Er....sorry guys:

BeoSound 8 is the first B&O product that "follows Apple".

It is arriving almost 10 years after the rest of the other manufacturers started producing Ipod docks.

And it has become in 6 months B&O's fastest & best selling audio product..

If B&O had "followed Apple" years ago, they may have lost less money (& fewer customers) during all those years..😉

Anyway, and back to the topic, it seems that B&O recently released a USB adaptor that you connect to your BeoMaster 5 and allows direct audio playback of any source connected to it (like an AUX port, somehow); it's better than nothing, but the BS5 screen is completely useless in that case, it won't show any metadata..🙁

Totally agree with Chrisreunion.   Apple has done a lot of good for us music lovers. The BS5 should be perfect, I nearly fainted when I found out that it is now priced at £4500. Is this a crazy joke?

Apple seems to be financially saving B&O at the moment. Maybe Apple does use it's own style of formats but let's but honest, they are all good!

I've been a huge fan of B&O all of my life and im currently saving for a BV10-32 and I will be buying a BS8, however, im finding the rest of their hifi range rather bizarre and out of touch with the market. I have absolute faith that the new CEO will be turning this side of the company around!

I like the Apple stuff (I got my share), but that said it isn't the Holy Grail?

Chrisreunion, how extensive have you used a BS5? After the last major sw update it is a good system; and one with a lot of positive response from family, friends, aquintances,................

sjmcguckin wrote:

Stan,

I get the sense that you, like me, really appreciate the BS5/BM5 and that you fully understand, use and are very happy with the functionality.

I also sense that you are somewhat frustrated by people on this forum who don't understand the functionality but spend a lot of time criticizing and explaining (wrongly) what it can't do.  

I also get the sense that you, like me, get frustrated when these same people continually blame B&O for either not partnering with Apple or not breaking Apple's copyrights. At the same time they never complain about Apple not using open standards, or at the very least licensing there technology to other companies who could be partners.

Anyway, we can always start the BS5 and let the MOTS take our frustrations away.

You read well 😁, and I'll take your medicine...

Stan

Chrisreunion wrote:

Anyway, and back to the topic, it seems that B&O recently released a USB adaptor that you connect to your BeoMaster 5 and allows direct audio playback of any source connected to it (like an AUX port, somehow); it's better than nothing, but the BS5 screen is completely useless in that case, it won't show any metadata..🙁

Just a clarification, this functionality is not yet released.  The release information about this from the other thread came from a version of BS5 software that was accidentally released to a few BS5s in th wild (including mine)  It was not ready, but somehow made it out.  So, if you ask your dealer about this, he may not know. 

I also agree that this is not a great solution, but, as you say, it is better than nothing (and the Apple hopeful can believe that this is but a first step in a longer term strategy).

It does seem like we beat this "Apple and B&O"  topic to death every few months.  Make no mistake, I generally like Apple and own many of their products.  However, I'm not ready to throw up my hands and say all one should do is follow Apple as they are perfect.  I spent some time recently inside their Cupertino offices, it seems like "perfect" is the prevailing self-image of Apple employees, their work and their company.  This would worry me as arrogance tends to be a precursor to most failures.  I wish them the best of luck. 

Stan

Stan wrote:

I spent some time recently inside their Cupertino offices, it seems like "perfect" is the prevailing self-image of Apple employees, their work and their company.  This would worry me as arrogance tends to be a precursor to most failures.  I wish them the best of luck. 

Stan

Fully agree, we have seen with many technology firms, Apple in the past, companies like Dell and Microsoft over the past few years, and not to forget, B&O🙁

Stan wrote:

This would worry me as arrogance tends to be a precursor to most failures.  I wish them the best of luck. 

Apple have been down this road before, and their arrogance with their proprietary formats, firewire, etc etc.  I forsee their demise with users ultimately locked in to doing things their way, rather than an eco centric approach.

B&O are right to piggy back on the success that many people have been locked in with formats through the Apple Store that they have to keep their iphones, when they mightn't want to, and make products like the BS8.  I think it was Elephant that said, or maybe i read it somewhere else, where people really are stuck with Apple because of the amount of content they have purchased in a particular format. 

Let's hope that ultimately the BS5 reaches a better price point, because really, its the equivalent of an Imac (which you can mount on a wall), with a better DAC and better connections.  Plus I would love one, but would rather spend the $10,000 AUD on something else. 

david coyne wrote:

Im never game to update my itunes software for fear of beoport becoming completely useless

I cant imagine just having a beosound 5.. not being able to play CD's which frankly sound much better!  So, until the beocentre 2 and beoport are completely obsolete, I think I'll stick with them!!

David, I was in your boat... had a BeoPort and it was working fine.  However, accidentially upgrading iTunes to find BeoPort no longer worked, searching the web for the previous version, then downgrading (silly me, I actually did this more than once), then finding that somewhere along the way the BeoPort navigation of the iTunes library became wonky, about every 3rd or 4th time I started BeoPort, I'd have to reboot something (enough that my wife gave up on using it), finally became enough to pitch it in favor of the BS5.  It just became too fiddly.

If you rip to lossless, the BS5 sounds as good as CDs.  I still have my BS9000...  I'd kind of like to sell it to fund BL9s, but my wife and kids disagree.  Oh well...

Stan

Everything seemed okay with BeoPort, but we had several issues with software and ease of use; when one day we purchased the AppleTV2 (ATV2) and everything changed.

What we didn’t know was that ATV2 has something called Airplay, which means that it will reach out wirelessly to a device and pull in the content. Since the ATV2 is connected to the Avant, the Avant is serving as the gateway to the ML and all of our content is moving through our home. The interface is wonderful and the ease of use could not be better.

The BeoPort has not been turned on for the last six months.