Remote next to dock, for comparative purposes!

'Rear of the Year' ?  Probably not.

Doesn't look that bad though...

Dunno if a remote in that shape is any good in practice, but a great idea designwise

I can see most other manufacturers using those awful credit card size thingies with foil buttons and useless range...

'arty close-up'  - total amateur, admitted.. 

I don't mind it but it just doesn't grab me like say the Beosound 1 did when it came out. When the BS1 came out it had four appealing factors to it, design with great colours, great sound for a small portable unit, portable (pick up and go) like a little briefcase, the wow factor in the functions of the mechs of the disc and arial. BS8 seems like it's got the sound going for it but IMO lacks in all the other departments.

I would have liked it better if they just pulled out the disc mech and FM tuner in the BS1 and just put in a dock and digital tuner. Hey B&O would have saved on R&D too. Maybe a shorter horizontal BL7 with a dock and pop up acoustic lens at each end would have been cool!

The connections at the rear...  You need to remove the plastic cover to get to them of course - they aren't on display.

Inside of the rear cover. Note the 'service' connector..  

What a shame the remote doesn't sit in the unit as the main control... on second thoughts, great until you lose it!

Anyway, the thing could grow on me, shame about the shortcomings mentioned above as they seem like such simple things for B&O to implement, especially source selection! However, someone mentioned the lack of display being a letdown. Maybe B&O could have offered a retro unit to sit in the dock... or the iphone display itself. Pointless of course without source selection or ML though..!?

No other 'tech journalist' bothered to casually rip off the fret to see what was underneath, so i duly obliged after they had all gone home. Bass drivers bigger than BeoLab 4000 - probably a similar size to BeoLab 3 drivers from memory (i'm at home now staring at my BeoLab 3's...)

That tweeter must be a new one, unique to the BeoSound 8 - I've never heard a non-ALT B&O speaker sound like that before !!!

Wonder how the sound quality compares to a BeoSound 1 and the BeoLab 4's ?

Hi Lee,

WOW you are making the sound quality aspect of this sound really amazing! Especially as you have those amazing but shockingly expensive BeoLab 3s!

So what do you reckon of the quality of iTunes downloads that I buy at 256kpbs? I tend to rip my CDs at 320kpbs as I couldn't hear the difference between that and Apple Lossless (maybe I could if I was using BeoLab3s?)  Will the 256kpbs still sound fab on the BS8?

9 LEE:

casually rip off the fret

Got to be the "Phrase of the week"!

WOW...we allready had a BS8 at work :-)

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Ehlerz:

WOW...we allready had a BS8 at work :-)

Looking back at the real BS8, I'm slightly annoyed at the support thingy on the top, which doesn't seem to be detachable.

Sure the unit is a dock, and it won't show when used as such - but I have a feeling that these will be still around and in other use for a lot longer than any of the iWhatevers it currently can accept.

....IMO the BS8 is in top 10 of ugly "hifiproducts/docks". It us unproportional looking with a ipod, ipad or iphone docked. Furthermore its features are absolutely ridiculous...actually, it has no features!! No question it sounds wonderfully for an Ipod dock, but damn can you get any less value for money??

Sorry, i am definitely not impressed.

/Ehlerz

Hello all Well I have just seen it It's bigger than it looks in it's pics and the sound is very very good, it could fill a room on it's own Also we were told by a person from B&o that it will play music from any device not just apple Blutooth was mentioned but I cannot remember what he said The remote fits in your hand perfectly the stand part fits between your fingers when you hold it. I played only girl in the world by Rihanna which is quite full of bass and it sounded excellent

Call me unimpressed. The B&W Zeppelin had a striking, simple design. This is just a lost opportunity.

The design looks like it wasn't thought through to its last conclusion. The bridge is to weighty, and the cones are two blatantly big circles yelling at the listener. No matter which device is attached, the whole seems unstable and incomplete. The look from the back is indeed the best view of the device, and that's not saying much.

If you have the device on a table, your iPod is placed at an angle too steep to comfortably control standing up. You would have to crouch slightly to get a good view of the display. Not well thought out.

I have recently found this other company with completely different esthetics, going for the same market. They use a wireless dock solution. The handle is not my cup of tea, but apart from that I'm liking it:

http://libratone.com/

I love it in black.

I quite like the look of it, and I'm sure it will grow on most people. Looking at the pics, the shortfalls I see are:

- remote should 'dock' onto the unit like in the Beosound 9000 with its control panel. It could have a rechargeable battery that charges when docked

- the part where you dock your ipad/ipod should have a cover that flips backwards when you have an ipod docked and flip forward to cover when the dock is not in use. It looks a little wierd when it's naked..

I'm looking forward to sampling one, and am sure I will be purchasing. One question though, I find with my iPhone 4 that when I put it in a dock it pops up a warning that there may be interference and that the dock is not compatible. Any issues like this with the B&O dock?

I like the design but as i've mentioned, it's way too large and I don't think i'll be purchasing it because of this. Gutted as I was so excited about this.

Great job Lee!! You always impress with how much effort you go to!

I think it's a really nice product, and guys it's just an ipod dock and it's gotta be the nicest ipod dock i have ever seen
(that zepplin thing was hideous to me)

I can't wait to hear what it sounds like.

When I look at the photos, why does Jacques Tati come to mind ?

9 LEE:

The little remote, 'face on' - an exact replica of the controls on the unit itself...

Does it use the same IR codes as the Beo5/Beo4/Beolink1000 remotes? Is it available separately?

It could be useful to have a couple of these at practical places in a large living room, in order to be able to change volume and skip tracks, when the Beo5/Beo4 is not at hands' reach or when more complex operations are not required.

I were in the local B&O shop yesterday, they told me that it can be controlled by Beolink 1000/Beo 4, Beo 5 and soon Beo 6