Rod wrote:

Again this is just my opinion but if somehow you feel the same, I would love to hear you!

interesting reading, but strange conclusion. 

As long one has the same opinion the opinion is of interest................. welcome  to the world ..............of polarization

But bl5’s do 24bit 96khz?! And they were in their line up for 15 or so years. The original earset is nearly 20 years old if iam not mistaken, atleast a decade. I don’t know where the bs1 had a drop of that pricing???

Where do you buy your stuff and which continent are you on? I haven’t seen any original earset for sale at a dealer since ever really, i want some though 😎

Most of the smaller stuff obviously doesn’t last as long as speakers do, that’s not that od is it?

Hi, 

 

Hi, you are right the BL5 are 24/96 (on paper thought) but it u connect any player and set up the speakers higher of 48 they will produce very audible digital clicks almost all the time. My set was BL5 with Beosound core and the recommended settings from B&O are to keep the sample rate at 48, that’s unfortunate.

I got some Dim cables and the digital one running out the besosoind core to the speakers. The Din controlled the on/off and volume the digital a cable just for the audio signal as suggested by B&O. I try many digital converter (toslink/ coaxial) all with the same digital noise.

The earset… the ones I mention are the wireless not the old ones you said, I’m not that dumb. I don’t know B&O named the latest ones the same as the very old one. See link: 

Which speakers don’t “last” 3 years? Or do you mean that not all keep up with the latest formats?

I fon’t know of any other company that keep products generally as long as b&o does and beyond that any company that doesn’t drop slightly in price over time. Most stuff from b&o doesn’t really drop in price at all, some 3rd party sellers might do that but that’s out of their control.

If you compare like for like, 5’s vs 50’s, the 5’a were a good deal. The 50’s are a lot more expensive not than when thwy launched(same gows for 90’s). Most 5’s also last a heck of a long time before they need any repair and compared to their new prices i personally don’t thing the repair is extreme in price. When fid you buy your 5’s? Where they new? And how long did it take before they needed any repair on them? Mk2 and mk3 are still fairly easily fixed and they haven’t even been made since 2016 or so. Iam not sure you can do that with any other brands active speaker from 2016, let alone 2004(1)😛

I bought my BL5 new back in 2015, so one morning on 2020 one of the speakers started to make a loud digital noise for the first 10 minutes of use, every day from there was the same. I change cables, players etc I even did reset the Beosound core and nothing helped so I called B&O and they send me with their technical support and they told it was the chassis and it was going to be best to replace both for a beautiful amount of $4000 usd. Sorry but that kind of repair s in a 5 year old speaker doesn’t make sense. And the worse it was they told to wait 3 months to get the peace’s due to B&O announced the end of production of the parts.

 

 

It seems like, aside from the bl5s, you're mostly upset about resale value. Here's a hint, resale value has always been pretty bad in the US. The brand doesn't have the exposure, and the market is not big enough to support professional reseller so most can't be bothered with selling their old gear.

I use this to my advantage and buy 2nd hand, or after the inevitable price drop.

Btw, I'm sure I've read threads on this forum where people complained about B&O never lowering their prices. "How can they still charge so much for a 10 year old design?!"

Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Rod wrote:

My point is that I don’t think B&O is what it used to be and their new products are not worth the high investment anymore, even less for the life span they give to their products. I returned the BeoSound Level and BeoSound Balance out of fear because of this reason, what if in a year from now they suddenly decide to discontinue it and you’ll just end up having a speaker that lost its value and support? Why are they doing this? 

This sounds like a bizarre whine which should really say "I don't like how the market is changing and forcing B&O to adapt....I want them to stay in the 90s!"

Even my LG G1 is £5000. In two years it will be discontinued. In 4 years it will be worth nothing. I don't understand the point here.

The Balance and Level are fantastic speakers for a nominal price point. And they aren't designed to be fixed, much like a £3000 MacBook Pro isn't designed to be fixed, realistically.

This is called buying electronics in 2021.

nb. 'losing' not 'loosing'.

Apple offers you to trade-in your old product when they have no spare parts to service it.

I was told to trash my BS3 by B&O.

 

My BL5 used to make digital noise when hearing higher samples rates. Changed to cable (I was using ordinary analog cable) and solved the problem.

Whilst I feel sorry for you regarding some of the reliability issues you've had, I'm struggling to understand why you seem to place such a high concern on items losing their value? Do you really expect something new to hold its value for ever?

I presume you don't drive a car if this is the case, as the value of cars only ever goes downwards!