TWG wrote:

But all to be replaced with that Beoplay "garbage"? I don't think that this is the way to go... and seriously, I believe I can do it better than Tue! 😁
A company like B&O need to be leaded by an enthusiast with knowledge and love for the company!

To be fair to Tue, some Beoworld users are more "old school" in their thinking than the current customerbase. We look at the BS9000, BL4000 and look back at past glory and wonder why they are being discontinued. They are being discontinued as they aren't selling. People aren't buying these speakers any more. If they were selling, B&O would keep them. It's relatively simple, really :) When products aren't proving popular, you don't keep them going for the sake of it.

As most people know, I'm a massive fan of B&O kit. I've owned most of the speakers. Although I've not owned a pair of BL4000s - even though I'm a fan of their design - I am leaning towards the feeling that a lot of B&O kit (4000s, 6000s, 8000s) comes across as a little dated these days. It looks like well-designed 90s kit, masquerading as up-to-date, modern, expensive, equipment.

If we take off our B&O-history loving hats for a moment and think about the audience for B&O kit in 2013. It must be very difficult trying to sell people some of these speakers. Truth be told, most customers will only use them with a B&O TV or sound system and how many sound systems do B&O sell in 2013? They've cancelled the BS4, for example. The BS5/Encore is the only sound system that remains. That means someone *must* really *want* a BS5/Encore to consider some speakers. Tall order then, as we know the BS5/Encore isn't a top-selling product.

Herein lies the problem: finding a market for B&O speakers in 2013. Convincing people to buy a pair of speakers must be getting much more difficult and there are lot of speaker options - it makes sense for them to be discontinuing some of the poorer selling speakers.

Well argued and I completely agree.  I do think it would be nice to have a replacement though as there is nothing really in the range that would be useful as a bookshelf speaker. However you are quite right and this forum is made up of many members who do look at the past more favourably than the future. It must be very difficult to sell premium audio systems at present as the vast majority of music listened to will be from portable devices.

You're right about a gulf.

However, there is much in the pipeline. Unfortunately because B&O don't manufacture exclusively in China, there are some scalability / cost implications that our friends at the large American "One a day, keeps the doc away" company don't have. 

The TVs are still expensive. This will begin to change as new modularity starts to embed. 

I don't agree with the Peter Bang turning in his grave comment. Today's electronic world is vastly different to years of old. Even some of the finest brands have struggled - not only in the electronic world either. Think Swedish car brand.

However, for an organisation of less than 2k employees worldwide, I think we are moving quickly to deploy some exciting new products that will bridge certain gaps and fill spaces that are being discontinued. You can't make the same things forever. 

Gooday!

Hi moxxey, Peter and Dude1,

Nice to see that I am not the only one looking more ahead than beyond.

I expect some nice things coming from Struer.

Not every 'B&O-trad' will like it, but plenty of new costumers out there waiting...

And - moxxey - by the way, B&O is making a well-selling audiosystem - the Playmaker. The bundle with the BL3 has sold well too.

Greetings Millemissen

The PlayMaker was given away for free if you bought a pair of speakers, not because it didn't sell well - around here we saw that the PlayMaker was mainly picked up by existing BeoLab owners and did not create the additional speaker sales that B&O had hoped for. So a combo was offered.

The recent numbers from Struer indicates that they are no longer loosing money, but they have a long way to go before they start to make some serious money again.

I fully agree that we (BeoWorld) tend to be in love with the past. I do remember the comments regarding the BeoSound 9000 vs the Jacob Jensen designs😁

If we go back 3-4 years, at least in Denmark, B&O were accused of having left a generation behind: the young customers could not find anything within their price range. B&O had become an AV version of Aston Martin. Was BeoPlay the correct answer to this? Time will tell.

A more serious concern of mine is Tue's lack of ability to deliver premium TV's at the correct price point: The V1 is not that far off his goal (goal: BV's should cost 1.5-2x the top-of-range from the competition), but the BV11 is just to expensive for what it is. The current 7-55 and BV12 are excellent, but customers can get a Sony 84" 4K flagship for the same kind of money - and the Sony is just amazing: even with 1080p source material it makes current Full-HD TV's seem outdated.

Roger

The TVs frankly make no sense to me. I have leaned against putting my opinions on the TVs out there because, frankly, I'm sure other audiophiles could say the same to me about my interest in B&O gear in general. And now, having gone on a B&O "binge" of late, I am discovering how much I love all of these pieces from when I was growing up.

That said, substantively, I see very beautiful designs with very unique connectivity and speaker arrangements, but nothing that necessarily puts the picture out ahead of the other major players in the market. In the case of the B&O audio gear, I actually find it to SOUND better than most of what's out there. 

It's the same kind of feeling that comes up when people extoll the virtues of Apple making a television. I simply don't see it, but in Apple's case, it will likely have some key differentiating factors that have nothing to do with the picture. And that being said, if Apple does introduce a television, B&O will have a likely problem on their hands. No one and I mean no one is making money in the television industry right now, so I assume B&O are maintaining and expanding their television line right now specifically because the prices are so high they can make SOME money over and above the key picture components. I don't know how long that will be a feasible business plan for the visual side of the business, though. Perhaps if B&O can get manufacturing agreements for early access to 4K or OLED panels, they'll be able to capitalize on the early access to those markets. I'd agree that the "1.5-2x" higher pricepoint Roger mentioned would probably be OK.

As for the playmaker, I am surprised that uptake hasn't been more intense. It seems to combine everything that's fantastic about B&O speakers with modern musical sources that no longer come from a "device" but rather a "network". It also surprises me that there is a grand total of ZERO playmakers available second hand through Ebay or Amazon considering the device's relatively modest price-point. One could certainly buy much crappier gear for 425.00.

The selling feature of B&O TVs was always that they had a good picture, as good as the best available, but especially good sound and integration. Surround sound on a B&O TV was always streets ahead of anything else I had heard. The problem with TVs like the BV11 is that because it has to be slim, the sound quality suffers. It is still better than an average flat screen set, but it is not that much better. Couple this with the inability to compare like with like in a showroom and one can understand why they are tricky to sell. I remember when I was a student, going into Windows in Newcastle and being shown the difference between a B&O TV and a good Panasonic/Sony. It was obvious why it cost more - even my father who really cared nothing for brands bought a Beovision 3400SJ as it was clearly so much better.

Playdrv4me wrote:

As for the playmaker, I am surprised that uptake hasn't been more intense. It seems to combine everything that's fantastic about B&O speakers with modern musical sources that no longer come from a "device" but rather a "network". 

There's one simple reason why I haven't taken my Airport Express devices and replaced them with a Playmaker: the Playmaker lacks any of the extended wireless functionality which is essential. I live in a house built in around 1770, with thick stone walls. The Airport Express device makes the extension of my wireless network, their number one selling point, sadly.

Personally, I can't see why anyone would want to buy a small white plastic box and connect £6000 (BL9) speakers to it. Why would anyone want to do that? Part of the reason many of us buy B&O has always been to show it off. We're proud of the kit. Which audiophile would proudly show off the functionality of their white plastic Playmaker unit? :)

On a sidenote, I've just reported myself and Peter for derailing this BL4000 topic. Peter, consider yourself self-banned for a week.