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I was unaware that B&O had re-targeted its product line to VHNWIs. It is fair for any company to re-target its product offer, if it thinks a better business opportunity lies there. According to the magazine Forbes, in the U.S. market, this describes households with liquid assets between $5m and $30m. The website Insurance Newsnet says that these households are heavily concentrated in the 55 to 74 age group… and further defines this group as the famous, much derided 1% (!). Well, it looks like we might all be, either by legacy or by recent purchase, one-percenters. Congratulations are in order, one can hazard? Did B&O announce when do they expect to complete this transition? Because I have news for B&O: it is a bit questionable that Explore and A1 are suitable for this market, even if a rather gauche prancing horse happens to be pictured in the casing, except, perhaps, as party favors for the hired help. I’d even put an asterisk by the Emerge. Same goes for Beoplay EX, methinks, and Beoplay HX —for, if the target truly is the 1%, why does HX even exist? What kind of skin-flint one percenter would buy HX, and why, when good and proper H95s are available? As to the Stage, well, who knows, perhaps true one percenters could have it installed it in the servant’s luncheon area. To show some magnanimity, you know, and besides, ostentatious displays of equity are all the rage. But what really gives me pause is that Bang and Olufsen is included in the Audi A4 Premium Plus which retails for $45,400… this is below the price of the average car in the U.S. Do one-percenters get around in compact conventionally fueled sedans? Questionable. On the other hand, they may buy this vehicle for their daughter as she departs for university, so it is not like 1% households would never own an A4. —— Please take no offense, this brief essay is written with tongue fully planted in cheek. In all seriousness, I am glad B&O still offers entry-level products and most of mine are, in fact, entry-level items. And my current cars cost a fraction of what an A4 does.
“Cheaper” products (HX, Explore, etc) are aimed at Gen Z and young millennials with the purpose of raising brand awareness and interest in people which may later in life become VHNWIs to which B&O will then feed the more expensive Beosound and Beolab range.
Same for the B&O audio systems in cheap car.Oh, and if you freak out for the B&O audio system in the Audi A4, let me give you a heart attack: B&O Premium Sound System is also available in the £22.000 Ford Fiesta ?I’d like to clarify one fact: while an NDA is technically “agreed to” when you enter the “official” B&O beta programme hosted on Centercode (https://tester.bang-olufsen.com/welcome/), i.e. for beta firmware updates and for — guess what — testing in-development products, the Bang & Olufsen app beta release is in no way related to that.
To have access to the beta versions of B&O app, you just need to opt-in via the Play Store or App Store page, and there’s absolutely nothing you need to agree to keep confidential. Anyone can do that freely.
So logic would say that either:
- B&O stops using the beta feature provided by App Store and Play Store (which assumes the beta releases don’t contain any confidential information that can’t be disclosed and openly discussed on the web), and implement a beta programme for the app via other means where before entering it you’re required to sign an NDA
OR
- B&O learns how to develop an app that doesn’t require an update of the whole app just to show the tile of a new product in the list of “products you can add”, which frankly is even pathetic to just mention as the current way is literally how a 5yo would develop the app (they could add the stuff “behind the scenes” in the app and not add the product to the “add product” page, or making it appear there only after a combination of “secret taps” known only by B&O employees, or very easily they could set-up the new “in development” products to appear in the “add product” list only for specific B&O user accounts that have been previously whitelisted after signing an NDA, etc, there’s thousands of ways to implement that in a way that makes sense and without repeatedly committing the same stupid mistakes)
To be clear, I’m saying this in regards to the “stuff is under NDA” comments above. No, it’s not under any NDA 🙂
On a separate note, I won’t comment B&O’s ridiculous attitude of reaching out to a tiny forum which basically makes up 90% of their actual brand enthusiasts, requesting to delete a thread because of “confidential” information (that confidential is no longer, once they’ve made the mistake of making it public via a public beta programme).
Oh, and to be clear, “confidential information” = literally just the names “Beo*** X” (I won’t put the actual number, so it remains confidential ?), XX-XX and XX-XX for other two products, and XXXXX XXX for a fourth one.
It’s not like their competitors can get anything useful out of the product names.
Competitor worker A: “Oh, you know, B&O is now developing a new set of [insert product category B&O operates in]”
Colleague of A: “No shit?”
The only actual thing that happens following their kind request to delete that kind of “confidential information”, is that B&O makes themselves look like complete dorks.
Hope the tone doesn’t offend anyone.
I do understand the concerns you’re raising, but it’s still much simpler than you make it to be actually 🙂
There are ways around that – B&O support pages and manuals are absolutely inexcusable.
I think the problem is not even the lack of paper based manuals included with the products, but the fact that even the proper user manuals that you can download in PDF or the “FAQs” in support.bang-olufsen.com are a complete mess.
