Earle wrote:

While reading about the new Emerge, my thoughts were as follows:

"Damn,... another mono speaker"

"Isn't that woofer firing directly into a solid panel? How would they have gotten that to sound good?"

"Looks good enough to me, the price is 'alright, and I'm sure it sounds great'"

"Damn,... another mono speaker"

Ready to work for Apple then...

Infinite loop 🙂

Millemissen wrote:

Some look back - others try to find a way forward.

You are absolutely right, and trust me it's my everyday curse to look back and want the thing to remains still.
But at the same time you can't say a BC9500 is useless today! Lot of people have them around for everyday use.
(and as a CC user you must know that). 

You may have noticed that they are "families" on the forum:

- those who use streaming, 
- those who use HD streaming,
- those who use physical support,
- those who use NL (and don't understand Airplay or CC),
- those who use Airplay or CC (and don't understand the benefit of NL).

There is something in my mind I have since BL28 announcement and something you said (you MM) about "how they can be use".

To me a speaker is a speaker, be it active or passive, you plug it and it works!
But when I read all this mess about - master, slave, digital in, software update, autotune room, etc etc… and all the incompatibilities that come along, I praise myself to have just BL4000 "Speakers". And the only wish I have abut BL28 is that they will lower the price of BL18 on second hand market  - my dream.

So, a speaker is a speaker and it can be connecte to any amp, any thing, any source as long as electrical requirement are ok, with maybe some bad results but it should work.

Nowadays, even buying an (expensive) speaker seems to be so difficult.

And no need to say that all the electronic inside a BL28 may just mean that B&O may one day decide your speaker is no more wanted and just brick it.

So Yes, I'm looking to the past, because the past is owned and unconnected. You should know if your remember my posts that I'm streaming to Apple Airport on different old analogs B&O devices: got the joy of them and the flexibility of streaming, independent from any their party platform who may or may not suspend his service one day or another. OK, its my way and its work for me. I can't see the benefit of NL and I know you're a lot around that dont understand I dont understand.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is: yes its good to look forward in a lot of matters, but when it comes for a reliable, comfortable, stable, independent way to enjoy music (between other things), I dont want a future involving a third party with other goals (See Sonos…)

 

 

According to the US website, it's not expected until October 2021... maybe just in time for the NL support 😉

I think this is decent effort (assuming it sounds good).  It is unlike any other speaker I've seen.  Besides, according to a review I read somewhere the "traffic cone" form factor is played out.  Everybody and their little brother has one (Apple, Bose, B&O, chinese knockoffs). 

The Level is a cutting board.  The Emerge is a wooden book.  Not everyone wants a speaker that says "Look at me!".  

Toward the larger question of "why another stand alone speaker", I regularly use an M3, BS1 and BS2.  I occasionally use a BS9000 + BS5 + BL1s + BL2 + BL3500, and an Essence + BL4.  I have a pair of BL4000s and BL8000s that I don't use.  I haven't sold them in case one of my kids wants them, but they're too "old fashion" right now.  Maybe in a few more years, there will be renewed interest from a retro perspective. They're also a bit of a hard sell in the US.  Not much brand awareness.  Expensive to ship.  The youngsters are not interested.

At this point, I think I'm covered speaker wise (I mean, I have 2 sets of very decent speakers that I'm not use 😁), but I could see this Emerge replacing the M3 at some point (assuming good reviews and NL support).  I'm not interested in the BL28.  Maybe B&O is investing where they should (assuming they're actually adding NL to the Mozart platform).

Also, I don't really use headphones, but I'm not whining about "why another headphone?".  If it sells, B&O should build it because I'd rather live in a world with quirky B&O speakers (even if I have no use for many of them) than without.

Puncher wrote:

It was staggering in its day and still draws admirers even now!

I struggle to think of anything in the current line-up of which you could say the same.

My BL18s get just as many admiring comments as my older stuff did including my BS9000.

Duels wrote:

Puncher wrote:

 

It was staggering in its day and still draws admirers even now!

 

I struggle to think of anything in the current line-up of which you could say the same.

 

 

My BL18s get just as many admiring comments as my older stuff did including my BS9000.

Not really a recent design though, it's a blinged up 8000 (which I personally don't like - I always think of someone painting a bodywarmer and a bobble hat on the mona lisa)

Puncher wrote:

Not really a recent design though, it's a blinged up 8000 (which I personally don't like - I always think of someone painting a bodywarmer and a bobble hat on the mona lisa)

Ban boring signatures!

Fair enough but that wasn’t what you said.

You said you struggled to see anything in the current line up of which you could say the same. And in my experience BL18s really do get the same type of comments.

Duels wrote:

Puncher wrote:

 

Not really a recent design though, it's a blinged up 8000 (which I personally don't like - I always think of someone painting a bodywarmer and a bobble hat on the mona lisa)

 

Ban boring signatures!

