For me the main benefit of the WIFI enabled Beo6 is the ability to select music on my BS5/BM5 from a link room. As the Encore cannot be used in link rooms there is no value apart from not having to get up from you chair.  

sjmcguckin wrote:

For me the main benefit of the WIFI enabled Beo6 is the ability to select music on my BS5/BM5 from a link room. As the Encore cannot be used in link rooms there is no value apart from not having to get up from you chair.  

I think the value in not having to get up to select a new artist is extremely valuable and I honestly can't see having this capability enabled on the Encore will cannibalise sales from the BS5/Ugly Box version.  The younger generation looking at buying the entry level Encore have come to expect such integration, and upselling beo6 couldn't hurt right?

Encore was the B&O solution I was looking at to replace the library solution I have now. But not having the Beo6 2-way, I'm not going to look anymore.

Sad sad sad...

Oh well. 😳

In my opinion, B&O has put themselves in a very awkward position. The price point for the BeoSound 5/BeoMaster 5 was far too high, and B&O recognized this. Therefore, they introduced the Encore at a much more attractive pricepoint. Yet, they're not prepared to ADMIT that the BeoMaster 5 solution is overpriced and unnecessary. Giving the Encore all of the same features of the BeoMaster 5 solution would make it difficult for B&O to defend their price of the BeoMaster 5 solution.

The Encore is designed as a stand alone product, at this point. Thus the typical use for it will have the Encore in the same room as the speakers and further the unit could be placed in the most desirable/accessible location. The BS5/BM5 is designed to provide music in multiple rooms, thus the need for two way control when in the rooms where the Beosound 5 is not located. 

I have now ordered a Beo 6 and expect that it will almost always be in the room where the Beosound 5 is NOT located. If I am in the room where the Beosound 5 is I will use it to select music. 

B and O may have had similar thinking.

The Encore isn't designed as a stand alone at this point. It is, for want of other compatible products as of yet, a stand alone product. It is designed to be compatible with future products via beonet and future and existing products (some, plus other brands) through WiFi. That's not a product designed as a stand alone product at all.

Yes, the limitation right now is that it doesn't have Masterlink. However it does have WiFi, and it does have "Beonet" (ethernet?).

But, yeah, in practice as of right now, it's a stand-alone product - both because of a lack of masterlink, but definately also because of limitations of firmware.

interpreting "encore" for me it's: "another one"

so already having a BM5 - the "encore" in a kind of link room to pick up music from the Master and play it/giving a better interface than just having a Beolink active which would do nothing than receiving ir-signals...

if I had the money I would do it this way...

and therefore I do not understand why there is NO 2-way function for the "encore" - would be nice 

regards elmar

OK, I had to switch from a portable device to a full keyboard.

I almost hate to sound like TripEmglish here; but I won't mind if I seem a bit like Frank Lloyd Wright.  I don't think the failure here is on B&O for not providing some flashy feature that we all think we can't live without, I think it is a failure on the part of the potential client to perceive the vision inherent in the design.  So:

In all of the training for the BeoSound 5, we are told the legend/myth regarding the genesis of it's design.  The man responsible wanted to come home from work, strip off his neck-tie, grab an ice-cold beverage from the fridge, sit down in his favorite chair and navigate his entire music library without ever putting his drink down.  

So simple; but for this discussion the key issue is not 'never putting his drink down' it is 'sit down in his favorite chair.'  The BS-5/Encore controller is not seen as a thing on the credenza on the far side of the room, no: that big, beautiful 11" screen is meant to be right in front of you, falling easily, naturally, to hand, it is the remote.  Hi-Fi, having shed the need for physical media, now sheds the need for a seperate palayer and control, they become one.  For the $1,200USD so many of you are willing to pay for a superfluous remote control, you can pay someone to bury the necessary cables to bring the BeoSound 5/Encore to you.  Where it belongs.  Whre it was intended to be.

In a link room?  Now you need a Beo 6.  Or another Encore; properly placed.

Russ wrote:

I have to say that I don't get the criticism. 2-way on the Beo 6 is meant for use in link rooms for which the BeoSound 5 is the master. Encore can't be the master, you'll always be in its room when listening to it. You can see the screen. That is at bottom the concept.

I'm sorry, but being able to select a track or a radio station with remote is hardly something that is only useful in a link room.  Look at what is out there. Personally, I find such a thing quite useful, and I use it when I don't want to get up from my chair/couch. And, no, a BS5 for each seating position is hardly an elegant solution.

Russ wrote:

almost hate to sound like TripEmglish here; but I won't mind if I seem a bit like Frank Lloyd Wright.  I don't think the failure here is on B&O for not providing some flashy feature that we all think we can't live without, I think it is a failure on the part of the potential client to perceive the vision inherent in the design.  So:

Ridiculous. The fact that the BS5 Encore doesn't have two-way communication yet, nor can be connected to anything via Beonet yet, doesn't mean that those limitations suddenly becomes "visionary". There's a reason B&O put a beonet plug on it, there's a reason they put wifi on it.

Russ wrote:

So simple; but for this discussion the key issue is not 'never putting his drink down' it is 'sit down in his favorite chair.'  The BS-5/Encore controller is not seen as a thing on the credenza on the far side of the room, no: that big, beautiful 11" screen is meant to be right in front of you, falling easily, naturally, to hand, it is the remote.

Utter nonsense and apologetics.  I have several seating positions, and I don't want a BS5 every place I am. If that thing is considered "the remote" as you put it, I might as well use an iPod*. At least that would give me more freedom when it comes to seating.

Seriously, claiming a remote is "superfluous" is utter nonsense.

*And I really don't like iPods.