Features which are not reported anywhere, support pages that are copied-pasted between different products (where a direct copy-paste is not applicable in terms of “support advice”), and a bunch of redundant and repeated Q&As, split across unlogical categories, that nobody would ever ask or they are presented with a completely dumb title that makes the page seem about something that it’s not actually about.
A total clusterfuck.
Not to talk about some of the screenshots and images, which are probably in the magnitude of 100x50px of resolution and are shown at 10x5cm size in the page.
I honestly believe the support site and support materials are some of the cheapest-looking things of B&O product collateral.
speaking of price increases, one of the UK B&O retailers has emailed out some of the new prices. Looks broad, i.e.plenty of products affected, perhaps the whole portfolio subject to “24 to 30%” increase. The UK Theatre price is up 33% – 7990GBP from 5990GBP. I wish them the best of luck.
Even Beoplay headphones?
Yes, it’s been officially discontinued a few months ago.
Replacements are the Level and the new A5 – both sound much better than Beosound 1 to be fair, even though in terms of design they’re far less iconic.
BL50 are the best looking item in B&O portfolio and one of the best looking speakers ever released IMHO. Then perfect balance of serious look, minimal design and modern soul. They’re really a masterpiece of industrial design.
Good choice!
The TV is back. My patience was rewarded with a free warranty extension for another 36 months.
Was the warranty extension provided by the B&O dealer “out of courtesy” and for the distress you had to experience, or by the the repair centre in behalf of LG?
Even on larger Android tablets it doesn’t work in landscape, unfortunately.
Hello there, can anyone answer my question: when I connect the primary speaker with LAN and cable the secondary speaker to the primary one, will I still be able to stream Spotify from my mobile? Thanks in advance.
Yes, you will still be able to use Spotify Connect.
Amazing upgrade!
What is the original TV/panel that was present inside the “chassis”?
The only way it’s bad for us here is if they are so successful that they decide to double or treble the current prices on everything else because “it worked!”
I mean, isn’t that what already has happened several times? Beosound speakers in the last 10 years basically doubled in price.
Beoplay A1 was £200, Beoplay M3 £280, Beoplay M5 £529.
Now Beosound A1 comes at £239, they got rid of cheaper speakers (P2, except the relatively new Explore), and the less expensive multiroom speaker (previously M3, £289) was less than half the price of the current less expensive multiroom speaker (Emerge, £699), despite Emerge not even having the same driver capabilities as M5 (£529).
Let’s not talk about the Beosound 1 (£995 -> £1399), Beosound 2 (£1350 -> £2649), Balance (£1750 -> £2399). Similar story with A9 and Level.
Okay inflation and everything, but no other company has raised prices this much.
I personally love the design of Beosound 1 and 2, I think they’re two of the most iconic and timeless pieces of the B&O collection.
However, rationally, if I had now to choose between Beosound 1 and Level (or A5), I’d definitely choose Level/A5.
Currently, the ASE platform BS1 runs on is still fairly well supported, however it runs on extremely weak hardware.
If you have any interest in using Chromecast specifically, absolutely don’t buy BS1. ASE products have been updated at the beginning of 2022 to Cast firmware 1.52, and that’s likely the last version of Case they’ll see. Then, in 2-3 years, Google will raise the minimum Cast firmware version needed for most Chromecast features, and you’ll find yourself no longer able to use Chromecast (just like it happened with many devices B&O has left with Cast firmware 1.28 confirming they’ll no longer be updated to more recent versions, hence basically ending their Cast functionality).
In addition to that, Mozart as others have mentioned make the Level (and A5) much more serviceable, so in case you’ll have issues in the future (out of warranty) it should be easier and cheaper to find parts to get them fixed.
Mozart devices, in addition to the sources that older ASE devices support (including BS1), now also supports Tidal Connect.
Again, in terms of look I am ALL for the Beosound 1, and I’m sure I’d enjoy listening to it and staring at it with these eyes -> ????
But I am quite sure in a few years, it will become a pain to actually use (unless you use it just as a Beolink endpoint, extending to it sources that are originally played by other, more recent, devices).
TL;DR: unless I’d find BS1 at an incredible price (i.e. 50% the price of a Level in the same condition), then despite the love for its design I’d definitely go for Level/A5 (A5 likely being even cheaper brand-new).
This is my point of view, from a purely technical/platform perspective (not sound).
I’m resuscitating this thread with an update for whoever curious… The dealer was kind to send me the original microphone, the ones that were originally sold along the Beolab 50, and it worked like a charm at my first try! So, the culprit of my frustration was indeed the microphone. Thanks again for reading this.
Hope the dealer reports that to HQ so that they can fix the integration of older Beolab speakers with the new standardised mics.
That’s not a “real” problem, plenty of companies are already doing that. Denon, Sonos, Beosound… Yes, obviously if your Wi-Fi network is shit that will reflect on the surround set-up.
But it should not just be up to Wifi. B&O are one of the founding members of WISA.
