Hi Sia
I agree with you 100%. The digital age has court B&O completly of stance, and as was the case back in the 80´s they struggle to follow the bigger companies as regards to the technological evolvement. At this point in time, the world experiences a LOT on the technological front and B&O will NEVER be able to keep up at this speed. Take for instance the BS5 Encore, advertised to be the new thing for your digital music, however it lacks a digital output(???) Furthermore, it does not have masterlink (???), so old customers with masterlinked rooms cant utilize the BS5 Encore other places than where it is set up! I ask myself, WHY?. I think the answer is, "We did not have the time and need to push this product on the market right away, and later make an adapter for ML etc.".
In My opinion, B&O will never again reach the highs from earlier years, simply because they havent got the resources to be first movers in this markets or even follow the more advanced firms in their latest findings and developments. Because of this B&O will in my opinion keep pushing not thought through products to the consumers 6-12 months after the competitors has already made a superior solution.
Another example, the LOOONGGGG awaited Beonet to replace masterlink as we know it. At least two CAT7 cables to EACH product in your house, including speakers. All of them has to be connected in the same place giving me plus 20 CAT7 cables throughout my appartment connected in a central cabinet. As far as i am concerned this is not very userfriendly for us not building our homes from scratch. I mean, what are the bandwith om CAT7? Why on earth is it nessecary to have two cables connected?
To sum it up, i am afraid B&O has lost the race completely. They will NEVER catch up, and to be honest they dont have to, as long as their expensive products works out of the box and gives the buyer the same userexperience as they used to back in the days. They only issue at this point is however, that they dont!
/Ehlerz
BV7-40 MK IV, BL5´s, BL3´s, BL 3500, BL7-4, BS3000, BC 6-23, BV 1, BS3.