Beolab 5 purchase or not?

27 replies
9 LEE wrote:

I have a pair of boxed and unused "Final Edition" models (sold to dealer in 2017) with the polished discs for sale if you're looking for something a little special...

There are also plenty of standard pairs for sale by UK dealers and resellers at the moment, so you could get a bargain?

Lee

Sounds beautiful :). But probably also expensive.

A bargain would always be nice but I don’t know which choice to even make. Ans in Sweden the prices aren’t as low as in most places. Denmark has a bit better prices though and is very close to me as well.
Esax wrote:

So what are you waiting for? You who have the best deals in the world. Beovision 7-55 MK1 red, Beolab 10 red. Beolab 50, all black. Beolab 17 broken ice. Beolab transmitter. Apple tv4 and apple express 2.

What do you mean?

If you decide on 50's and they are coming with oak lamellas and you prefer black fabric let me know? We can do a swap with cash!? In Sweden too!

Beofile7 wrote:

If you decide on 50's and they are coming with oak lamellas and you prefer black fabric let me know? We can do a swap with cash!? In Sweden too!

Still contemplating purchase or not. What price would you say then?

A few thousand SEK?

9 LEE wrote:

I have a pair of boxed and unused "Final Edition" models (sold to dealer in 2017) with the polished discs for sale if you're looking for something a little special...

There are also plenty of standard pairs for sale by UK dealers and resellers at the moment, so you could get a bargain?

Lee

🙂

 

Hi Lee,

I am looking for a Pre-Owned pair of Beolab5 at the moment.

Recent version from serial 219xxxxx (2011).

How much are these Final edition ?

Also interested with older BL5 if if you have ones.

Thanks.

Guy

The "bass heavy" feeling of punch in your friends apartment might very well be present because of the room acoustics. The only valid comparison to find your answer would be to get the Beolab 5 and 50 in one room (best in your apartment of course). Due to the weight a difficult task; yet in my opinion worth the work, considering the price you pay for 50s. 

I personally haven´t heard the 50s but own a pair of 5s. I had Beolab 9 beforehand and was very sceptical, wether the upgrade would be worth it. 5 Seconds of demo with my own cd in a store changed my mind. Pure joy. I don´t know how reliable the 50s are/have been; this might be a considerable topic.

Since the 50 is a very "sophisticated" and "intelligent" speaker (roughly 15 years of technological advance from the 2003 Beolab 5) I would rather go for the 50s if it´s just for the sound. I hate their design, but that´s a very subjective matter.

Active Room Compensation and the listening modes are a fundamental innovation that you probably can not recreate with a dirac. The argument to have a "closed system" whose components are perfectly tuned in on eachother during the development was my decision for active speakers and would be my arugment to chose 50s above 5s with dirac. In the end, the 50s are guaranteed to sound way more balanced than the 5s in YOUR room (analogously any random room) due to this technology. Is your room acousticly "complicated" and would your system benefit from ARC? 

I am utterly averse to subwoofer setups in music scenarios, since the positioning of the subwoofer changes the sound tremendously.

If you are happy with the design and got the money, go for the "new kid on the block". Either way, an upgrade to the Beolab 5 or 50s will be a huge upgrade for the bass. Going from BL9 to BL5 the experience, especially in the mid and high range, was "game changing". Wether the 20 is that similar to the 9 in this matter should be discussed by someone who went through the process of that upgrade.

I must disagree with @Fansastic regarding the sound advantage with a Beovision. Could you please explain what part of the DSP should have an influence of the sound, since both 50 and 5 have internal DSPs, especially the 50 will be very much better at room correction than a BV setup.

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