High end audio is indeed complex...but I'm pretty certain that if I read a novel's first edition and then compare it to the softcover edition, I won't get the impression that the characters are less lifelike, nor that the story lacks a certain depth or warmth....  Don't confuse pride of ownership or collector value with performance.

True high end audio, as we've discussed in these forums before, depends on such an obsessive attention to detail in every aspect that it can be rightly said that every single detail matters and can be discerned.  If one is not willing to spend $50-60K building a perfectly quiet room on a free floating, oil-damped foundation, can one truly be said to be hearing the distinctions revealed by a really well made mains cable?  I think not.  And that is not the marketplace Bang & Olufsen is pursuing.  Get over it.  SACD is dead, DVD-A is dead, vinyl is still in it's deep coma...and the central-air conditioning system in my home easily drowns out any possible difference between mainstream audio formats and 24 bit/196khz signals.

 

The internal processing on a BL5 is 192kHz, because that is exactly twice the rate of each channel after upsampling to 96kHz. (Any signal that enters BL5, whether analog (powerlink/RCA) or digital, is first upsampled to 24/96kHz, each channel is then subjected to digital signal processing in a 32bit/192kHz processor, which lets them pass through without modification).

Here's a sentence from Computer Audiophile: No need to purchase a Bluray player when you can just download the content!

That's in reference to the availability of musical files that fully exploit the limits of the BD format. As one who has heard 5.1 channel music recorded at 24/192kHz in each channel, and delivered without any post-processing whatsoever - straight from the source - I'm not entirely on board with Alex' skeptical attitude to the benefits of higher resolutions. But you really have to experience it, and the direct comparison to CD and to 24/96kHz.

Anyone interested in exploring this further, will find a lot of useful information at this link, which lists available high-resolution music files. The site in general is a treasure trove:

IMHO, the way most B&O products just keep on looking fabulous while rarely causing any trouble year after year is just worth every damn penny. I'm reluctantly getting rid of my MX6000 28" B&O TV after 16 years as I need the space for other things. The thing is as old as CDs, but it just works, and it's still one of the best CRT TVs I've ever used.

I've thrown out or sold most equipment from other brands after a few years and I've got friends who wrinkle their noses at my overpriced design gizmos just to return home to their £1000 peices of plastic which tend to go up in smoke two months after the warranty expires.

Admittedly, B&O haven't really figured out how to fully handle the new digital era yet. It's not the same to navigate a 1000 CD collection as it it to select between 6 CDs. But I believe they're getting there. Unfortunately they've made some mistakes on the way, but you'll have a hard time to find any brand which hasn't. Cheap or expensive.

I got a look at the BS5 today and I think they're on to something. I for one have been using computers for the last 25 years and I still don't want them in my livingroom. No matter how many codecs or open source home made media features they can throw at me.

Cheers,

/axl

I have decided I am going to offer my hand, as a model for B&O photographs.
This picture, just like the first one for Beosound 6, has somebody with a dodgy fingernail!

Andy T.

Good photo Movie !   Thank you from all of us.

I'm looking at the photo right now on a BV 8, between 2 BL 4000 speakers, adjacent to a BS 3200. I see some similarities: The minimalist design, the unit canted at 15 degrees.

But beyond that,  well. . . . Imagination comes to mind.

A wine expert once said that drinking a really old wine beyond 100 years of age is like making love to an old lady: " It is possible, using a little imagination, and it might even be a pleasing experience. "