Look at it this way, its going to cost a fraction of the price and probably support more functions. Since from the looks of it, the BS5 wont have the itunes sync, they will pretty much do similar jobs. I.e. if you are going to have to copy and reorganise ur music onto the bs5, then you might as well do it for the iriver... the iriver will become ur multiroom system, by physically moving it around and the beomedia 1, will become your bm5.

If anything you will have 2 extra backups of your music... plus there will be no need for a 2way remote since the iriver is the audio player... and if iriver did this, what stops others doing something similar?

Any ideas what the iriver costs? im not getting one, i promise, but i guess im not the most optimistic person with regards to the bs5, i really do hope im proved wrong since im dying for a good mp3 addition to my b+o sys

Just to clear up the questions as this thread moves along, YES. Those are "real" photos. They've obviously been edited in some way, but those are in fact pictures of the BeoSound 5. That is what the head unit looks like. 

As I've mentioned before, however, they are zoomed in too much to see it rest on its pedestal. It's extraordinarily sexy and l would wager it becomes a B&O icon on par with the 9000, Avant, BeoLab 5s, etc. It is simple, but compelling.

I was personally a little put off, for example, by how "cheap" the Beo 5 remote felt when it came out, and though I've grown to really like it, it didn't have the physical presence of the Beo 4. The BeoSound 5 is an example of Bang & Olufsen at its finest. It feels solid and has the "over-engineered" feeling that we've come to love. 

And thinking about what it would do why don't they just install this for the back end media, then you could choose what platform the damn thing runs on and avoid all arguements on mac/pc/etc 😁

Click me

Wat about the (audio) performance Trip?!

Is it the same or better quality as a cd?

mp3 and beolab9 and 5 doesn't go well you know!

p.s Soundproof what do you think about the new bs5 and the mp3 format

I just wish b&o could give me a hub. I have no reason to transfer my media to yet another device. As a small company, b&o can never compete or comply every changing digital or other format and it is actually silly to try. I want something i can connect all my devices with. A stable hub that connect and enhance my more or less ever changing gadgets. It should support just audio both stereo and surround. There are a so many players out there that can provide the visuals. 

Actually Bose have almost got it right with their Lifestyle V30. But I don´t want Bose, I want my favourite brand b&o to do this better and I am pretty sure they can if they take their focus off the mediacentre and let others worry about that.

Koning et al.

In my opinion, the sound quality is really the best kept secret. A few of us on here have had significant "hands on" time, but we've also had some "ears-on" time and I've heard it played through everything from BeoLab 4000s to BeoLab 5s. We did a side by side comparison with the BeoLab 5s for a CD and the same CD compressed at 320kbps and I could not detect a difference.

Will some people hear a difference? Who knows. It's so psychological that I'm sure some people will hear a difference whether one exists or not. All I can say is that my personal trepidation over that aspect of the design has been put to bed.

I hope this helps. 

Listeners reported that it felt as if the music was progressively getting poorer, but that first really noticed when transitioning to 320kbps, with 192kbps sounding unacceptable after having experienced the full-resolution file.

But the higher resolutions only make sense if the recording chain, from the microphone onwards, is capable of exploiting the greater range possible.

3. I do however feel that a modern, digital playback system should have lossless options in addition to lossy - if only for peace of mind, in knowing that you do not have an unnecessary filter between yourself and the music.

4. I haven't seen the latest official spec's for BeoSound 5 and understand that these have evolved, and can therefore not answer your p.s. But as you'll see from a post I have in the Mac-forum (What way music?), I do suggest that B&O release the spec's soon!