Geoff Martin wrote:

Jonathan wrote:

Did I read somewhere that the Beolab 5 was designed around the sound, and not the other way around?

Probably. It's true.

Cheers

-geoff

Yes, that's a point that was mentioned on various occasions when the speakers were launched. The final shape and configuration was dictated by various problems that conventional speaker designs are struggling with.

I actually interviewed David Moulton about this, back in 2006, and he confirmed a number of relevant acoustics-directed design cues that were introduced by the B&O team and the ALT-technology.
Where Sausalito supplied the thinking behind the ALT technology, the speakers grew out of the Eureka Archimedes Project, in which both B&O and KEF collaborated together with the Acoustics Lab at Aarhus University, from the late 1980s onwards. Here's a sidebar from Stereophile describing where the project was in 1991:

soundproof wrote:

 

Back in 2003, the BL5s were as far ahead of conventional speaker designs, as the Tesla S is to internal combustion automobiles today.

 

Even though they may be 10 years old, are there any other current manufacturers that have anything comparable to them?

D

In response to Doonesbury's question, I certainly don't think so.  

I've been struck by the lack of an attempt to compete with the BeoLab 5 over the past ten years.  There may be some custom offerings that come close to what it can do, but nothing that is available as a manufactured retail package, especially at anything close to the price.  The BeoLab 5 seems to me to be unique in that regard, along with it's unique array of features and attributes.  

My sense of it is that possible competitors find that to try to surpass it is simply too expensive from an R&D standpoint, and possibly also from a manufacturing standpoint.  So, instead, they tend to try to ignore its existence by pretending it's a boutique luxury product that's not really "part" of the loudspeaker industry.  

I continue to be very proud of what B&O has accomplished with the BeoLab 5.  It probably is the best production loudspeaker ever.  

Thanks for listening.  

Dave Moulton, Sausalito Audio