I am wondering what is the need of new BeoSound 5. If I have BeoSound 9000 + BeoPort connected to PC I can play MP3 files from my PC and built in CD changer can play my exsisting CD collection in CD quality. Just to see what I am listening on a small BeoSound 5 display, is this worth 5.000,-€ or what else can BeoSound 5 do as only playing MP3 files and pictures on TV, is there any magic built in for 5.000,-€? In my opinion BeoSound 5 it also looks poor oposit to BeoSound 9000 which is ra eal B&O and already a classic system.

Exact same thought Im having; even worse case:

Beomedia 1 + BS9000 = same price as bsm5

I think that a good thing is that it is compatible with itunes.. but to what extend is the question? I hope that it organises music as good as itunes does.

Personally, i am really after a solution that doesnt require my pc on in order to listen. In addition, selecting songs via beoport isnt as easy as it being up on screen, i.e. jumping playlists etx

I don't see any advantages with new BS5 as I don't use i-tunes. But why is B&O doing BS5, only to be compatible with Apple systems? Is MP3 audio format of the future? I think CD is much better in quality, but who knows.

Avus,

CDs have been with us for nearly 25 years now, having lasted longer as the dominant music delivery system than any previous single format; and, no, don't bother...I intentionally distinguish between 78rpm lacquer, and 33.3rpm, 45rpm, and 16rpm vinyl....  With the advent of the internet, and the spread of fast broadband connections (Moreso here in the colonies, than on the continent I hear), most observers predict the death of all forms of physical media; at least for the mainstream consumer.  It has been almost 2 years since I bought an actual CD, but my music collection has continued to grow.

Clearly, Bang & Olufsen, like everyone else in the business, must develop a strategy to deal with the changing face of consumer audio.  As I discussed in one of the other current BeoSound 5 threads here, the BS/BM 5 represents B&O first 'real' thoroughly thought out digital media product.  Thy simply must have one, but what can it possibly bring that is 'B&O' enough to make it desirable?  Since you have a BeoSound 9000, let's explore that avenue for a moment, and see what clues we may find.  Before its release in Spring of '96, the BS-9000 was shrouded in about as much mystery as the BS5 is right now...the only description I could pry out of anyone was that it looked like a row of 6 BeoSound 2500's standing side-by-side...not very encouraging, I must say.  When I walked into the showroom in Atlanta, prior to the Olympics there, and they pulled the shroud off of it, and it swept from top to bottom, I was slack-jawed in amazement.  I remember it vividly.

The funny thing is that in the beginning B&O really didn't see the need for a CD changer at all...the legend is that demand in the US and Asia, not Europe, eventually drove them to develop the thing.  David Lewis' vision of presenting the CD's as art, and in effect as the Graphic User Interface, is what brought the 'B&O' approach to the look and feel of what many would have predicted to be just another box full of CD's. 

By now, my music collection is so large, that I really can't even store all of my CDs properly in my listening room, they're in boxes in the basement, and I have to purposefully go searching for the one that I want.  Even with enough shelving to put them all on, I am reduced to glancing at the edges, and trying to remember the cover, and the contents...and then there's all the music on my iMac...even with Cover Flow, and iTunes Genius, browsing in the living room can be tedious, and Genius only works based on 'tags' present in the music files, or that I laboriously add myself. 

B&O are touting their More Of The Same technology as a key feature of the New BS/BM5.  I think that they intend to make the music itself part of the GUI this time. 

I think we will all be surprised that we have missed the point this time as badly as many of us did 12 years ago in predicting the BeoSound 9000. 

I think it is intended to supplant our current audio systems, not support them.

I think most of us will want one.
 

I hope you're wright and we're not, but I think a cd/sacd or dvd player would be very nice like the B&W Liberty has got.

 

RussR

I agree with almost all of what you said but rest assured that when a customer comes in to the local B&O store to look at what's new in digital media, its going to be a difficult sell.  My reasons are:

1. Millions of people are already using iTunes, iPods, and AppleTV plus other brands.  Change is a difficult sell even when it is so cool as the Beosound 5 is.  Also you need to convince people of the change and then tell them they must keep iTunes because that's how you get the music onto the BS5.  It will be a little easier for Windows users. 

2. The challenge of the disgruntled Beomedia 1 user.  I must admit that when I saw the Beoconnect procedure posted, I thought that I didn't care how cool the Beosound 5 is, I would wait until they got it right.  The customer support and updates for Beomedia 1 was not Bang & Olufsen at its finest.

3. Of course there are people who want to go digital but have no idea what it is or how it works.  Many people in this category are the very ones for whom money is not a concern.  However they just want it to work and don't care how.  Moreover they don't use computers very often except for word processing and email.  I would love to hear the sales pitch for that kind of person.

