3200 ? - Not quite so much ripping tracks as laboriously playing and recording!

I'd go for the BS4 personally, but the 3200 is a design classic.  I think they will both last as long as each other, but the 3200 seems a little more 'solid' in my opinion.

Only my opinion though!!

Lee 

The 3200 is really beautiful and nothing beats the feeling you get when you wave the hand in front of it's swift and silent doors, but both systems have poor encoding rates (128kbps) resulting in very compressed sounding music, and it's styling is admittedly beginning to date. I'd recommend the BS4, it is more flexible, visually stunning, and you can copy your higher quality music from the PC directly onto a whole bunch of 2GB cards, which i enjoyed so much i bought a Beosound 2 to further utilise the SD format. I've read that the BS3200 has a 'creaky' chassis noticed upon moving the unit, where as our BS4 feels as though it was was carved from stone.

The BS 3200 has been around for awhile: The design is over 20-25 years old,  I was told in Struer. Amazing.

But it performs quite well enough copying music. CD copying is pretty straight forward, and once copied on the HD,  I then edit the tracks out that I don't want. When I download MP3, I copy the music from my PC onto a CD, and then onto the 3200 HD again. The music downloaded is now on the PC, available through the Beoport, and also on the 3200.

The CD ( printable ) is then given a cover of my own in an HP 5100, and rotates out in the car collection. A Bose music system plays the MP3 CD ( I wish it were B & O ) but that is what came installed with the vehicles. 

We have a Beoport which allows us to listen to N.RADIO or N.MUSIC, but we don't leave the main PC on all the time. This is where the 3200 + the M-L system shines.

The Beo 4 then takes over to activate M-L speakers and the 3200 music collection. All night if you wish, and equally in each speaker room. We have it set-up as the Home Theatre system centerpiece, DVD, CD, and PC sound. I connected a WLAN in the house and can switch between Internet or SAT TV using the 3200, upstairs in bed if needed.

I do like and use SD memory sticks: It would be nice to finally see the SD slot featured in a car of my choice someday. I've done some future model testing for Porsche for the past 5 years, and it is coming with the Panamera. When it does I'll probably then move on to the BS 4, which as mentioned is a beautiful looking design. But for now I very happy with the BS 3200.

There are a couple of other members here that should chime in as they have some unique thoughts and ideas I've learned from on BS 3200 usage: Calling over the Suisse Hills here to:  SANTIAGO - DIGA ME.

 

Re encoding. I read in B&O documents that it is 192 kbps. What is correct ?

You are correct. 192 is the maximum you can select. However I use 128.

I removed 3 old CD recordings manually on the unit just now, which took less than 1 minute. This will clear up space for newer CD's in the future.

.............wait for BeoCenter 5. It will be available in march/april 2008 in US.

I have a BS 4 which I prefer over the BS32000. BS4 is more discret and that give him a big advantage!!

 regards....

 

Seeing as I have a 3200 I'd say go for the 3200. Played with the BS4 enough in the store but sorry there's just something missing on it. The classic double doors and looks aren't there on the BS4.

CD wise am more than happy with it have about 40+ CD's on it's HDD, however I really use the BeoPort and Mac running iTunes, which I'd recommend too.

 I guess BS4 is OK if you want DAB radio (not sure if 3200 has that option)

Good point on the DAB Radio with Beosound 4. It isn't available on my Beosound 3200, but I can get CLASSIC FM ( London ) using N.RADIO with the Beoport, and I know this is a DAB Radio Station. One of the great features of having Beoport and M-L.

I listened to CLASSIC FM  when I worked in London, or Kew Gardens, and the stereo sound coming through the BS3200 and BL 4000, even BL 2000. is very close to an original DAB radio.

One of the mistakes I made was leaving my DAB radio ( B&O ) in my London flat when I sold it, saving a bit of shipping weight and allowing me to move up to a newer B & O system. But N.RADIO didn't exist then either.

Agree that a Mac - Beoport solution, at least when you exceed 192 kps is excellent.
However, where can you select 192 or 128 kps. Is this hidden in a service menu ?
My 3200 is from 2005.

Between the BeoSound 4 and the BeoSound 3000 I would take the latter every time. In my opinion, it is a design classic. However, I should mention that I have owned a BeoSound 2300 in the past, which gave me so much happiness for many years. It did not play MP3 files or take SD cards; only radio and CD but my, what a statement it made. It had a smaller round piece of glass clamping the CD opposed to the larger one used on the later 3200 systems. If you took MP3 and SD cards out of the equation I would definitly suggest hunting down one of those. It was a magnificent system until the BeoSound 9000 came along which was even more magestic!

Thanks for this post. You are taking me back to the days of Bang & Olufsen products that were the absolute dreams of the range for me. All of these products have firmly established themselves as top B&O design, form and function classics, totally unsurpassed, so you couldn't go wrong. Before signing off however, I must be honest and say that there is a certain 'something' about seeing the BeoSound 4 wall mounted, but I still don't think it has anywhere near as nice a design as the BeoSound 3200 and earlier models.

At the end of the day, follow your heart. Best of luck!

Simon.

another difference between the bs3200 and bs4 is the maximum size for mp3 files.

the bs3200 stores up to 396 cds (no matter whether 80min or maxi cd), organized into 4 different groups. the hdd is like coffin in a grave that is still open: you can record and play back and that's it.

for the bs4 you can use sd cards with a size up to 2gb(?) giving room for 20-40 cds at 128kbs. of course sd cards are detachable and rather inexpensible so you can hold a couple of them. but i guess whatever sd card is in the bs4 it is always the wrong one so you have to change it.

imo the bs3200 is for the lazy user (like me :-) who does not want to bother about the size of free memory until it is running out.

 

obe:

imo the bs3200 is for the lazy user (like me :-) who does not want to bother about the size of free memory until it is running out.

I've had a BeoSound 4 for some time now and still can't fault it. SD cards are very cheap these days and mine has an Apple Airport Express connected to it for wireless iTunes. I can also use the SD cards in my BeoSound 3, which I'd recommend you buy too.