Simonbeo wrote:

Not a B&O experience but this must be how some people are introduced to the brand!

The eBay store is a refurb (clearly says they are refurbs - returned products). It’s not B&O either. It’s Kondor Limited.

i don’t get people and eBay. Ebay, traditionally, was a site to get rid of ropey stuff cheap. Some people expect cheap AND perfection. I sold a few things on there recently, all at half price, all new, but with issues (missing cables, manuals etc. Universally, everyone emailed saying “sorry, x is missing” as they were expecting to get new unblemished stuff, at rock bottom prices and with zero flaws.

I have no idea if they are on the way down or not but year after year people predict that they are and they still here. So hopefully that trend will continue and they won't be bought out. I was under the impression that profits were up, they definitely need to change the way the sell their products and maybe that is what is happening. 

These threads are getting tiresome (to me anyway), as surely this ground has been covered dozens of times recently.

Anyway, my two cents. I think the premature death notion is probably true, they'll be around in some shape or form. If anything its the TV business that's the doubtful one. My understanding is that the Eclipse is not selling (well, or at all).

The problem is that some people don’t like changes - others do...

....and some even like what has changed.

But I agree - this thread has been here a dozen times before.

And is probably not the last.

MM

Sandyb wrote:

My understanding is that the Eclipse is not selling (well, or at all).

I talked to my local dealer yesterday, and he was very surprised over how "easy sold" the new Eclipse is. He told me that he never has sold so many new coming TV from B&O in this speed..

So i think it not selling all over...  

Normann wrote:

Sandyb wrote:

My understanding is that the Eclipse is not selling (well, or at all).

I talked to my local dealer yesterday, and he was very surprised over how "easy sold" the new Eclipse is. He told me that he never has sold so many new coming TV from B&O in this speed..

So i think it not selling all over...  

That is also my understanding the tv is selling. Also the dealers are very pleased with it. And why not, they can say best Picture and sound in the market with best remote and control possibilties. That should be an easy sell. (And I dont buy the to high of a Price, compared to Beovision 7 and 12, its cheap)

I am not surprised that the Eclipse sells. I think the major issue the manufacturers of sounds system etc. face are not unique to B&O. From the outside it's seems all about the software platforms every vendor is playing catch up with some really major players e.g. streaming music from Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Goggle, Spotify, Deezer etc  and so on. 

From an end users I don't care much who delivers what platform it comes from (I do to a degree - but from this perspective  it does not matter) and my requirement to the vendor is that they cover as many platforms as they can. So B&O and others are caught in the middle and it breaks the seamless integration that we have come to expect from B&O. To make matters worse gear like routers, WIFI also impacts and can destroy the end-2-end experience.

I am having two different routers and with the cheap one it mostly works (Had to wire the Moment) - But with the new Draytek 2860ac the router messes around with the UPnP protocol and randomly drops connections to any of the devices (BV11, A6, A9, BS2). The challenge   for all manufacturers in this space is that they depend not only on their own gear but a whole range of external vendors as well. 

It is difficult to see that B&O et al. will survive without a major refocus on the software side. From the simple issues (Why doesn't  the Bang & Olufsen App handle the Bluetooth devices, Why not integrate the multi-room with the Bluetooth devices and so on) to the more complex issues of how to enable easier integration of 3rd party streaming services  

So, is the Eclipse selling or not for B&O’s future ?

Some say yes, some say no !

The Eclipse is only cheap when you compare apples and oranges...

Hungedu wrote:

I don't think that would be an unreasonable observation. Remember other high-end audio manufacturers like Nakamichi that were eventually bought out by larger corporations and the product range watered down to be sold at big box stores like Walmart? I see BeoPlay and Bang & Olufsen there in less than 7 years.

I agree, I think we're past peak B&O sadly, unless things change drastically. But what you mention has been the sad fate of far too many of the old, classic US audio brands, AR, KLH, etc. have wound up with their logos pasted on total garbage products from Asia. The big success story of foreign/Asian ownership has been McIntosh (and I have no idea who owns them now). McIntosh gear is still McIntosh gear, built like a tank, blue lights, quality construction and design. When, originally, Clarion took them over they had the smarts to fix the business/money issues and let them continue to be McIntosh, Clarion wanted a Mas car amp line but didn't want to sully the main brand as it needed to keep its reputation in order for their car spinoff to be valuable.

Best case for B&O might well be if something like this would happen, but as always the chance of finding a good buyer who would keep treating the brand with respect, as in McIntosh's case, is low. Plus it's harder to do this when you've already sold off the most profitable parts of your company to keep afloat, the car audio and ICE Power groups. I think until B&O decides to actually focus more thought on their lineup, stop throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, but do a focused line of well integrated systems again, with better aesthetics, it will be a tough row to how for them. It's like watching someone drown, they thrash instead of swim, and I see a fair amount of thrashing.

Jeff wrote:

I think until B&O decides to actually focus more thought on their lineup, stop throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, but do a focused line of well integrated systems again, with better aesthetics, it will be a tough row to how for them. It's like watching someone drown, they thrash instead of swim, and I see a fair amount of thrashing.

Restarting something that B&O stopped is neither easy or cheap. Before the new age of wireless stuff and smart TVs, B&O was the master of the game and solutions worked like magic. They did not invest along the way in constantly developing the software side and the result was what we all experiences on various TV / Audio products. On top of that, they totally threw away the TV side of the business and are now reduced to packaging the components. The only core capability left with them is the "Speakers" and as long as people like Geoff Martin are at the helm, they will probably continue to excel (technology wise) but that is a limited side of the business. Without the entry into B&O world via Beovision TV / great audio system, loudspeaker business cannot be a sustaining model.

On the Beoplay stuff, I really do not care about B&O brand. My top of the line headphones are Sony (Z1R and Just Ear) and there are far too many established names in that space. If B&O wants to compete with Beats and Bose etc... well that is not the space important to me (and I guess many B&O fans) as we are probably beyond that level of performance in other AV products we all own.