4.  Finally there is me and other long time owners of B&O products.  I have 3 complete systems that include one way and two way remotes and turntables.  When I go into the store to test the Beosound 5, I will want the demonstration done with music stored on my laptop which I would bring with me.  No demonstration with the canned B&O music is good enough for me.  As an owner of a Beomedia 1, I will be loading music that is a problem on the Beomedia 1 like multiple CD albums.

I will be keeping my AppleTV for video because I do like the movie rental feature.  If B&O is working on digital video, they had better hurry. 

BeoBird,

One of the things I like most about B&O is that, with their facilities way off in the middle of farm county, they have rather often given the impression that they don't care what other manufacturers have done, or are doing.  They seem to sit back and simply wonder "If I could make it work the way I wanted it to, what would that be?"  I find some of their choices , well challenging to me to say the least, but rather often I find myself agreeing with them.  My citation of the BeoSound 9000 in my previous post fairly screams that attitude.  

BeoSound 5 clearly looks ahead to the coming era where there is no physical medium as such.  It is perhaps arriving a bit early for some of us.  But look at the success that Apple enjoyed with their original iMac.  Critics lambasted them for not including a floppy drive...lambasted them for not providing ANY removable drive in this year's MacBook Air...perhaps there really are things we don't need!  I'm prety sure that my iMac can rip audio files as well as any drive B&O could provide in the BS/BM, so why bother?

By the way, despite it's introduction to the press in January, the Libery is still not on B&W's we site, sp perhaps the Danes are not the only ones with trouble delivering new technologies?  At least it'll have B&O icePower amps in it when it does arrive.
 

[quote user="RussR

I think it is intended to supplant our current audio systems, not support them.

 

Totally agree, its not a replacement for say the 9000 but an addition for a new era in enjoying your music.

[quote user="RussR

I think most of us will want one.

Remains to be seen.....

I think it is intended to supplant our current audio systems, not support them.

 

Do you won the lotery

Maybe harddisks will be the future, but I still don't like that idea. I lost thousands of mp3 files a few years ago because my Seagate harddisk was broken after 4 years. Since then I had back ups, and thank god I have got those, because last year my extern Freecom harddisk died also !

What I try to say is that cd's, dvd's, blu-rays or whatever won't dissapear. Maybe we can live without them, but then you really need a back up of a back up or much much much better harddisks with a longer lifetime. If we haven't got those you will loose everything when your harddisk is broken. Just the point that harddisks may survive 10 years when you're lucky, but they can't beat the 20-30 (or maybe 50) years of the cd.

A music server is IMHO one of the best solutions for storing your cd collections and ripping them in full res. However, the Beosound 5 don't seem to be really in tune with B&O's "not letting technology dominate your life philosophy". Beosound 5 will be kinda like a slave product that needs to be then connected to a processor if you wanna connect to a home theater, it doesn't have wireless streaming functions and you will still need other sources to play the rest of the medias besides CD. If B&O is forward thinking enough, they should make Beosound 5 a modular product, which means it can be upgraded to a Beosystem 5 whenever you like when funds allow. Modularity meaning that you can add extra functions to Beocentre 5 by inserting high-res audio ripping card, high-res video card, high-res digital/analogue surround sound decoder and wireless streaming etc.... Since it already is a 2 box solution, the hidden box can totally be as complex as B&O likes it. B&O should look at Swiss high end lifestyle brand like Revox or the the "world best" hard disk player from Nova Physics for inspirations regarding for the launch of Besound 5. Imagine Beosound 5 with a base price of 5000 euro upgradeable to a 15000 euro full blown high end system, with only a sophisticated touchscreen interface as its control. It will be such a waste if B&O doesn't go this route. Because I really miss buying B&O products. 

I guess I am the digital contrarian here.  I was hoping Beosound 5 would be a replacement for my main music system which is a Beocenter 2. I do like the Beocenter 2 but I only have it on to play music from iTunes or Beomedia 1.  I no longer play CDs, DVDs, or listen to FM radio. The local radio stations I listen to are on n.radio including international stations I enjoy. 

BeoBird,

Of course you're right about having a back-up, but even that seems a minor irritant in some ways.  In no particular order, I've had CD players destroy discs, I've had cassette tapes go 'kamikaze' on me and take the tape deck out as they died, and I've had LP's destroyed by sunlight in a car on the way home from the store.  Physical media all have their problems as well.  Back-up drives are getting cheaper all the time. 

