General Forum

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

ajames — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:57:19 GMT

I've often been tempted and tried a few different turntables out instead of my original TX - the result was as mentioned in previous threads - forever setting it up, making sure that the tracking was correct, and then it skipping due to my wooden floors. In the end this exercise just makes me appreciate my Beogram all the more as it just plays the record, with good sound quality, no distortion and is not affected by walking towards it.

The same is true with my Avant - loads of my friends have LCD/Plasma things with blue ray and sound processors, huge speakers and hundreds of remote controls. The Avant/DVD1 and Beolab 4000's are much easier to use, integrate and look cool and even now still has people asking if it's High Definition. Friends who stay learn how to use it in minutes which can't be said their systems.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Evan — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:32:40 GMT

I will say that every time I run into audiophiles or my few audiophile friends, I usually end up preaching to them how they should just enjoy their music, and stop fussing! Why do it at all if you are not enjoying the music?

Initially I bought B&O for its sound/engineering merits. I now consider appearance also, but it isnt my first priority.

My primary system does have a large amount of beo content, but there are some large non-beo pieces I have integrated.

I use my BM4500 as a pre-amp only and think it is quite modern even if it is older than me! I use a Beo4 and the simplicity is great.

Jonathan, I don't think your request is far out of the question. With Tue's mention of entry level products to lure in the young ones, I'm sure the thought is being considered by B&O.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Peter — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:43:10 GMT

The problem with the Beo 1 was that it had too few buttons! It made working the TV it was designed for almost impossible! Teletext was a disaster. There is obviously a balance between design simplicity and ergonomics - the Beolink 1000 is a good example of this.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

bayerische — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:06:38 GMT

beocool:

bayerische:

John, I'm a nr 3.

Can I join that club as well?

Sure, it's even free!

To add to my statement, B&O was my first hifi-set. I got a Beosystem 2500 setup for my 15th birthday. I still have the Beocenter 2300, it's now 15 years old, and still works perfectly. From the Beolab 2500 I upgraded to Beolab pentas. A huge investment for me at the time (I was 19) but it was worth it.

Then came the surround sound hysteria... Well I couldn't afford a B&O surround, so I went with other marks, this way I got into High-End as I didn't care too much about surround sound, it was just something you had to have in the late 90-ties, early 2000.

After years of constant upgrades I had a very nice and very expensive 2-channel setup. (About 30.000 euro)

I went for a Beolab 5 demo, and there it was, I had to have them.

So I'm a recovering audiophile, but I never left B&O completely, the Beocenter 2300 and Beolab pentas was always there, and still are.

At present I'm a Beophile, probably won't recover.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Michael — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:21:31 GMT

Jonathan:

Before you start thinking "what a crackpot! what about 'this'? or 'that'? or 'the other'?", consider the success of the original Mazda MX-5! This wass a simple manual rear wheel drive car that is enjoyable to drive and just simply does what it should. No fussy electric roof, flashy this or that. Just a basic enjoyable 'thing'.....

Any thoughts???

Ha! I thought you were a crackpot lol

I agree that the MX5 actually put the fun back in driving and really spawned a whole renaissance: z3, slk, et al followed suit.

I would love things to be basic: why does the iphone only have 2 buttons. I remember that B&O remote that was developed before the apple remote, just a couple of buttons: lovely.

I often think that electronics should follow the VCR trend: you popped it in. There were only a few choices: fast fwd, rewind, stop, play, pause, record and eject: and how many older people (well in my family) still use this as their benchmark. "Wow a DVD is nice, but it's not as easy to use to record on tape"

Beolab 5 may be a bargain for some, but for me it's $30k, which is really an average yearly salary take home for some people. But agreed they are simple in their approach: Jon, they may be the MX5? well maybe the slk lol.

:-)

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Step1 — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:13:00 GMT

Great post by John there. I defo fit in #.2 even if I had modern I would still enjoy the older vintage stuff due to early memories and lusting throughout my childhood!

