Wow, they look fabulous..well in the right surroundings..

I'm a big fan of the 9's myself.. I have them in white, in a white room with aluminium wall set lights. A little minimal for some, but a look i like.

When i figure out how to put pics on here I'll post a few pictures of them in the living room!

David Coyne

david coyne wrote:

Wow, they look fabulous..well in the right surroundings..

I'm a big fan of the 9's myself.. I have them in white, in a white room with aluminium wall set lights. A little minimal for some, but a look i like.

When i figure out how to put pics on here I'll post a few pictures of them in the living room!

David Coyne

Just saw them in the B&O store in White .... first time I got to see them in other than black and they're absolutely stunning .
Also love the pictures of the personalized ones ... would look great in the right interior. 

leogenghis wrote:

I don't agree that the Lab 9's will "age" faster than the 5's. I might be in the minority here but the 9's were love at first sight, while the 5's looked good only after I learnt the technical prowess behind them, and I still can't get used to the 3's. The thing is that the 9's are a very flowing and unified shape, while the 3's and 5's have various appendages - the ALT tweeter on top of the 3's looking especially unattractive. Simpler, balanced designs usually have longer staying power.

The white Lab 9's in the newest Beo magazine are absolutely breathtaking.

Leo

Agree with this :)

As one of the creators of the Acoustic Lens, I have been surprised that during the nine years since rollout in 2003 the BeoLab 5 has accrued no technological competitors, no imitators, no knockoffs.  

We (Sausalito Audio) keep studying ways that we might improve on the function and performance of the BeoLab 5 (and, of course, the Acoustic Lens in general), but haven't come up with anything that has proved to be viable in the marketplace.  At the same time, we believe that the BeoLab 5 has solved the speaker/room/listener interaction problems better than anything else in production to date.  

From a "design" (styling) standpoint, the BeoLab 5 is very much a "form follows function" device, and David Lewis really got the function (and therefore form) right once he figured out the need for lots of bass.  I have trouble imagining a styling update that would either improve the performance or even maintain it.  So, as you can probably tell, I'm very proud of the BeoLab 5 and don't think there is yet an upgrade that needs to be made.  

I'm so spoiled by my BL5s that I simply forget how good they are until I sit in somebody else's living room or home theatre and wonder why the sound is so awful.  There's also a sort of "glazed eyes" look of awe I see in guests after they watch a film or listen to a nice surround CD.  There's a lot of "I had no idea that music could sound like this  .  .  ."  

At the same time, I've sort of "reinvented" stereo in a way that sounds considerably better to me, so now I have trouble even listening to the pair of BeoLab 3s I have installed as so-called "nearfield" monitors in the studio!  It's a nice problem to have.  

Thanks for listening!

Best regards,

Dave Moulton wrote:

As one of the creators of the Acoustic Lens, I have been surprised that during the nine years since rollout in 2003 the BeoLab 5 has accrued no technological competitors, no imitators, no knockoffs.  

The only "contemporary" beolab imitation I've seen to date is the brand new Meridian M6 active speaker, unveiled at this year's CES, which looks like a BL9 without ALT :
link

But I can't understand how this speaker could sound "right" with only a bass and a large-band speaker (no tweeter!). Maybe for the "more bass and nothing else" generation.

Thanks for bringing the Meridian M6 to my attention.  Meridian is a VERY good audio company, and I'm quite partial to what I've heard of their work, a well as their research and development efforts.  That said, the M6 does not compete with the BeoLab 5 at all (no lenses, no ABC, insufficient bass, insufficient power, no digital inputs, other niceties,  etc.).  It does seem styled to compete with the BeoLab 9, as noted, with some interesting design solutions.  I expect it sounds quite good.  

Best regards, 

beocool wrote:

To be honest, I didn't like any of the ALT speakers at first sight. Especially the Beolab 5 has a very strong visual presence and in my view you need a pretty big room to make them look right. Adding another tweeter would make the visual appearance even more imposing I fear. Beolab 9's and Beolab 3's blend in much easier.

Sonically all the ALT speakers never failed to impress me. I actually bought a pair of Beolab 3's even though they aren't exactly the best looking speakers in the world. A motorized ALT tweeter like you get in an Audi A8 or Aston Martin certainly would help.

Well, i ended up with a pair of Beolab 5's after all. 😁