If I was being fair, I'd say somewhere between the two extremes. Although we on here would like to think we're in the connoisseur camp, there a hell of a lot of people - and those with money - who won't or don't buy B&O. I don't think I'd buy a BV7-40 (which I own), now, new, for the current UK RRP of just under £10K. The BS5 will be £4K after June the 1st, so you'd have to be real 'connoisseur' to justify that price.

However, sadly there is a big base of current B&O users who other users would regard as ignorant. These fall in to the tech-illiterate group, with high dispoable income, who tend to walk in to the store and simply ask the dealer to setup and manage the installation. Mind you, these people also have better things to do with their life, so whether they are really 'ignorant' or not is another matter. If they're making money and are successful, who really cares if they are 'ignorant' or not of their tech equipment.

I think this group of people will diminish from now and over time. The people who have made easy money from property (ie. most of the 40 and 50 year olds in Bath, it seems) over the last 15 years, won't be able to do the same thing so easily, going forward. Therefore people will be a little more wise with their money and the traditional B&O customerbase will have to shift with the products.

Yes I could have spent far far less and achieved just as much, but I'm generally pleased with my B&O equipment and I *am* tech literate. Speakers perform above expectations, equipment such as the BC2, BS4 and so on are impressive and I'm generally happy with the BV7 I bought a few years ago. I'm also happy paying to upgrade every 2-3 years.

The only problem or negative thought is the poor sw and sw support that I've received over the last couple of years and, more worrying, that my dealer doesn't want to do sw updates under warranty. I can understand cost-cutting, but when you own a £10K TV, you'd expect at least three or four sw updates over the lifespan of the TV. A top-notch B&O engineer can perform a sw upgrade in around 30 minutes.

I don't think its for either. Its simply for people who appreciate the unique design style of B&O, the build quality and sound quality. People buy what they like, they like what they see, they buy it. Sure B&O is expensive but you can't buy a quality product that 20yrs down the line people still find very desirable at a cheap price.

I think a lot of non-B&O owners don't know or appreciate the extensive process B&O goes through to produce one product and that they are able to keep the product in their sales catalogue for years, eg. Beosound 9000 Which other company can claim the same.

BTW, here's the quote from the Daily Telegraph:

"Sir Gerald, however, was clearly in the market for something more refined. His television was made by Bang & Olufsen, the Danish audiovisual company that produces gadgetry to swoon over. Ten minutes down the Kings Road from Peter Jones, Bang & Olufsen has a serene outpost catering to ladies who lunch and backbenchers who binge.

Its top seller, favoured by Sir Gerald, is the Beovision, which can automatically sense when you open a curtain and adjust the screen brightness accordingly. A remote control? No need. Just wave your hand in front of the machine and the DVD tray will slide open. But is it worth £8,865?

Sean Hannam, online editor of the television trade bible ERT, said: "It's bought by people who don't really understand televisions, but who are very keen on style. It's a terribly Eighties, flash-your-cash brand – beloved of Alan Partridge."

Taken from the Daily Telegraph website, link: link

I'm assuming Sean Hannam (see

Sean Hannam ought to be shot!!

I've emailed him :)

His email address is easy to find on that website, although I'm not going to present it here, for privacy reasons.

moxxey wrote:

I've emailed him :)

His email address is easy to find on that website, although I'm not going to present it here, for privacy reasons.

Best I don't e-mail him then.....death threats are rarely well received lol!!!!

Well - reading into the comments and thinking about them, you can (i suppose) get a basic take on what they are saying.  The 80's were a time for 'making a statement' and being bold. This, effectively, is what B&O is - being bold and making a design statement.

The thing that irks me a little is when people comment on B&O without having the first clue about what the brand is about, where it's come from - and more importantly the manufacturing 'economies of scale' it has to contend with.  Whilst i worry about the retail prices coming up, people should realise that making avantgarde products in such small numbers really costs a fortune to do.  I'm certainly not defending the prices - i'm just highlighting the point that such attention to detail and materials costs money.

The thing that disappoints me is the lack of attention to detail in the components and software, but i think that in time the software issue will be fixed when each component can connect to the internet and be auto-updated by B&O.  For now though, it's the old way!  Giving the BV7 one single DVI socket at launch was unforgivable for what was their life-saving product, and who on earth designed the BeoSound 3200 thinking it would be a fantastic and easy way to navigate through 396 albums using a display that shows no more than eight or nine characters?

After all said and done though, i love B&O and everything about the brand and its history.  It's an odd addiction, that i will say..

Lee

I have never classed myself as a connoisseur of anything - however the few store purchases I've made (albeit a very long time ago) I made because I had to have it. They caused (at the time) real financial hardship for a year or so afterward.

This puts me at the rock bottom rung of B&O purchasers, however I do feel protective of the brand and I do feel upset at the "it's the brand to have" purchasers - I honestly feel that you need to love it to want and own it and it does seem to me that it has moved in recent years to the "I can so I will" type purchasers. I bought my BS5000 twenty-odd years ago and would genuinely cry if it broke - I wonder how many owners of more modern "wonder-systems" would do the same!

I think that the quotations brought up by moxxey just illustrate what sometimes happens to a sloppy journalist, like the one writing for DT, when he/she pretends – lazily, indeed - to have ‘searched’ for ‘facts’ to support an article’s point(s)…

I don’t think B&O was meant to be attacked here, just very sloppily exploited by a journalist who most probably thought it clever to call his buddy Sean who ‘knows everything’ about TVs… That said, I believe that even Sean’s words were taken out of a broader context of his opinion given…

😁