I agree that B&O is expensive with its flat screens. Yet I bought a Beovision 7-40 and haven't regretted it for a single minute. I have looked at other brands, but plastic is the main ingredient of many other companies. The B&O quality materials, the beautiful and programmable motorised stand, the electronic curtain, the movement of the dvd drawer, it keeps me amazed.

I don't think that it's a lot beter in picture quality than other brands, but it most certainly is in sound quality. The Beolab 7-4 with 6 seperate Icepower units has such top quality sound. There is no tv on the market that can beat that. Keep in mind that a Beovision 7-40 is actually four components: lcd screen, dvd player, motorised stand and 6 amplifier loudspeaker.

And another thing that I appreciate is that B&O is an small independent company that takes good care of the people who work there. Good salaries and benefits. Something that can not be said of all companies.

kokomo, you have a valid point and are asking the same question as thousands of people worldwide.

I know people who are extremely wealthy and can afford whatever they choose to spend on an AV set-up, but still question wether B&O is good value any more.  In a lot of cases, the answer is no - and they are defecting to other brands.  The trouble is, they are not defecting to an inferior product - just inferior build quality and design, and the worrying thing is that they are happy to live with that.

What i am saying is that if it's pure image quality you are looking for, you can have it at a fraction of B&O price - and if you want the same sound quality, in a lot of cases you can have it for a fraction of the price. Superior design and build quality can only count for so much, then you think "hang on - is it really worth paying five, seven or ten times as much just for the design?"

I am positive it's only temporary, but B&O seems to have lost that "magic" that consumers are happy to pay for. The new CEO, with a marketing background, should be able to turn that around - and hopefully he will realise that prices need to be kept in check too.

Lee 

I think it really depends. As a retailer, I'd rip my hair out with frustration if I took the position that everyone requires the total multi-disciplinary perfection of a Bang & Olufsen television system. The plain truth is that some people can live with Samsonite, some need at least Tumi, and some like Louis Vuitton or Goyard. The Pioneer is a great screen, and I can find very few faults with it as a monitor. I've always liked the ones I've seen.

The Bang & Olufsen television system offers a slightly better basic panel, but the real advantage is in the processing of the BeoSystem 3. I think it's difficult to tell the difference standing in front of a panel for a few minutes on the shop floor, but after spending a little time with flesh tone correction, noise reduction, motion processing, the real-time picture controls, and the adaptive response to the brightness and color temperature of ambient light, I have come to expect more from a picture than a Pioneer can possibly deliver. 

To me, the argument that you can get the same quality in a panel with poorer build quality and cheaper materials, is a contradiction in terms. By definition it is not the same quality! Peter's suggestion to pair a Panasonic monitor is not a bad one, but I think this "overvalues the savings." If you make the tremendous investment in the BeoSystem 3, the BeoLab 7, and possibly some other BeoLabs, you're frankly not in it to save money anyway! In a few years when you've long since recovered from that big credit card payment, do you really want to be left staring at some big Panasonic box on your wall? Of course you don't.

355f,

What can I say? If you have to rip the aluminum frame off of my television to conduct a comparison, haven't I already won?

It seems that most people's arguments against any of our products are thinly veiled gripes that they're financially out of reach. Otherwise, what's the point in wallowing in how much you hate them? It's like striking out with a girl and then saying that she wasn't very attractive to begin with. We all have to protect our pride. 

Take the aluminum frame behind the front-glass on the BeoVision 7. On the early models, the milling on the aluminum went longways with the piece of metal so that the sides of the frame showed vertical millwork and the top and bottom showed horizontal millwork. David Lewis' vision, however, was that the aluminum panel appear as though it was an entire sheet and not a frame, so Bang & Olufsen spent nearly 3 quarters of a million dollars to put a new machine on the shop floor that could mill the metal with the appropriate markings. Now the entire frame's millwork runs horizontally. Meanwhile, Sony was crapping out another plastic box with loose joints to cover in stickers. Excuse me if I find other brands' lack of attention to detail more of a curse than a blessing. 

the 'you can't afford it so you slag it off' line is just plain silly

there's loads of people on this site and potential purchasers out there in the big bad world that could easily afford any tv from bno , but they nowdays do their homework , do a bit of research ( isn't the internet wonderful for that !? ) , even have a demo and  make up their own minds

you don't make money just by throwing it away , ya know 

 ..

the fact is is that bno tv's let bno down ,  the bv9 , bv4 and bv5 were baiscally 3rd party panels with a pretty box stuck on the front

you could even open up the frame and see the panasonic label still inside - they didn't even take it off !!

 now that IS taking the piddle..