Are pilots the target audience for B&O then? It's different to a watch. There's no set-up required in your home for a watch and it can be taken to a place where you can show people you've spent considerably more than them on your symbol of wealth. A car is the same, but audio , other than headphones is home based. 

Chris Townsend wrote:

My local mall is full of shops selling £6-10,000 watches, so it can't be price. 

Chris, just because the stores have the watches, it doesn't mean they sell (in big numbers). Also, don't forget, there's a rather huge difference between buying the right watch and a B&O TV. Buy a Patek or the right Rolex and, generally, speaking, they either retain value or go up in value - this means that you can buy a watch, wear it and it's an investment.

A B&O TV isn't an "investment" so it's not the same comparison at all. For example, my fairly modern £10,000+ BV12-65 is worth peanuts now. I'd be lucky to get £1K for it. Thus I can't really afford to trade-up as when the OLED B&O 65" reaches the market later this year. At £12K I'd have to find a £11K just to buy a slightly better picture than the same TV I have on the wall. And, frankly, I don't obsess over picture quality enough to warrant finding £11K. This means, as an existing B&O customer, a customer who has been upgrading B&O TVs since 2003, I'm now out priced/justified out of the B&O TV upgrade loop - worrying for my local store.

The point is, you can't compare watches with TVs.

The simple answer with B&O is that you can now get a top quality picture on a low price LG. You can now listen to decent audio on a £500 portable speaker (and, frankly, most people aren't audiophiles anyhow). There's no *need* for the average bloke on the street to walk in to a B&O store and look at £6K TVs or £5K speakers, sadly. It's a rare breed in 2017.

Simonbeo wrote:

Are pilots the target audience for B&O then? It's different to a watch. There's no set-up required in your home for a watch and it can be taken to a place where you can show people you've spent considerably more than them on your symbol of wealth. A car is the same, but audio , other than headphones is home based.

Beo Century ,Beoplay V1, Beocenter 6, Ex-Beolit 12, Beotime , A8 , MX 5500 . Beolit 15 , Form 2i , Beolab 2000, Beoplay A3.

moxxey wrote:

Chris, just because the stores have the watches, it doesn't mean they sell (in big numbers). Also, don't forget, there's a rather huge difference between buying the right watch and a B&O TV. Buy a Patek or the right Rolex and, generally, speaking, they either retain value or go up in value - this means that you can buy a watch, wear it and it's an investment.

A B&O TV isn't an "investment" so it's not the same comparison at all. For example, my fairly modern £10,000+ BV12-65 is worth peanuts now. I'd be lucky to get £1K for it. Thus I can't really afford to trade-up as when the OLED B&O 65" reaches the market later this year. At £12K I'd have to find a £11K just to buy a slightly better picture than the same TV I have on the wall. And, frankly, I don't obsess over picture quality enough to warrant finding £11K. This means, as an existing B&O customer, a customer who has been upgrading B&O TVs since 2003, I'm now out priced/justified out of the B&O TV upgrade loop - worrying for my local store.

The point is, you can't compare watches with TVs.

The simple answer with B&O is that you can now get a top quality picture on a low price LG. You can now listen to decent audio on a £500 portable speaker (and, frankly, most people aren't audiophiles anyhow). There's no *need* for the average bloke on the street to walk in to a B&O store and look at £6K TVs or £5K speakers, sadly. It's a rare breed in 2017.

Bang olufsen is a passion and hobby too!😁,but imho should stick to making speakers only ,for now!

Headphone is fine too👍

Well I live in the Cayman Islands and there is a new store opening here soon, I don't know if it's a full B&O shop or Pro Partner but I was speaking to them the other day and they are going to have all current products on display including the 90's  can't wait to hear them. They also said they will have the new sound shape when available. The shop will be B&O by Audiophile (a local automation company) so I guess a pro partner. They have an avant 55 and 18's, 19 and 17's in their showroom at the moment, should be interesting hopefully they can fix things there as my 9000 is playing up.

Chris Townsend wrote:

Now we've got the 5s I don't really need a Tv with a whopping sound system, just a good centre channel(like your 12-65) but £5,000 for a Horizon! I was in Fenwicks and they're retailing 55 inch OLED HDR TVs for under £1,500!

Yes, it's a tough call justifying an "upgrade" these days. I used to move up every two years as a) my dealer nearly always gave me a great price for my 2-year-old B&O and b) the difference between trade-in and RRP was often reasonably minimal. Now, I'd have to find 80-90% of the cost for a relatively minor refresh. ie. is there really much of an improvement between a BV14-55 and BV11-55?

Also, don't forget the world is moving increasingly to streaming and digital downloads. Do you really need BL20s sat next to your TV to handle the audio presented through Netflix or your Apple TV? I don't think so.

It's all well and good saying B&O should specialise in speakers, but how many 20-somethings have the finances to justify BL18s or 20s? And how do you convince these next generation buyers that they need a huge pair of BL20s to listen to their digital audio in their tiny sitting rooms (as younger people can't afford big expensive property)?

What I'm saying is, B&O stores have the changing world stacked against them. Whenever I go in to a B&O store and see another customer (which is a extremely rare sight), those customers are nearly always 50-somethings. It's rare to ever see anyone under 35 in a B&O store and you need the next generation consumer to power your future.