I think it's ok if B&O want's to be expensive, but they have to match the performance too. If you pay for the best, you just want the best or at least something that's near the best, and not the medium ! The top of the line products are very good at the moment I have to say, but it's the rest of the line that doesn't. What they can also do is just making art like they did with the bs9000 and bl8000 etc. Those products don't perform like the best, but you love them when your eyes catch those beautifull designed lines, but that's something that I'm also missing in the current line.
The Beosound 5 looks acceptable, and if they asked 3k's for it I would have thought about it. Now they ask almost twice, and I can't even stick my cd's/dvd's/blu-ray's or sacd's in it ! Why should I pay so much for something that looks "acceptable" ? The only thing that will be left is the performance. If it performs like a high-end media player in the same price range I will think about it twice, but I'm afraid that it will not.
They're just losing customers. In the past we had a MX telly, and now we have a Panasonic. We had a pair of Beolab 8k's, and now we have some Sonus Faber speakers. In the bedroom there was also a MX telly, and there's now a Loewe. I still love the brand, but the products that give me that special B&O feeling are becomming less.
