I was going to post this in the BeoSound 5 photo thread, but then thought that it didn't really fit there. So here goes:

Now that music has gone digital, it's really worth it to rethink what you want from your music centre. Where you would previously dedicate a substantial portion of your budget to the source (CD-player, record player, etc.), you are now free to spend the majority of your budget on the sound source: the speakers; and on the unit that translates the digital signal to a signal that your amplifiers/speakers understand - the Digital-to-Analog-Converter, or DAC.
In addition, you want to control playback as conveniently as possible, now that your music is in the form of digital files, stored on a harddisk somewhere. Unfortunately for B&O and many other providers, the company that provides the best solution is not in high-end hifi, it's Apple, which recently dropped Computer from its name and became Apple Inc. I think we can safely assume that Apple intends to provide A/V content and the means to store and control it, and that its solutions will remain at the cutting edge of what's possible.

My music server is hidden away and connected to a wireless base station. I have a DAC connected to a Beosystem 6500, another connected to a Beolab 5000. My third DAC-solution is inside my BeoLab 5 speakers, provided by B&O - they receive an s/pdif coax signal from an associated Mac mini, which is connected with wireless to the server and the speakers produce sublime sound.
I'm using an iPod Touch and an iPhone to select and control the music on my server (through the Mac mini and other computers), and to decide on one or more destinations for that music. It's all working quite seamlessly, and the transfer speed through wireless is such that I can watch concert videos stored on the server on various computers and screens throughout the house.
I've added an AppleTV to this setup, which gives me access to a large repository of films and tv-series, in HD-quality. I've stopped ripping regular DVDs to the server after the AppleTV made its appearance - and now only rip concert and opera DVDs, that I then put away in a box in the basement. In our household, we've pretty much stopped watching broadcast television.

There's nothing on the market that competes with the flexibility of the above solution - the disadvantage being that it requires some setup skills, and that you occasionally must reset the system. (Once in a blue moon, really, but it does happen.) Sooloos, Linn, Logitech/Squeezebox, B&O, Loewe and many others are offering "streaming content" solutions - many mysteriously still using Microsoft software at its core, but fortunately providing interfaces to simpler ways of controlling playback.

I find that being able to go through my albums at the flick of a finger, or just searching, with a unit that fits in my shirt pocket and which accesses my system from anywhere in the apartment, is just perfect - and that providers of music systems who do not allow for this kind of interaction will suffer for it. As always, it's worth looking at what the kids are doing - and they're using their iPhones and iPod Touch units to control their iTunes playback on their Apple and Windows enabled computers. They'll be expecting the same convenience from whatever music system they purchase in the future.

I'm spending the money I would otherwise have used on a conventional source on upgrading my speakers, and on acoustical treatment of the listening rooms in which they are placed. I am also going to put down CAT6 Ethernet cabling to the critical rooms from the A/V server room - while wireless provides high throughput, it can't compete with the rate and stability of physical cabling.

So what does this mean for solutions such as Sooloos and the BeoSound 5? I think that if B&O make the BeoMaster 5 expandable, and give it strong capabilities, then they have an elegant solution that will provide a troublefree interface to a new way of listening to music. (I hope it's troublefree! As I wrote above, I do occasionally have to reset the music system I have set up now, and it would be good if it just worked every single time I switch it on. BS5, Sooloos, Sonos and others are providing such one-click solutions.)

As many are making their digital music purchasing decisions now, it would probably be smart if B&O were to officially announce the capabilites of BeoSound 5 pretty soon!