I’ve had it a few weeks now and it’s a pretty neat little unit, maybe there’s a “survivors paradox” with the touch pads (the ones that work still are the good ones). But if a pain writing the flash cards to be compatible but now I have a half dozen genre albums.

For the most part my favourite things are that I can hang it easily which is nice in the garden but also that it’s metal, not the usual black thin cloth, so I don’t need to worry about it as much, especially with kids around. Looks cool as well!

I remember in 1992 seeing the Wim Wenders movie "Until the End of the World" wherein it showed music on something similar to an SD card. I remember thinking how amazingly futuristic it was! The same was true of the original BeoSound 2 with its use of the SD card. This seemed to make up for B&O missing the whole walkman/diskman era. Then, the iPod craze erupted and the BeoSound 2 with no display seemed so ancient.

Still, I like the idea of having favorite albums loaded onto individual SD cards and having them in an Hermès porcelain tray for guests to fish out. Since you're already loading music unto SDs, an original BeoSound 2 could be nice to have also. I would like to see pics of a BeoSound 2 laying on the top tray of a BeoLit 15/17 or next to a BeoPlay A1.

The BS2 was actually my first every B&O product! £500 I think it was back in 2004? At the time I actually had a 6GB hard drive Archos mp3 player which I 'downgraded' to the 512MB flash drive because the B&O was so awesome looking, plus the sound. A friend of mine has it on permanent loan and I now usually just listen to audiobooks/podcasts when I'm out and about so I don't really need a music player on my travels, though I'd recommend one as something a B&O fan might want to buy, try out and sell on after a few months if just for the experience of owning a bit of history.

TWG wrote:

  agree with two solutions alreay mentioned:

Luckily the portable audio player market is offering very good devices since the rise of "High res Audio".

For example:
- Astell & Kern
I don't know about the Astell & Kern yet.

They all play MP3 files, too.

I thought I had already posted on this? Failure to load? Ah well.....

I work away a lot and also when not working sit on a beach a lot too.

I have invested in an Astell & Kern AK70 mk2 with a Beoplay P6 for my Camp room and a P2 when on vacation.

The A&K with a microSD 400GB (and 64GB internal) will put about 75% of all my FLAC-ripped CDs. It is an excellent sounding, robust (built like a palm-sized tank) and compact player. Highly recommend it.

I find it remarkable however, that in terms of form-factor it is very similar in many ways to the BeoSound 6. Ditto listening to my old BeoSound 2, the sound was and still is excellent and I think many were too quick to wax lyrical about the high-capacity (but naff sounding) iPod and its user interface.

PDP's seem to have come full circle and are packing very good electronics (DACs) with prices and specs ever-escalating to the moon like over-ear earphones have of recent with many PDPs + Ear Cans costing orders of magnitude higher that most of our B&O gear at home! 

I'd look for a Beoplay A2 Active and an iPod, and maybe a portable battery to power both for much longer.