Konig,

Just remember what forum you're posting on.  Friends laughed when I got my BeoSound 9000, which in 1997 cost me $4000USD, at a time when you could buy a Denon Carousel for less that 10% of that.  My Avant?  $8500 for 'just a TV?' is all I hear.  But price is not the same as value my friends, and here among the B&O faithful, price alone can often be secondary.

Why could it not be a replacement for the beocenters?

Based on the naming conventions B&O have been using, the BeoCenters imply Audio, and Video support.  Now, while the BM5 will almost certainly support video in some way, the BS5 is focused on audio playback. 

Don't fret though, I think there is more to come for the BeoMaster 5 family. 

Well that was what I thinking koning. Totally weird move for B&O. With that touchscreen... it should totally be a beocenter. Also... maybe B&O can think about optional plugin cards to support electronics from other brands ie... XLR/RCA outputs/inputs and Ipod Syncing. 

other brands? I hope so,but I don't think that's gonna happen.

Why not just skip the launch of Beosound 5 and come out with Beomaster 5? Beosound 5 kinda look useless in the current line up where networking the current Beosounds with a computer seems like a more convenient solution. Without wireless audio streaming and uploading capability, it is kinda troublesome for people who already has Music loaded in their home servers/desktops. With wireless they can totally just mirror their itunes/music libraries with the Beosound5. 

BeoMaster 5 is the socket unit, BeoSound 5 is the head unit & socket unit together. The BeoMaster 5 can be standalone, although you wouldn't want that...

The issue is not what BeoSound 5 does or doesn't do, but that no one on this thread (save me) has seen it yet. Russ' BeoSound 9000 comparison is dead on. As a product, the 9000 makes virtually no sense when you outline its features in a vacuum. When you see it and touch it and watch it move, however, you realize that you're not dealing with a box of features.

The same is true with the BeoSound 5. It is an answer to a question no one is wise enough to ask yet. We're all so caught up in the birth of a new media that we can't look back yet and say "what was really a waste of time and what was truly essential." That is, as Russ points out, the benefit of having our HQ on a remote farm in Jutland. We don't have to react to trends. 

As I've said before, everything up until now was incomplete, unreleased, over-promised, or just a frankenstein of parts. The BeoSound 5 is a mature and rewarding music system. If after seeing an playing with the BeoSound 5 you still prefer an iPod remote or surfing lists while sitting at a desk, then you're probably not ready for us anyway. 

wonderfulelectric:

Well that was what I thinking koning. Totally weird move for B&O. With that touchscreen... it should totally be a beocenter. Also... maybe B&O can think about optional plugin cards to support electronics from other brands ie... XLR/RCA outputs/inputs and Ipod Syncing. 

All evidence, and reliable rumours, indicate that there is no touch screen on the BeoSound 5, WE.  Sorry. 

And perhaps its just here on the left side of the pond, but XLR connectors?  Really?  We only see those on Professional/Studio/Broadcast gear here...or on equipment so esoteric that even the SteamPunks quail in its presence. 

RCA's or a minijack output seem like a good bet for the BeoMaster 5 though.

iPod synching?  Wouldn't that require that Apple allow file downloading from the iPods?  Even within their own hermetically sealed environment iPPods are only allowed to upload directly to an authorized computer on the same billing account, and then only for purchaesd music...which I think you'll agree is the worst possible quality. 

Beobird:

I hope you're wright and we're not, but I think a cd/sacd or dvd player would be very nice like the B&W Liberty has got.

 Hey BeoBird,

I've done some homework on the 'Liberty' and it seems that there is quite a row going on in the B&Wworld forums with folks complaining about a $15,000USD 'Home Theatre-in-a-Box" with what appears to be a 4" LCD screen. 
 

It has PowerLink and digital output amongst others. No XLR, that would be next to useless. The only 'advantage' to that would be the possibility of balanced connections, which are frankly wasted at line-level.

Alex:

................ of balanced connections, which are frankly wasted at line-level.

...........not actually true but I will agree XLR connections are of little or no use in the consumer hifi/video arena as little else in the market uses them.

Balanced connection however is used in your existing Masterlink system - the audio signal is a balanced, differential pair, allowing long cable runs to be used whilst ensuring interference free audio distribution around your house.

All of this makes me laugh.

Everytime B&O release a product there is this overload of speculation leading up to the release. Everyone has their opinion on what it should or shouldn't have but B&O can't be all things to everybody.

I have Beolab 5 speakers. I don't currently use a computer for my music as I don't like the quality of the sound. If I can load all my CD's on the BS 5, turn the computer off, access all the albums easily and can't tell the difference between the CD and the BS 5 I'll be happy. 

How about we sit back, wait for the product to be released, have a play with it and then pick it to death. At least we can judge it on fairly instead of all the guessing.

 

Peter