 

 

Fair enough but that wasn’t what you said.

 

You said you struggled to see anything in the current line up of which you could say the same. And in my experience BL18s really do get the same type of comments.

 

Yeah that's what I said - maybe I should have said "any of the new designs"

Puncher wrote:

Yeah that's what I said - maybe I should have said "any of the new designs"

Ban boring signatures!

If you had I’d have most likely given you the same answer. And then you’d have explained why the BL18 wasn’t a new design.

😕😕😕

I listened to it today and it was ok but nothing special to listen or look at. As agricultural as the Beolit 20 etc they relatively sound fantastic compared to this thing. The Level was also on display and seemed a more to have more of a point to it! The Beosound 2 next to them both sounded amazing in comparison.

With the Beolab 17s gone the speaker range looks incredibly thin.

matador43 wrote:

Millemissen wrote:

Some look back - others try to find a way forward.

You are absolutely right, and trust me it's my everyday curse to look back and want the thing to remains still.
But at the same time you can't say a BC9500 is useless today! Lot of people have them around for everyday use.
(and as a CC user you must know that). 

You may have noticed that they are "families" on the forum:

- those who use streaming, 
- those who use HD streaming,
- those who use physical support,
- those who use NL (and don't understand Airplay or CC),
- those who use Airplay or CC (and don't understand the benefit of NL).

There is something in my mind I have since BL28 announcement and something you said (you MM) about "how they can be use".

To me a speaker is a speaker, be it active or passive, you plug it and it works!
But when I read all this mess about - master, slave, digital in, software update, autotune room, etc etc… and all the incompatibilities that come along, I praise myself to have just BL4000 "Speakers". And the only wish I have abut BL28 is that they will lower the price of BL18 on second hand market  - my dream.

So, a speaker is a speaker and it can be connecte to any amp, any thing, any source as long as electrical requirement are ok, with maybe some bad results but it should work.

Nowadays, even buying an (expensive) speaker seems to be so difficult.

And no need to say that all the electronic inside a BL28 may just mean that B&O may one day decide your speaker is no more wanted and just brick it.

So Yes, I'm looking to the past, because the past is owned and unconnected. You should know if your remember my posts that I'm streaming to Apple Airport on different old analogs B&O devices: got the joy of them and the flexibility of streaming, independent from any their party platform who may or may not suspend his service one day or another. OK, its my way and its work for me. I can't see the benefit of NL and I know you're a lot around that dont understand I dont understand.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is: yes its good to look forward in a lot of matters, but when it comes for a reliable, comfortable, stable, independent way to enjoy music (between other things), I dont want a future involving a third party with other goals (See Sonos…)

What I want is that B&O is alive and kicking and bring out products that people of today and tomorrow....and some old farts like me can use on a daily basis.

They surely can not live from people admiring 40 year old technology packed in the design language of that time in a museum.

For the record: I still have my old Beosystem - although the tape part is removed long ago and the vinyl player is hardly ever touched.

This is because I have it already - I wiuld never huy into that if I had to start from scratch today.

And it can be used, yes - I used to have several ML-linkrooms, but disconnected most of them. The old ML system is simply too egocentric.
My setup has evolved over the years - up till today where streaming is the main source in my home (Netradio, Spotify and airplaying from certain apps, I seldom use CC for audio). The main devices being my Essence MK2 - which I bought on the day it launched - and my two BV’s.
Which family do I belong to, by the way?

I have seen and have helped installing many different setups - there are a lot of different use cases. A lot of these swear to oldfashioned physical playback without modern sw-based devices and services.

But when I look at the present and the future, I see no other way than getting involved with new technology and sw. I won’t look back on the times, where I had to buy a CD (and wait days/weeks for it to arrive). My life with music is so much richer nowadays - and I can play it in ways that fits my way of living way better than back then, when the FM radio and the CD player of my Beosystem 4500 were the main sources.

 

We are - in this thread about the BS Emerge - talking about how B&O as a company fits into the world of now and of tomorrow. I find that B&O still makes many right choices and I can not think of any other company being able to offer what I need, if I should start over again.
I know that the BS Emerge does not support NL, which I need in my setup. But I also know that this and a lot of other interesting things are on the roadmap.

 

As for the BL28, I find it fine that/if this speaker is versatile - and I don’t share your concerns about it being doomed to be obsolete.......because it is connected etc.

I focus on the new possibilities, that it may offer people buying into the B&O stuff today (and maybe me at some point).

 

It is totally fine to say that you don’t like what they present (and the way it is presented designwise) - totally fine to say, that ‘a speaker is a speaker’/‘you plug it and it works’

However, if one does not like what B&O can offer and don’t need it, he (or she) should leave it to that. 

There are lots of other possibilities (old or new) to get to listening to music....which is what should be our main focus, I guess.

 

MM