The other day I came into a B&O store to compare BL9 and BL5. The 5s were connected to the powerlink out of a BV7, and the BL9s weren't connected to anything - quite decorative, but not doing much.
There was a really excellent looking BeoSound 9000 on a floorstand, connected to a pair of BL6000s. That player would have fed the 5s wonderfully, from the dig-out.

How about it? What are your stories of stores gone wild when it comes to being able to demonstrate what B&O equipment can do? Besides look good, I mean.

Another favorite of mine is when BL3s are mounted so close together you have no chance of getting a stereo perspective unless you put your head between them. Ah! Now you know where I got the inspiration for that!

 Let's share our Horror Stor(i)es! Mono-CDs used to demonstrate music system (it's happened to me) and all!

 

In one store, the sofa for viewing of the new 50" BV 9 was a distance of about 1.5m to 2 m away .

We watch our much smaller 32 " avant from about 4-4.5 metres away at home, so this didn't show the tv off in its best light - hmm I can see 10 pixels on the screen not in my peripheral vision!!

There was however a super cool rotating stand that had the 3 tvs on it - bv9 bv7 and forgot the other one, and I think it was controlled from the beo4

 

I was to a B1 store just after they had received the BL5 for the first time, and... It wasn't connected to the Beosound 9000 between them. They said they received them the day before, and that it was a little bit more complicated to connect than the other speakers...

I came back one month and a half later, and... The BL5 were still not connected, the man from the store said that he hadn't have the time to connect them! I never came back to this store where salesman always want you to buy the most exepensive items, even if it's a total nonsense. This episode proved me that they have absolutely no interest for the products they sell, because anyone interrested in speakers want to know what a pair costing 15000€ sounds like!!!

@mbee

Yes, I think you could safely assume the people in that store were not into music. Kind of makes you wonder, though. "Complicated to connect ..." ???
BL5s must be among the easiest to connect and set up speakers around.
 

beodude:

In one store, the sofa for viewing of the new 50" BV 9 was a distance of about 1.5m to 2 m away .

We watch our much smaller 32 " avant from about 4-4.5 metres away at home, so this didn't show the tv off in its best light - hmm I can see 10 pixels on the screen not in my peripheral vision!!

There was however a super cool rotating stand that had the 3 tvs on it - bv9 bv7 and forgot the other one, and I think it was controlled from the beo4

You say that but running an HD signal, sitting 2 m away from the BV9 is very impressive. They do that in my local dealer and it's actually pretty amazing, and because of the height of the screen in the BeoVision 9, it's very comfortable to watch. With the Avant though, you NEED to sit further away. It isn't HD and therefore has a fraction of the information available on the BV9.

i saw a bv7 mounted without a center speaker in a b2 shop here in luxembourg.

when i went closer to the tv, i noticed that the image quality was very bad and asked the dealer why. his reply: oh, thats why i have so many tvs connected to the analogue reciever and i have no amplifer.

well, if you want to sell that expensive tvs and demonstrate them to eventuall costumers: get one!

+1 for the viewing distance : 2m is almost correct with HD (but I admit it is better with 3m at least), and here in Paris, some stores doesn't have the place to put the sofa very far of the TVs!!!

smito:

i saw a bv7 mounted without a center speaker in a b2 shop here in luxembourg.

when i went closer to the tv, i noticed that the image quality was very bad and asked the dealer why. his reply: oh, thats why i have so many tvs connected to the analogue reciever and i have no amplifer.

well, if you want to sell that expensive tvs and demonstrate them to eventuall costumers: get one!

Sounds a bit like " You can go for a test drive, mate, but you'll have to get someone to push you as we have no petrol in it"

Andy T.

Killy :

"You say that but running an HD signal, sitting 2 m away from the BV9 is very impressive. They do that in my local dealer and it's actually pretty amazing, and because of the height of the screen in the BeoVision 9, it's very comfortable to watch. With the Avant though, you NEED to sit further away. It isn't HD and therefore has a fraction of the information available on the BV9"

It may be impressive but you could never view any tv of that size from a distance of 2 metres not even if it had an infinite number of pixels and reolution. You could watch it, but because of the way the human eyes work, - they focus on a particular spot and you see anything outside this spot in your peripheral vision. So the image could be of a whole person, but if you sit that close you may only see his head fully  and with everything else being in your peripheral vision you lose out on detail from the whole picture. A good rule of thumb is to make a fist and stretch your arm out and hold it up so that it comes in front of the tv from wherever you are in the room. If the picture is just covered by the fist, then you are sitting at the right distance from the tv. If your fist doesn't cover the size of the viewable picture on the screen, then you are sitting too close, and everything outside the area of your fist will be in your peripheral vision, and you will lose out on the whole image. Too many people seem to buy big screens to put in small houses and sit too close to them to view it correctly. They think as Killy seems to, that if the resolution is high enough then it's fine to watch close up but if so then they are missing out on the whole image!!

I have to second Beodude here. Makes little sense to jam a large plasma screen within 2 metres. Your eyes will be working overtime to cover the action, and you'll find watching to be strenuous; notwithstanding the fact that the image against your retina will be off in the murky colours peripheral territory. That doesn't stop B&O stores from jamming their customers up against screens, though. (They're not alone - I have seen lots of "emporia" with screens from other manufacturers that have the chair within the same two metres, in front of a 50 inch screen.