I have always argued B&O are ahead of everyone else when it comes to simply enjoying music. Of course they take things a step further and enhance not just the listening & user experience but actually living with their equipment is of course, itself a pleasure!

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

folkdeejay — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:01:15 GMT

not sure thats true.... consider some of the high end designs with no EQ, minimal connections and a very short, "clean" signal path.

The cost of many of these very expensive products ( aside from dealer margin and purchase tax) is in the case materials, the labour and the cost of sourcing/matching high grade audio components.

Brands like Naim, Rega, Quad, Densen, Linn etc often have/had very simple, clean designs - both visually and electronically. But they are not cheap.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Chrisreunion — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:31:02 GMT

I guess the reason why we buy B&O is that, compared to other high-end material, it is more or less just "plug and play".

What I like with BeoLab 5 is the same "plug and play" philosophy, the speaker calibrates itself, and eventually you'll spend more time listening to music, rather than finding the right speaker placement, cables, power cords and thickness of your curtains...which is what most high-end fanatics do.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Jonathan — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:12:31 GMT

Surely sales of the 'basic' Beosound 8 have shown this not to be the case...

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

bsantini — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:25:21 GMT

Simple: does not = $

The universal equation of niche consumer audio

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Jonathan — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:51:06 GMT

Reading this thread made me think...

Wouldn't it be great to have a B&O system that just went 'back to basics'?

Something that is easy to use, looks good, and sounds good. No fiddly extras; just a great, simple system.

Before you start thinking "what a crackpot! what about 'this'? or 'that'? or 'the other'?", consider the success of the original Mazda MX-5! This wass a simple manual rear wheel drive car that is enjoyable to drive and just simply does what it should. No fussy electric roof, flashy this or that. Just a basic enjoyable 'thing'.....

Any thoughts???

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Peter — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:10:19 GMT

I agree. One of the defining characteristics of early B&O was that you didn't need to read the manual! If you did, it was merely to confirm what you had done was correct.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

beo-ap — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:41:04 GMT

"I used to buy B&O really because it was well made, looked great but particularly because it was easy to use - one button and it was playing. I suppose the Beomaster 2400 was what really attracted me; no buttons visible at all. It all seems so complex now"

My first B&O was a BM3000, the successor to the 2400 you mention Peter. And yes, it was also so very simple. Not just to operate, but also to set up. In an age when nobody had presents for radio, the BM3000 had 4 or 5 presets. Setting these up was dead simple. Now everybody has a gazillion radio presets, but I now need the manual to set up a radio preset on my BS3000.

I guess the move upmarket means that installers are now responsible for all of that.

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

beocool — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:08:43 GMT

bayerische:

John, I'm a nr 3.

Can I join that club as well?

Re: BEOLAB 5 IS A BARGAIN !

Peter — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:31:35 GMT

I agree - superb post and puts it much as I think. I think it is great that all sorts of products exist to allow each and every person to listen to music in whichsoever way they like.

I do however have a confession of my own - I now listen to music mainly on non B&O. I still have my main system plumbed through the house but it doesn't reach the kitchen (walls too thick for me to be bothered to drill the hole and too solid for wireless) and I am having issues with my music library working via remote on my iPhone since changing my internet connection. I therefore mainly listen to my iPod , either in a dock (non B&O) or through headphones (sometimes B&O). I just listen to the music, not the hi-fi . If being analytical, some of the sound reproduction is not the best, but it is easy to use and I like the music. Laughably, when I do use a B&O system, it is usually my Beomaster 5500 and a pair of CX100s - which are hardly hi-fi at all!

I used to buy B&O really because it was well made, looked great but particularly because it was easy to use - one button and it was playing. I suppose the Beomaster 2400 was what really attracted me; no buttons visible at all. It all seems so complex now!

On the tweaking front, I did experiment briefly - on the LS3/5A forum there are all sorts of setting up tweaks - soon gave up as quite frankly, I have more important things in life!!