A question!

A saturday night poll!

By the way, I see I voted as number 2. So Peter, you think they are too old?

I have not voted!

Reasons for the way you vote are also most interesting! Is it sound quality, style and which colour would you get? Do you think colours are an improvement?

IMO both are classic designs, I just prefer 8000's over the 6000's.

 

Craig

Peter the only colours I like are Silver (as this is how they were originally available) & Black.

 

Craig

I do like the BeoLab 8000s, but design wise I far prefer the BeoLab 6000s. The simplicity is beautiful. Buying them in red or any of the other fancy colours ruins the simplicity in my opinion, so I prefer the black.

Sound wise the BeoLab 8000s naturally beat the BeoLab 6000s, but of course this depends what kind of sound you're after and where.

I just want to buy more BeoLab 6000s!

I'll nail my personal colours to the mast - I think the 8000s are the most beautiful speakers ever made! I love the organ pipe look and agree that colouring them seems sacrilegious in some ways! They make more of a statement than the 6000s which have been copied by many makes - though never as elegantly.

The 8000 are iconic and have a better sound then 6000.

The 6000 is also having a very nice design, but that has been copied by others. No one can copy the 8000 design.

Peter, what are you connecting them to BTW? What is your study system?

 

Craig

Black AV9000 - there is a white 5500 system with a Beogram 4004 fitted with a SMMC20EN in there as well though this is using CX100s and, via Beoport, Beolab 3s. Not sure what I will have eventually!

Then I would go with the Silver ones. Black AV9000 and Silver 8000's, Classic B&O.

 

Craig

Hi Peter

your missing a vote button

BL-8000 as front speakers, and BL-8000 as rear speakers

If you placed them next to a AV9000..! Then of couse there is only one choice if you ask me, the triangle look on the AV9000 and the BL-8000 would match perfect.

When we bought our B&o last time in 1997 my plan was to buy the 8000 as front and the 6000 as back speakers together with the Avant TV, but our B&o dealer convinced me to give the extra money for the 8000 as rear speakers also, at first I was thinking; "yes of course he would say that as an sellers view", but hey I'm glad we did buy the 4 BL-8000.

1.st of all they look stunning and more of them the better

2.nd when we played music, we often played on all 4 speakers (not when I should listen to music in my favorit chair then I only used 2 of them) but when we should play loud music and just dangle around the BL-8000 as rear speakers just had that extra power over the BL-6000, and when we saw a good movie, god damn that was nice setup.

The BL-8000 are so nice and a design that is one of a kind, I'm looking for 4 new speakers, and the BL-8000 organish pipe look would be a obvious choice for our "churchish" living room, but maybe the Beolab1 would look better because of the height they have, and the speaker socket on the BL1 fits the look on the Avant.

About the colour question: If your dare..! take the coloured ones but they maybe be "a flash in the pan", I would stick with the silver, they never get old-fashioned IMHO

Regards Anders (who miss the BL-8000 and regret that we sold the goodies after 5years)

Design wise both the 8000’s and 6000’s are beautiful speakers. The 8000's draw more attention, while the 6000's can be almost invisible if you choose the silver colour. I never liked different colours for these speakers anyway. Both speakers are reasonable performers, but the 8000 easily has the best sound quality.

I love the 8000's iconic design but was never happy with the position of the sockets. The position is about 20 centimetres above floor level so the power link cable and main cord are not level with the floor for the last 30 centimetres or so. The cable cover helps but it remains an aesthetic flaw in my opinion. A minor flaw perhaps, but still a flaw in my humble opinion.

The power link cable and main cord of the 6000’s have their own cable guides on the rear part of the base of the speakers and are less visible so to speak.

If you are the sort of person that can’t deal with the minor flaw of the 8000’s iconic perfection get the 6000’s. They are beautiful. If you think the 6000’s are too invisible get the 8000’s. I know this isn’t much of a help but these are just my thoughts.

The 6000's are a disappointing speaker and far too similar in style to cheaper available speakers.

I have both speakers. I had the 6000s as fronts for about a year, now I have 8000s as fonts and 6000s as rears and I really enjoy this setup. The 6000s are no bad speakers imo, but it sure is right that they have an extreme lack of bass. Their real strong point is the design. They are one of the best designs B&O has ever had.

I have the 8000s and two pairs of 6000s. With my Avant I had the obvious setup: 8000 from and 6000s in the rear. I've since replaced the rears with 4000s. Now I have a pair of 6000s in the study, and another in the living room.

The 6000s are wonderful speakers if you don't have the 8000s; however, I don't believe these should be compared. They serve two different purposes and that's why the 8000s are orders of magnitude better.

As always, the determining factors are money, sound, and style. If you can afford the 8000s, their sound is that much better than the 6000s. And imo, the styling of the 8000s is incomparable. Otherwise, the 6000s will do, that is unless you decide to consider 4000s. Oops, that's not part of the question is it?

 

Actually I have never had either 6000s or 8000s. I nearly bought 8000s but compared them with Pentas and preferred the Pentas at the time - the Beolab 2 was not out then. Equally I bought 4000s rather than 6000s when getting rear speakers partly for the sound but also for convenience of fitting.

 

I would get BL8k as front speakers for some reason:

- this is "the" classic B&O speaker

- matches perfect with the AV9000

- sounds better compared to BL6k

If you plan to get rear speaker later on, another otion would be to get 6000 now and switch them to rear later on (as Tom already suggested).

Concerning the color, I do like the colored versions, but have some doubts how cool you will rate their look in 10 years..... So I would prefer silver, dark grey or black.

Have to admit I'm a little biased as I do have 8000 as front speakers with 4000 as rears ;-)

 

Marcus

My Avant sounded great without any speakers attached, however when I added 6000's the bass disappeared.

I swapped my 6000's for 8000's and then later added the 2, tho I never had the opportunity to listen to the Avant-6000-2 combo. 

I had an Avant for years connected with BL8000s front with a BL2, and the sound was AMAZING. Maybe because when I parted ways with the 8000s, I had the 6000s up front with the BL2, I didn't notice much of a difference. The latest combo I had before parting ways with the Avant (in prep for a new TV next year) I had BL3s with a BL2 combo, and it sounded way better than the 8000/2 combination. Again it all depends on your personal ears and room.

I got the 6000s because 1. the used 8000s that I bought were stolen from in front of my door after delivery and 2. I got mad and went to a store and bought 6000s new because I figured 6000 euros for one week (with the BS4) was enough (hence not just getting 8000s).

The BL8000 remains a design icon and sounds pretty good. For listening at louder sound levels I think the addition of the BL2 is a 'must'.

Bieele 

'I am planning to buy a pair to complement my study system' etc. - just to relate to the original line of argument: is that 'study system' supposed to be/develop into a surround-sound system, or what?! Or just a stereo?

I have both BL8000, BL6000 - and BL5. The BL6000 + BL2 serve as study setup, ineed. The good news (for me, at least) is, as I listen to it, you don't get tired of listening to either spakers as all are ok,  but - and here comes the bad news - I'm not sure if I wouldn't want to change the BL6000 (and even BL8000) for BL3 instead, actually - while keeping the BL2, of course ...

(I didn't vote)

Otherwise, BL5 as fronts all the time ...