I think it is very difficult to find the "right" set-up for everyone, because people have different listening tastes and most of all DIFFERENT rooms.

I personally have a pretty large living room with very high ceilings. My BL18s definitely need a sub in that room, even at medium volume. I tried my BL2 and my BL19 in combination with the BL18s and I prefer the BL19. The bass has more punch to it, and sounds more precise when listening to music. For movies the BL2 might be slightly better.

MrBeeh wrote:

You really don't need a sub with the Bl18's unless you want to play your music very, very loud. And yes, to my ears, the Bl2 does a better job. Keep in mind that the settings for the Bl2 are minimal for that moment, just enough to support the low's of the Bl18.

Regarding the Bl20's I think the difference with Bl5 has closed the huge gap. Sure, the BL5 are more powerfull, but even in a big living, you can fill it with very loud music with Bl20's. Soundwise i'm not sure if the Bl5 are that much better that it can justify to buy old BL5's instead of brand new Bl20's. Than there is design, for me Bl5 is to big and spacy, the 20's are much more easy to fit into your taste of design.

Design is subjective, but I find the BL20 a bland and rather uninspired design to be frank. The BL18 build upon a solid design foundation and look fantastic and truly high end as a result. Sound-wise, you are still talking about an inbuilt DAC, inbuilt DSP and the room microphone bass calibration system, 4-way vs 3-way design, more power etc. There may not be a *big* gap in sound quality between the two, but I have no doubt there is a gap no less.  For those that want the nth degree of sound and not just looks, the BL5 exists. It competes not just with pretty speakers, but with some of the best in the world, period. I heard it said on here in another thread that the 20 gets to 80 percent of the BL5 level or something, and of course in the world of high end audio, it wouldn't matter if it was 90 percent, there's still something more to be achieved. And it's not all about how "loud" you can turn it up which seems to be a pervasive measure of quality over here. 

However, I guess we will see if the "new" B&O, now getting into the business of DJ branded headphones merely decides to leave the BL20 at the top because it's "good enough" and quietly withdraw the BL5 at some point because they no longer see that as a market they want to play in, nor support the production cost of such a device. I think we're all fully expecting a BL5 equivalent to come along like the BL20, and hopefully it does so. It's certainly been a rather lonely almost a dozen years at the top for the BL5, it's coming close to surpassing its older relative the Penta, which existed for 13 years at the top of the heap. Though the Penta had numerous revisions and even a non-powered version during its reign. Aside from a lack of PIN code security and sync functionality, and a beefier power connector back then, the BL5 has withstood virtually identical to its debut. So I just think it's not as easy as dismissing and tossing it aside as a potential option because the BL20 is "almost" as good, when it exists as such a tantalizing option at not much more cost right now. I do understand that for some the size can overpower a room and that can present a problem, though I remember many being surprised at just how *small* the BL5 were compared to expectations when they finally came out and replaced the BL1.