -> within BM5 you have to obey certain rules not getting "thousands" of albums...

So I would agree that it is very helpfull getting a little help by an expert; I haven't tried the new CD-Rip device - maybe this does a better job than doing everything on a PC/Mac

Redards Elmar 

Thanks for the valuable imnformation guys - I can see from your varoius replies that the best utilization of the BS5 is achieved with a bit of effort and good organisation skills. I'd be happy to buy it as long as it adds value to the overall B&O experience. I do get fed up changing CD's in the BS9000 and I also think the BS5 is a lovely piece of design. I've seen one in Dublin store with CD ripper attached and its reasonably discreet, though I know not everyone thinks so!!!

I cureently have a miniMac on the back of my BeoVision 7-40, and this holds my itunes library with the artwork, but the idea of having it all on a simple device like the BS5 is very appealing. I guess I can live with both the BS5 and the BS9000 and  keep the BS9000 on my wall as   as a very beautiful piece of art!

Thanks guys for the help.

paul

There's no doubt that the BeoSound 5 adds value and beautiful integration to your B&O system. Like the other posters have commented, you need to take the time to properly tag your music collection in order to make it attractive and inviting. Otherwise, all the flaws from your music tags become horribly obvious. 

The good new is that you can still use your BeoSound 9000 with the BeoSound 5. There is an option on the BeoSound 5 to select the "role" as audiomaster or not. However, I found that once I added the BeoSound 5, I never touched a CD again!

Be sure to discuss with your dealer the differences between the BeoSound 5/BeoMaster 5 and the BeoSound 5 Encore. The Encore has some severe limitations if you have a BeoLink home.

Mr10Percent:

How many of us have a random-ordered collection of CDs greater than say 100 cases?

Me.  This was one of the motivations for getting a BS5.  I'm terminally disorganized, and it has turned out great.  When I get a new CD, the first thing I do is rip it because, more often then not, it is lost within days.  Also, I haven't spent considerable time organizing the CDs.  8 out of 10 times, the CD rips fine and the cover art is acceptable.  Every now and again, I spend 30 mins or so clean up the residue.  Then again, I probably have a higher tolerance for disorganization than most.  It also helps that I don't have a huge classical or soundtrack/anthology collection as these can be kind of hard to find within the default classification.

Anyway, I think it's a great system.  I rarely use my BS9000 anymore - I would get rid of it, but the wife still wants it - great woman she is

Also, don't overlook the N.Radio feature.  The main issue is there are too many stations to choose from...

Stan

Regarding the BS 5 encore:

I download quite a bit from a number of sources online, and my Home Theatre PC is connected via Beoport to the entire system.

One recent album ( LEBEN by SCHILLER ) was not available anywhere legitimate online as a download. It was only available ( fortunately here in Switzerland ) from a CD seller on Ebay. Same with other music albums in other countries ( Brasil, US, etc).

So handling and incorporating CD music opposed to downloads does continue for some of us. The CD ripper makes sense, but good qulaity album art should be the expectation too.

I can tell you an ipod does more!  I bought the Encore about two months ago and haven't warmed to it at all.  Its tedious to set up if you have a large library, making playlists is tiresome, MOTS isn't as fantastic as everyone seems to make it out to be here and forget about using it for a party unless you like to stand next to the system all night.  I ended up shoving a cable to my apple tv and using my iphone as the remote totally negating the need for the system.  Yes, I should have done my research and shouldn't have listened to the salesman who said the beo6 would do 2-way.  Lesson learned.

if your salesman tells you that Beo6 does 2-way I would return the whole system; as a matter of principle 

Regards Elmar

paul:

Thanks for the valuable imnformation guys - I can see from your varoius replies that the best utilization of the BS5 is achieved with a bit of effort and good organisation skills.

Have a BS5 with BM5 and are happy with it, discovering "new" music every time I use it (MOTS).

And it should be a walk in the park with the new ripping device http://www.bang-olufsen.dk/ripping-device

/MikaelB

Apart from the discussion points mentioned in the thread, I would also mention the fact that the system is growing in value over the years with the SW updates.

My BS5 dates back to Feb 2009. Quite a difference in what the system could do then with what it is capable of today. Looking at what has been added since then in incremental functions, B&O is on a good trajectory. However, the user base "wishlist" is still not fully covered, so more to do in the future.

Be also rather nice if the system could perform a simple task when using aux and plugging it up to a visual display that it could sync at the same time.  Why can't it do this basic function?

My feeling now is that this BeoSound 5 or Encore simply is not up tp standard yet and is over complicated, lacking in functionality and tedious to set up tp the high standard required for a large music library.

Think ill give it a skip for thre timebeing and see  how it develops....Im not overly confident this will stay in production. 

Thanks for the advice guys - i really do appreciate the time and energy people on this site give to novices like me.

paul

I have had the BM5 for some years, and I recently added the BS5. The BS5 is my audio master. I have just finished re-tagging my music (approc 17.000 songs), and I really enjoy the BS5. My wife and kids also understand how to use it.

I use MOTS the most, and it really find some songs I would most likelye never listen to.

All the quests I have had that are interested in music - or technic in general - are really stunned by this music system, and especially the quality and ease when navigating. And I look forward to see what the future SW updates will bring.