General Forum

Re: Audioholics B&O visit/review from 2006

soundproof — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:30:14 GMT

Actually quite a few interesting things that pop up when one searches for B&O. One impression I'm getting, is that many critical listeners are getting the point of the acoustic lenses. There is also a general movement towards active speakers, and in that department, B&O has the nicest looking speakers around.

This movement is fueled by people wanting to port music from their computers, and wondering what they need to to that well - in audiophile circles they're discovering that they don't need a large sound system if they have active speakers and a good DAC between those and the computer they're using.

I suspect a lot of reviewers get a big surprise when they come to Struer. Many are prejudiced and are apparently expecting to find a place filled with interior decorators and color pickers (I'm exaggerating just a tad). Then they see the collection in the museum, realize how B&O has been driving audio development and get to listen. But occasionally there are reality checks - one batch of reviewers invited to Struer was rightly incensed by the BeoLiving room used as the main demo-room. The hard wood wall behind the speakers were so against the "dead wall" principles of good audio that they couldn't get around to actually listening to the music. (The acoustic lenses of the BL5s ensure that very little sound energy in the mid- and top-frequencies go backwards). It's still form over function to have a wall like that behind the speakers.

I think that a lot of the misperceptions of many audio reviewers are caused by the strange interiors B&O chooses to photograph its components in - for every acoustically "correct" interior, you have dozens with marble floors, concrete walls and enormous plate glass windows. Anyone keen on getting the best possible reproduction of music knows such interiors are simply terrible - and therefore audio reviewers form the incorrect assumption that B&O doesn't know any better.

Good thing you posted it in the general forum, vikinger - that review deserves a bigger audience.

Re: Audioholics B&O visit/review from 2006

vikinger — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 02:58:20 GMT

That will teach me to read the vintage forum more often Soundproof!

Some of these old reviews are buried deep on the internet and Google does not find them easily, probably because they don't have many current pages linked to them. I've got into the habit of now searching using ''bang olufsen' and then placing two or more words in inverted commas to form a phrase afterwards. Sometimes you find a good review, sometimes you find a page you need to get out of fairly quickly!

Graham

Re: Audioholics B&O visit/review from 2006

soundproof — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:52:37 GMT

It's a nice article. I mentioned it in the vintage-forum, in the thread about B&O sound, as one of many examples where critics/reviewers come away from a visit to B&O with a completely different impression of the company than the one they had going there.

Re: Audioholics B&O visit/review from 2006

elephant — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:40:22 GMT

vikinger:

If you haven't read it before, this visit to Struer and associated review is worth reading.

Graham

Thank you Graham - it was a delightful read!

Audioholics B&O visit/review from 2006

vikinger — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:34:39 GMT

If you haven't read it before, this visit to Struer and associated review is worth reading.

Graham