My opinion:

It is a complete overkill to buy a Beosound 5, Beosound 5 Encore and B&O speakers if you just want to listen to your AAC- or MP3-Files from iTunes or Amazon.
For those low quality audio you should consider an iPod dock ;)

Beosound 5 = WMA losless, WAV or FLAC to enjoy your music.

I'm using WMA losless and it's not as tiring as listening to MP3.

It's a better solution to add an external Airport Express for the Airplay functionality than integrating it into the Beomaster/Encore...
Apple tries to dictate the whole world and that is NOT a good sign (see the new Mac mini that even lacks a Discdrive!)

Apple tries to dictate the whole world and that is NOT a good sign (see the new Mac mini that even lacks a Discdrive!)

Hang on there! Dictate?

Nobody has to buy Apple  products.

It's always the same with successful companies, when they're small then 'small is beautiful' and evérybody loves them. Become successful and big however (for example Apple/Microsoft/Google) and they become the target of abuse.

bayerische wrote:

Maybe it's because B&O seems to enjoy being 5 years behind everyone else. 😎

With their current user interfaces feels more like 10 years 😁

Easy to remember the difference between the BeoSound 5 and the BeoSound 5 Encore;

The Encore does even less 😎

I can't find anything about the Encore on B&O's website, maybe the update is country-dependent?😉

I can't find anything about the Encore on B&O's website, maybe the update is country-dependent?😉

Hey all

Price in Geneva, Switzerland is CHF 3690.

ETA in the store is in 2 weeks. they already have all the commercial banners but not the device itself

Christopphe

Kokomo wrote:

Apple tries to dictate the whole world and that is NOT a good sign (see the new Mac mini that even lacks a Discdrive!)

It seems to me that B&O is also discontinuing CD and DVD products as well.

TWG wrote:

My opinion:

It is a complete overkill to buy a Beosound 5, Beosound 5 Encore and B&O speakers if you just want to listen to your AAC- or MP3-Files from iTunes or Amazon.

You miss the point, miss the point entirely.

Most users - myself included - have tracks from the iTunes Store, tracks they may have ripped using iTunes (from CD), as well as their regular CD tracks.

The Encore is supposed to be a "do it all" device that brings together all sources and enables you to control and play them. It does not. It won't support the Apple encoded formats.

Which means, either:

1) You ignore every track you've either bought from iTunes or encoded using iTunes. And as iTunes represents a huge proportion of many people's collection, B&O are affectively ruling out this section of the market and it's a big market.

or

2) You need to go back and encode everything again in a format the Encore understands. Unless you're some kind of mentalist and have too much time on your hands, then most people just do not have the resources to do this. And why should we?

The thing is, what are you going to buy the Encore for, exactly? Is it only aimed at users who have used CDs and now want a way of storing digital music and have never used iTunes or similar stores?

I *want* to buy an Encore and I want it to control every aspect of my music collection, whatever the format. And I'm quite prepared to pay £2500 for it to do this. Exceptional money. I expect B&O to have negotiated and paid the royalties to make this happen and incorporated it in to the cost of the Encore - in return, I'll pay top dollar for the privilege.

moxxey wrote:

It won't support the Apple encoded formats.

 

Here we go again!

BS5 can play M4a, M4b, etc. But no Apple Lossless. Presumably the same for the BS5 encore

Further, almost all bought files on iTunes are Apple LOSSY. So if you have lots of Apple Lossless files you ripped them probably yourself or you did get them another way. Eighter way you could made it easily in to a BS5 known format!

On top: with the BS5 one can play also HD music (up to 192kHz, 24bit). Presumably the same for the BS5 encore.

Carolpa wrote:

moxxey wrote:

It won't support the Apple encoded formats.

 

 

Here we go again!

BS5 can play M4a, M4b, etc. But no Apple Lossless. Presumably the same for the BS5 encore

Further, almost all bought files on iTunes are Apple LOSSY. So if you have lots of Apple Lossless files you ripped them probably yourself or you did get them another way. Eighter way you could made it easily in to a BS5 known format!

 

 

On top: with the BS5 one can play also HD music (up to 192kHz, 24bit). Presumably the same for the BS5 encore.

 

Moxxey's point is that with Airplay proper they could be streamed direct without having to worry about formats or having to convert between whatever - i.e a seamless and hassle-free experience from any audio source to your B&O speakers is what he wants. It would also mean that the lossless files would take advantage of the BS5 DAC rather than having to connect via an analogue connection from Airport Express and having to use the DAC of the Express which will severely dent the quality of the lossless source being played.

Or am I mistaken?😮