 Last year I was in a B&O store which had a screen with a BL5 on either side, right up against the screen, and with the chair about 1,5 metres from the screen. More amusingly anyone in that chair had the back of his head up against the back wall -- meaning those BL5 were hard at work mixing grout.
 

soundproof:

 Last year I was in a B&O store which had a screen with a BL5 on either side, right up against the screen, and with the chair about 1,5 metres from the screen. More amusingly anyone in that chair had the back of his head up against the back wall -- meaning those BL5 were hard at work mixing grout.
 

Lol, I think that's why they only had BL9s connected either side of the BV9 and no wall for a few more metres behind the seat hahah.

I agree that speakers close by the central unit does not make for very good listening. I think however B&O are as much interested in a 'look' as well as sound. By placing the central unit with the speakers close by they create a unit of three pieces that the customer can see looks aesthetically pleasing. If all the speakers were far apart you could not tell which ones were paired with which Master Unit. Each pairing tells a story and that is important to B&O.

beodude:

In one store, the sofa for viewing of the new 50" BV 9 was a distance of about 1.5m to 2 m away .

We watch our much smaller 32 " avant from about 4-4.5 metres away at home, so this didn't show the tv off in its best light - hmm I can see 10 pixels on the screen not in my peripheral vision!!

There was however a super cool rotating stand that had the 3 tvs on it - bv9 bv7 and forgot the other one, and I think it was controlled from the beo4

 

 

Beodude, what store is that?  We have the turning scene in our store, and our seats are about the same distance away.  I understand your gripe but we don't have much choice.  The reason for the turning scene is to save space, yet we're still limited.  If we moved the seats back another 0.5-1 m away we'd have absolutely zero floor space.

My pet hate is the way systems are set up. BL9s with the bass switch set to maximum, in a corner and the loudness and tone controls set right up. Sounded appalling.

Slightly off topic, but whilest we're on the turning scene subject.  Does anyone else on here have experience with the turning scene.  As far as I'm aware we were the first store to get one, and whilest it works most of the time, we've had loads of problems with it, especially when we got the BeoVision 9 in, the weight just caused the turning scene to break down on a more regular basis.

beodude:

Killy :

"You say that but running an HD signal, sitting 2 m away from the BV9 is very impressive. They do that in my local dealer and it's actually pretty amazing, and because of the height of the screen in the BeoVision 9, it's very comfortable to watch. With the Avant though, you NEED to sit further away. It isn't HD and therefore has a fraction of the information available on the BV9"

It may be impressive but you could never view any tv of that size from a distance of 2 metres not even if it had an infinite number of pixels and reolution. You could watch it, but because of the way the human eyes work, - they focus on a particular spot and you see anything outside this spot in your peripheral vision.

Don't worry, I know how the eye works - my dad is an optician (and has been into optics for a good 40 years!).

Agreed you wouldn't want to sit that close to the screen in practice, but the fact that you can and still view comfortably is an example of how well it can upscale a signal.

I think the 'fist' example is a bit extreme though!

The light in your eye falls on the retina which is covered in photoreceptor cells of which there are two types - rods and cones. Cones make up the central area of your vision, and rods make up the 'peripheral' area of your sight (they are far less sensitive to colour than cones btw, not that it matters in this discussion). Now what area this non-peripheral sight gives in relation to the amount of light falling on peripheral receptors, I'm not entirely sure, but I can tell you it's far more than holding out your fist at an arm's length! I will try and find out though...

Also, a small amount of the picture should ideally be in your peripheral vision as without peripheral vision, things would seem much 'flatter'!

Yes, but you only see detail with your macula which is your central vision. That is what will be covered by your fist. Seeing screen in your peripheral vision is an expensive way to waste money!

This is very true! I'm fine with watching tv within my macula, but when it comes to a group of us watching a dvd at night time with the beolabs fired up, the wide stereo sound perspective dosen't add up with what we see. I suppose you have to come up with a happy medium. We will be getting a 32" screen next, at a 3 metre distance, which is what seems reasonable.

 

It's a shame that some B&O stores have to be so small, but when you think about it, there is ALOT of gear in the store isn't there  

Peter:

Yes, but you only see detail with your macula which is your central vision. That is what will be covered by your fist. Seeing screen in your peripheral vision is an expensive way to waste money!

Well I looked into it (late last night), and the fovea is around 5.4 degrees, so I suppose a fist would be about the right size at arm's length! I admit defeat! []

Although my 17" TV is fist-sized from where I watch, and I find it too small! I would prefer something about twice as big.

Without consciously being aware of why, most people will place their TVs at a distance that accommodates the area of the retina that is most receptive to information. As I have understood it, in children this central, highly perceptive area develops. And children therefore use more of the retinal surface to perceive.
This is also why children are fond of glaring colours, and dislike images/characters with too much detail in graphic information -- they need more to kick off a response, and cannot process critical information.

This is also why children are closer to the TV when watching, preferring to lie on the floor. Not having developed the fovea's critical perception, they want to fill their retina with the image.