Chris Townsend wrote:

Start cutting back on your core business with TVs, watch your sales drop accordingly.

One thing we agree on for sure. The BV14 was and is amazing. Just update this. Use the economies of scale reached from a mature production, update the panel and put this out a an 'entry level' OLED B&O. I'd snap one up. Instead of trying to get people to buy an Eclipse for close to £10K. Why not keep the 55" BV14 and aim for a £5K price point - more than an LG C9, but you get half-decent sound, good looking set, fantastic remote and a solid unit.

Makes.No.Sense.

Stan wrote:

At least you have dealers to disappoint you 🙂  They've "solved" this problem in the US by closing most of them.  I live in the Chicago area (I think we're still the 3rd largest metro area in the states, at one time the HQ for B&O North America was a few miles down the street), and my closest dealer is in Cincinnati (2 states away).  This is similar to having the closest dealer to London being located in Paris (Chicago - Cincinnati: 296 mi vs London - Paris: 286 mi).

Same in Austin, Texas. Visited this store in 2017, a year later it had gone. If you can't make a B&O store work in places such as Austin, Texas, where there's a half-decent amount of income and a 30-something tech crowd, you might as well give up.

@ Moxxey,

I couldn't agee more.

Rudy

It took a while until B&O realized they can not keep up with the innovation race and dropping prices for just 1 year old panels. The Harmony is the only way forward, attach a unmodified (except the B&O App from the LG content store) to the B&O magic. The Eclipse was a kind of a "half pregnant" approach from that point of view. Too much modification. 

For me the next Eclipse must follow the same concept, attach a LG panel out of the box to a body. than have a couple of covers to make it look nice but have the core with the loudspeakers unchanged regardless of size of the panel.

The only question remains, is a Center Speaker with some magic and a sound processor worth 10k Euro? 

kawo wrote:

It took a while until B&O realized they can not keep up with the innovation race and dropping prices for just 1 year old panels. The Harmony is the only way forward, attach a unmodified (except the B&O App from the LG content store) to the B&O magic. The Eclipse was a kind of a "half pregnant" approach from that point of view. Too much modification.

For me the next Eclipse must follow the same concept, attach a LG panel out of the box to a body. than have a couple of covers to make it look nice but have the core with the loudspeakers unchanged regardless of size of the panel.

The only question remains, is a Center Speaker with some magic and a sound processor worth 10k Euro?

kawo wrote:

The only question remains, is a Center Speaker with some magic and a sound processor worth 10k Euro?

moxxey wrote:

One thing we agree on for sure. The BV14 was and is amazing. Just update this. Use the economies of scale reached from a mature production, update the panel and put this out a an 'entry level' OLED B&O. I'd snap one up. Instead of trying to get people to buy an Eclipse for close to £10K. Why not keep the 55" BV14 and aim for a £5K price point - more than an LG C9, but you get half-decent sound, good looking set, fantastic remote and a solid unit.

Makes.No.Sense.

B&O will likely find it hard to exist as a standalone high-end manufacturer because they currently don’t dominate any market they play in. So their best option is to merge and focus. So they could combine and concentrate on the very high end with the Beolab 18 and up line. Or merge and focus on the sub $3K market For the home. The would-be their Beoplay/Beosound line. In any case, they need to reduce their product line. Also, they should merge to improve their retail execution, which sucks right now. 

Unfortunately, for B&O, the best bet is to be acquired by a Chinese company like Huawei looking to get into the high-end market. Similar to what happened with Volvo. The only way for them to stay independent is to focus on the products that are profitable now and to improve service to a level expected at their price point.

My 2 cents.

Puncher wrote:

I look at my beautiful bs5000 system in the corner and, as beautiful as it is, in truth it could be replaced by a photograph!

My music listening these days is in the car, Google home while pottering in the kitchen and  BT headphones (Sony).

I remember when music was vital and important and had to be actively listened to - I'm not necessarily saying music has changed (it has but that's a discussion for when I have a pint in my hand) but me and my habits. Is it an age thing or has culture changed?

This may be for a different thred but I really believe the convenience of music availibilty has greatly lessened it's perceived value to the point it has become either musical wallpaper or else the "imbetween" stuff is skipped to only play the hits etc. 

It's truly a different world with different players and b&o are in danger of being the old duffer battling Alzheimer's!

Same here (to an extent), my BL5's haven't been providing anything but background music for years. Last time I actively listened to them (whit a drink in my hand) must have been back in 2015. Amazing what dogs and kids to to your life. 

No I don't blame them, it is me who has changed. I too agree with you Puncher, music is available everywhere I go. I have all the thousands of albums right there in my pocket. Sure listening trough a nice pair of headphones (at current my most used pair is the new H9's) isn't getting even close to the pleasure of my BL9's at a proper level. I simply don't have the time, well time yes, but not the convenience. My house is so full of B&O gear that I'm sure my wife will soon either divorce me or have me locked up in a closed mental health ward. 

Jaffrey2230 wrote:

Unfortunately, for B&O, the best bet is to be acquired by a Chinese company like Huawei looking to get into the high-end market. Similar to what happened with Volvo. The only way for them to stay independent is to focus on the products that are profitable now and to improve service to a level expected at their price point.

Huawei? I certainly hope not. B&O is such a niche company, I really doubt there's a "big company" out there that understands their philosophy... Not even Apple I'm sure. 

And what is the true worth in a company like B&O? It's not as if they're sitting on a massive patent portfolio, at least not one that matters today. Buying B&O would come with a lot of obligations. It would certainly end like a ***-storm and quick. When and if B&O get bought-up, Struer can close its doors.