That doesn’t really matter though, as WiSA hasn’t been the huge success that its founding members hoped it would be.
The problem I think with Mozart speakers to be used as rear/surround speakers is that you will run into problems when you don’t have a super stable and capable (wifi) network. There’s too many people that have mediocre networks, or, these networks become mediocre when you add wifi surround speakers. So developing something stable will take a while B&O has to add powerlink to overcome this. But people want generally everything wireless. Except me ?
That’s not a “real” problem, plenty of companies are already doing that. Denon, Sonos, Beosound…
Yes, obviously if your Wi-Fi network is shit that will reflect on the surround set-up.
The BL28s can do it (with the same engine) but Balance and Level cannot??
Just to be the devil’s advocate, BL28 can be interfaced with BS Theatre because BL28 (just like most other Beolab speakers) have a WiSA receiver module – something that the usual speaker from the Beosound range just doesn’t have (at hardware level). Currently, they don’t “sync” with BS Theatre over the Mozart platform itself.
I think B&O are protecting product financials by closing off these “less expensive” products from being used with a Theatre or Stage.
What I just wrote above however doesn’t mean that the products (Mozart or even AES Beosound speakers) can’t be integrated in a surround system with Theatre via other means (just like other competitors do it, i.e. Denon/Marantz/Heos, Yamaha MusiCast, Sonos, DTS Play-Fi, Bluesound, Bose – all without WiSA and just over the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard), and for this reason, I agree.
Just to make it clear, this is absolutely normal and it’s nothing out of the ordinary warranty process.
I’m genuinely happy you’ve had a nice experience and now you can enjoy the Emerge stereo pair, but let’s not make it sound they bent backwards to serve you 🙂
It’s actually quite “odd” (not to say “pathetic”) that the “repair place” (that is?) kept the Emerge for 6 week without repairing it, given it’s assumed to be a modular product and hence very easy to repair.
OK, thanks. I was hoping that I could use a better DAC that’s in my pc.. That’s why I bought a Audioquest Dragonfly so I could use that instead my pc as an Roon endpoint. (when listening with headphones f.e) Really hope that BO could be a Roon Ready product soon.. I then have to reconsider what I should do with the A5, sadly as it really is a good speaker with nice punch.
Just to be clear, even without using the Dragonfly, you still wouldn’t be using the DAC of the computer or the DAC of the iPhone.
Putting the Dragonfly in the middle (computer/iPhone -> Dragonfly DAC -> Beosound A5) would be completely useless and actually a bad practice, as you’d run the sound through two DACs. The Dragonfly and the internal DAC of the A5. It’s good practice to do the digital-to-analogue conversion (i.e. what’s done by the DAC) as few times as possible (ideally, just one), so the perfect and most “high quality” way to listen to music on the A5 would be to use only its internal DAC.
How do you ensure you’re only using the speaker’s own DAC? By ensuring that everything you feed into the speaker is pure digital and has never been converted to analogue. And how do you do that? Just by connecting the speaker to the source in the most direct way possible, that is by using digital audio over USB-C.
An external DAC such as the Dragonfly makes sense only if what comes after it is a purely analogue audio device (i.e. passive wired headphones, or an analogue amplifier connected to some speakers – or to headphones).
Placing a digital audio device at the output end of another DAC? Very very very bad choice 🙂
So, just use a Lighting to USB-C cable (I think a normal Lightning to USB-C wouldn’t work as Apple made them only capable of signaling the iPhone to a host device, while in this case the iPhone itself would be the host device, so you either need a Lighting to USB-A camera connection kit and then a USB-A to USB-C cable connected from the camera connection kit to the USB-C input of the speaker, OR a Lightning to USB-C cable specifically made for this purpose – as I think as I mentioned earlier a standard one wouldn’t work).
If you want to use a computer instead, just use a standard USB-A/USB-C to USB-C cable and that’s it.
No need to worry about the Dragonfly, for the best sound out of a Beosound speaker you won’t use it.
Hope it’s clearer now ?
Edit: for iPhone, a Lightning to USB-C OTG cable should work (bear in mind they’re not “Made for iPhone” certified as Apple really wants to sell you the camera connection kit), such as FiiO LT-LT1 or LT-LT3 (different length).
Do you know what is the future “Fluid Sweet Spot” acoustic DSP mode ?
Obviously can’t say for sure, but I assume that it’s something related to UWB connectivity.
I.e. you have on yourself an UWB-capable device (a smartphone with B&O app, a Beoplay EX MK2 case, or any other sort of electronic item with UWB and enabled by B&O for this purpose), and based on your live position when moving around the A5, the device will keep directing the sound towards you.
Like the option that some Beosound/Beolab speakers already have (i.e. Beolab 50/90, Beosound Balance, etc, not sure which other ones) where you can select how/where to direct the sound, except that instead of being a fixed setting that you need to manually change, this will just follow you wherever you are around it.
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