Not really, it's just the market has become a lot cheaper and perceived 'value' is not what it used to be. The modern speakers are superb, I love my BS4 and am happy with the BV7-40 MKIV. There are some bad apple's in the B&O portfolio, but hopefully these issues will be addressed with the new CEO.

Apple doesn't get everything right either you know. I'm really stuck about what to buy at the moment, Apple wise. The new glossy aluminium iMac's screen isn't good enough for an everyday office environment, but then the Mac Pro and Cinema display are fairly expensive. Big gap between the two products. Sure, the laptops are fantastic, but then Apple laptops have regularly been fantastic.

B&O is a tiny company by Apple's standards. I'm not sure how people can claim they should compete (ie. always comparing B&O with Apple). It's like comparing Blackpool FC with Liverpool FC and wondering why they just can't compete. However, not that long ago Blackpool FC were a bigger club and playing in the top league.

Doesn't mean that all their fans have deserted them though and moved over to supporting more successful teams.

Can we please grow up?

I'm not being a grump, but these topics are a mile wide and an inch deep! It's like discussing politics in terms of "are republicans done for?" To think that anything intelligent and consequent can be developed from that line of reasoning is fatuous. Inevitably once threads like this get cooking and go on for page after page, someone laments that Bang & Olufsen should really listen to what people on these boards are saying. Why on earth would they concern themselves with the discontented rants? Do you really think that someone in Struer is going to burst into a meeting and yell, "Dammit! Has anyone seen the forums!? WE NEED TO REGAIN OUR MOJO!!!"

Please. 

I'd like, for example, to have a robust discussion on specific topics where particular strengths and weaknesses can be explored by people like us who devote a near silly amount of time on this stuff! iPod integration, for example, is a really hot topic in the shops. Should Bang & Olufsen deliver a docking solution? To what extent should it integrate with a full multi-room system? What is the future of wirelessness? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I, for instance, think that we should develop a docking station, but that it should not be integrated into the link system. The resources needed to keep such a highly integrated device working on the same timescale as other link masters would be out of proportion with the benefits and better devoted to development of other products.

I also have been disappointed with wireless technology and have not seen a single product that is robust enough to meet the performance demands of our clients. Those satisfied with wireless link are few and far between, and any pathway forward is always just ahead of an increasingly crowded spectrum. I would be happy just to wait until "air traffic control" is better instead of constantly trying to "fly at higher altitudes." (best analogy I could muster!) 

This is the kind of debate I love to have and most members like RussR, Camshaft, Soundproof, just to name a few, probably have some phenomenal insights which can't properly be fleshed out when the tenor of the dialog is so absurd.

I'm sick of having to put all of my thoughts, opinions, insider tips, advice, etc. in some counter-rant format!  

Trip - although i might not have thought your post added to the discussion, i'm not in favour of flaming you.

Yes, the subject has been gone over and over - but i thought the OP was trying to get a different angle, that's all.  I too am a little bored of discussing wether B&O have lost their focus, let it slip, gone to the dogs etc etc, and to be fair i don't even read them any more. The simple answer is - wait and see.

A lot of very valid suggestions have been made in the past that B&O could use, and we'll just have to see if they have noticed our ideas. Chances are, they thought of them before us though! LOL

Trip - you just made some suggestions for questions that could each have their own thread. Why don't you go for it?!!

Lee

🙂

Trip,

 I think you may have missed my point.  But Yes, Brian Laursen the product manager for the Beosound 6 should announce at his next management meeting, We have lost our MOJO, we need it back.  The point I am trying to make is that Bang & Olufsen always has been and always will be a product driven company.  Sucessfull products are never created from a spreadsheet, because they come from taking risks. You can not create a formula in a spreadsheet for that risk.  This is the MOJO that created the products I listed in my original post.    So my point is B&O should look back at what made it sucessful in the past to better succeed in the future.  That's how it can get it's MOJO back.

Apple lost it's MOJO in the early 1990's but they got it back because Steve Jobs brought them back to his original vision for the company.  To create insanely great products!  B&O just needs one.

I think Trip may just be sleep deprived.  Bleating, mewling, and boy are his arms tired!

First let me remind the group assembeled that mere days ago we were debating B&O' worst product/design.  Surely we recognize that B&O's portfolio sports a few klunkers.  In point of fact the earlier post listing iconic points on the modern timeline illustrates how rare those items really are.  There were 3 or 4, not dozens upon dozens suddenly ending in 2000.  So, are we really left without even the 'hidden gems'?  I think not!

My beloved Avant/US and it's cousins (including AV-5) marked the end of the CRT era in a spectacular shower of colors and optical illusions. 

BeoLab 5?  C'mon.  An engineering tour de force screaming to the world that B&O can still do high end products when it chooses.

BeoLab 3 drops jaws in jut the way that BeoLab 6000 did 10 years ago.

I can't speak to all of the variants available over there; but the BeoVision 7 40 MK3 sold here is shockingly good, and magical in person.

I have a fovorite sports analogy for B&O's approach...but since it is based on the rather provincial basebasll it would take too long to explain here.  The short version is that B&O is at its best when it is swinging for the fences.  The down side is that if the miss, the result is embarrassing...but when the get the bat on the ball it is spectacular.

 BeoSound 5?  "Batter up!"

Russ