Some of these price increases are just nuts, especially if you know that most products have increased in price several times over the last years.

I love my A9 and BS2, but these are now priced at 3299 and 2799 euro (or even 2999 for BS2 natural with google voice). I am not sure if I would have pulled the trigger for these prices, and that probably applies to many others. At some point the increased margin will be undone by a decrease in sales numbers. This feels like a dangerous bet. 

Mikipidia wrote:

I remember the days when they were 65 of 70 grand, which was steep but made some kind of sense. Even 75 was like, ok, I get it, then 85 which was a bit of a head scratcher. But now we've arrived at 100 grand...

Let's see how sales goes at 100 vs 75K. Maybe B&O sells it like hot cakes, or perhaps they sell zero. Either way, I wish B&O all the best with that price policy.

Sad story is: my dealer always asks why I buy things online and at (strong) discount? Well, because I buy things at their meaningful price. Either you (B&O) will offer it to me or I will go to someone who does. 

...and there is one more thing related to a price increase: not everyone who wants to buy a highend product will happily entertain it (out of a principle, I guess) 😎👍🏻

AnalogPlanet wrote:

Let's see how sales goes at 100 vs 75K. Maybe B&O sells it like hot cakes, or perhaps they sell zero. Either way, I wish B&O all the best with that price policy.

Sad story is: my dealer always asks why I buy things online and at (strong) discount? Well, because I buy things at their meaningful price. Either you (B&O) will offer it to me or I will go to someone who does. 

Im not 100% certain but I believe the BL90s are made to order only?

Perhaps B&O products are considered Veblen goods, if the price rises people want them even more!  (Some high end Swiss watch brands are maximizing this economical effect…) 

Beosound Balance is now £2099 on the UK B&O site... wasn't it £1750 or so afew weeks ago?

Same for Level, £1149 the black and £1399 the wood/golden one.. I believe they used to be slightly more than 1000 the black and definitely less than 1300 the gold.

Annoying 😑

Oh, Beoplay H95 went from 700 to £779. The only heaphones to have had a price increase, as of now.

Also Beolit 20 (449 to 549), Beosound A1 2nd Gen (199 to 239), and basically everything else in the speaker category except Emerge (which I'm sure will get its price raised once it returns to production).

So sad.

EDIT: in mainland Europe, Beosound A1 is now €300 and a gold Emerge is €750. LOL. Those are just crazy.

H95 from 800 to 899€.

I also don't like that, after a period where they had "luxury" prices with round numbers (1750, 450, etc), now they've gone back to 899, 2099, 549, etc. Very pathetic. Do B&O really need to use these cheap mind tricks to sell? If so, I'll have to re-evaluate their situation.

The price rise comes in the face of:

• poor to non-existent customer care - when I called them before Xmas they were polite but useless.
• deteriorating build quality
• selling or abandoning of core B&O skills like their TV laboratory and vision department 
• use of cheap parts wrapped in fancy packing (my Moment tablet has died less than 2 years since purchase)
• outsourcing and manufacturing outside of Denmark
• closing of B&O stores
• absence of servicing and timely repairs of products

These are all the critical components of a good business model and with the erosion of these facets any business slowly but steadily approaches its end. Their speaker division is still strong but once the gems like Geoff and colleagues leave, retire or move on, then what...sad state of affairs.

The Beosound Stage was a promising soundbar for new customers.

1500€ was a good price for newcomers. In the middle off 2021 the price went up to 1599€.

Now the price is starting at 1799€. 
300€ in one year.

Well, the new customers will go to Sennheiser, B&W, Sonos or Bose.

I don’t think it’s still attractive for non-B&O customers and with the old customers more and more complaining about the brand’s quality and customer service I don’t see a bright future…..

Quite - hard to argue with any of that, which I'd summarise as "stuff that justifies a steep price premium, if provided"

Living in London, I can still get good service, but appreciate that many dont have that luxury and convenience.

They still can occasionally produce pretty decent designs and products - be that the recent Level and 28s, and the 50s / 90s remain exceptional products, albeit out of reach of many.  But, and this is a point I have made previously, your list above highlights how much they need to produce strong designs, otherwise the steep / rising price premium gets harder to justify.

Very little of their recent stuff could be described as classic B&O design - the last classic being the A9 and BL18s, both close to 10 years old.

Since then, we've had some pretty decent designs (Level, 28s, 90s), some nice enough (50s, Avants) and plenty of the downright odd (Eclipse, Harmony, Balance, Emerge), but nothing that sits alongside their design classics. 

But thats just me - I'll forgive certain shortcomings if the designs are amazing, but they havent been for quite a while now.

seethroughyou wrote:

The price rise comes in the face of:

 

• poor to non-existent customer care - when I called them before Xmas they were polite but useless.
• deteriorating build quality
• selling or abandoning of core B&O skills like their TV laboratory and vision department 
• use of cheap parts wrapped in fancy packing (my Moment tablet has died less than 2 years since purchase)
• outsourcing and manufacturing outside of Denmark
• closing of B&O stores
• absence of servicing and timely repairs of products

 

These are all the critical components of a good business model and with the erosion of these facets any business slowly but steadily approaches its end. Their speaker division is still strong but once the gems like Geoff and colleagues leave, retire or move on, then what...sad state of affairs.

 

 

seethroughyou wrote:

selling or abandoning of core B&O skills like their TV laboratory and vision department