i would not have bought them at that price. i got interested because in the first place i was told the speakers were two years old. i had to accept that they were in facts 2.5 years later. but 4 years i world not have accepten given the price.

Original poster seems to have two problems: exact age of the speakers and the bass not being as expected.

I would forget the exact age issue just as others have recommended here. You just need to look at any of the resellers sites, like Lifestyle, to see that unless there has been a model change or upgrade there is little difference in the asking price whether 2 years or 6 years old.

The dealer who sold the units should, however, be offering full support to ensure that there isn't a fault with the speakers and the apparent (lack of?) bass issue isn't just a room acoustics problem. I'd go back to them and offer a positive review for their service if they can check the set-up for faults/ wrong settings.

Slightly off-topic, but related to this, I have personally found that official B&O dealers seem to have different guarantee periods for products: some will sell a demonstration unit with a full 3 year guarantee even though it may have been on show for some time in the shop, whilst others will treat such a unit as 'Used' and will only give a 12 month shop guarantee. I wouldn't mind betting that there are still white special edition 9000's in some B&O showrooms that have serial numbers showing they were made some years ago, but that will still, legitimately, be sold as new.

Graham

after a year I believe there isn't a lot that can be done about it, I wouldn't worry as you were happy with them being younger so why let that shadow your experience. As for your issue with the bass, I would say that it has something to do with the configuration of them. Others have also had a similar issue check the old forum.

I hope things work out for the best, cheers Nick

When an item is manufactured and when the item is sold are two different things.

I think humbly, your are making a big deal from a small thing.

BL5's would if a dealer had them in stock sit for ages. Maybe years even... Not to speak of B&O inventory.

Hard to say what you mean with "bass not what you expected"... You bought them second hand, so did I with mine, but before I did I went for a proper demo to my  B&O dealer.

If prices do not vary that much from a 2 year old versus a 4 year old speaker, I can't really see the reason why a professional dealer wouldn't tell the real age up front. As a customer I like to base my choice on a trusted fact. I think it's a big problem if you can't.

I have talked to the owner of the company three or four times now. He told me that he buys alot of items from B&O employees and that he consider them new when the employee buys them because of the invoice from the factory. But if items have been used internally by B&O for one or two years before that, I really don't think you can call that a new product. 

It is correct that I have two somewhat isolated issues here. 1) that I can't get the speakers to perform right 2) that the dealer ignored me when I tried to raise the issue during the warranty period ( now ended ).

To shortly address 1) I read all relevant posts here. Spent days moving speakers around in the room. Bought a Behringer EMC8000+TC electronic sound card, Measured, listened and moved hundreds of times. Bought isolation pads for decoupling. Carried gigantic concrete slabs to my third floor apartment to put under the speaker. I tried several sources but mainly run spdif from my mini mac, and I haven't found anything mentioning that setupaffects this. I can definately affect sound, but the measurements fromFfuzzmeasure do support me in bass management doing a terrible job. It can be room modes, but the geometry of my room isn't that bad and I did the Fibbonacci placement and all that. I even considered starting the thread "BL5 - Worlds most difficult speaker to place" :-)

Room is 6,4m by 4,4m and the speakers are centered at 1,23m (golden ratio) from the sidewall and 1-2 m from the back, playing the long dimension. Beoworlder Soundproof have a very similar setup I think, and I would really like to enjoy the entusiasm he shows when writing about his speakers.

I don't think we should mix these to issues, so lets stick to what you would expect from a professional dealer. I just wan't to let you know that I didn't put them in the corners and read how to press the top of the speakers for a few seconds.

Have you calibrated the BeoLab 5's to your room by holding down the button on top of the acoustic lens for a few seconds whilst the speakers are in standby?  This should activate the microphone that pops out under the speaker and measures the room acoustics to tune the bass to the room.

Thank you Newcastle for your kind advice.  You should consider adding ironi or humor tags to your post like this: <humor></humor> or <ironi></ironi>. It is sometimes very difficult to determine how to interpret the sentiment if you don't add markup appropriately.

In case you just didn't read all the way through my last post, reread and skip to the very last sentence. :-)

bayerische wrote:

Hard to say what you mean with "bass not what you expected"... You bought them second hand, so did I with mine, but before I did I went for a proper demo to my  B&O dealer.

I agree with this. I've had BL5s (approx 2007), BL9s and BL3s. The room where the BL5s were located was approx 8m x 5m. It's too small for the BL5s. They calibrate based on the room (size, floor, windows) and the room affected the calibration (mine are wooden and sash windows). When they first arrived and weren't calibrated, the bass was incredible. As soon as I calibrated them (bad move, I know), they were never the same again - they lacked bass.

I found the BL9s much better in the same room as they don't need or use calibration, so the bass always appeared more significant. I sold the BL5.

It's not the age that's the concern here (2 or 4 years old won't really affect how the BL5s perform), it's the size of the room and sadly the expectations of the user. Mine where high, too. But, I prefer the sound of the BL9s and even the BL3s in the same room.

I have read and I see alot of different sides to this. Shure if the speakers are exactly the same over a period of 4 years, then you get the same product if it is 2 or 4 years. But still you have bout a product stated to be 2 years (2,5) not 4. 

A little of topic. If you but a used car lets say a porsche/Audi or BMW (good quality car). The dealer says it is a 2010 model. You but it and after a time you realize that it is infact manufactured in 2008 and has been standing as a demo for 2 years.. It was not taken into traffic until 2010.. Is the car from 2010?

In my book the seller is a scammer (?) he must know what he sells! And the fact that he did not answer your calls makes it even more beliveble that he knew that he scammed you. (Sorry for poor english) 

In Sweden we have a consumer buyers law that a consumer can use.

Go back to the store and demand your money back since you did not get what you were told.  

Regarding performence of the BL5

Let's be honest, DSP correction of any kind isn't going to be as good as a good room.

The bass management on the BL5 is "okey" at best, it's just to much if you ask me.

In my case to get the most out of it is to pull the speakers out 1 meter from the back wall when calibrating them, that did the trick in my room.

And in regard to the age issue, well speakers aren't comparable to say cars, since they don't age in the same way.

A 2008 car model X is often different then the same model X from 2010, due to the fact that in the car industry there are alot of improvements done on the fly " different headlights, different stereo and so on"

Have a look at listings for used Hi-Fi equipment, if it's the same model, the model is still the current one and there hasn't been any changes to the product it doesn't matter if its 2 or 4 year, the price will be the same.

Most high-end stuff lose 40% when taken out of the store and then stay at the same value for a couple of years til there's a replacement model out and then de deprecation continues.

The BL5 are a current model, so whether it's a 2008 model or a 2010 model don't make no much of a difference.