The BeoSound 8 - Live Review!!!

131 replies
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9 LEE wrote:

The little remote, 'face on' - an exact replica of the controls on the unit itself...

When operating a full fledged audio system (Beomaster/Beocenter/Beosound), it could be useful to have a couple of these small remotes at practical places in a large living room, in order to be able to change volume and skip tracks when the Beo5/Beo4 is not at hands' reach or when more complex operations are not required.

Thus the questions is: does it use the same IR codes as the Beo5/Beo4/Beolink1000 remotes? And is it available separately?

js  πŸ™‚

I'm very interested in taking a listen to the product and I'm trying not to go in with a pre-conceived notion of what I'm going to hear.  Of course, for anyone that likes to test listen to lots of different speakers, it's hard to walk in with a completely blank slate.  My gut feeling is that the system will be physically larger in person than previously imagined, will have good bass output for a system of its size and especially for a dock, but will not produce a great soundstage due to the physical speaker separation limitation.  That last piece has proven to be a hard limitation for me to overcome as I find myself so drawn to a well produced soundstage.  

Admittedly, I'm a separate L/R speaker guy who really values soundstage but I repeatedly find myself interested in speaker docks even though I have this listening preference.  I think the whole all in one box thing draws me in.  Though to be fair, so do small systems that also have L/R speakers that you can adjust as needed (love the look and sound of McIntosh's MXA60, but hate the lack of any digital inputs).  Of course, you can't put yourself in the prime listening position all the time and music in the background while working, etc is tremendously enjoyable, so solutions like these are indeed useful.  Though really, you can accomplish that with any speaker solution.  πŸ™‚

Still want to take a listen and hear for myself though...

Jeff

Agreed, but I don't think it has been designed to be a 'be all and end all' - just a ipod dock.

Dude1 wrote:

Agreed, but I don't think it has been designed to be a 'be all and end all' - just a ipod dock.

But that's where companies can get lazy!  

Why make an iPod Dock twice the price (or more) than it's nearest rival and not absolutely blow the competition out of the water?  

Bang & Olufsen need to regain the reputation they had - where price was mentioned and people said 'yes, but it's the best - streets ahead of the rest and so surely worth the extra'..  This makes the mass market sit up and notice - and buy.

Profits need to be made - but the reputation has to be rebuilt.  B&O has been riding its reputation which over the last 2-3 years has actually stopped the company from going bust in my opinion. Now, a lot of people who bought B&O (with the previously formed romantic notion of blindly buying B&O believing it to be the best) are disillusioned with B&O products - and need to get that belief back in the brand in order to start purchasing again. If not now, in the future.

I know the future products are going to do justice to the name, but for now - a few improvements at the sake of a small dip in profit would go a long way to repairing the damage already done.

I may be a lone voice here though! πŸ˜‚

Lee

 

 

9 LEE wrote:

Dude1 wrote:

Agreed, but I don't think it has been designed to be a 'be all and end all' - just a ipod dock.

But that's where companies can get lazy!  

Why make an iPod Dock twice the price (or more) than it's nearest rival and not absolutely blow the competition out of the water?  

Bang & Olufsen need to regain the reputation they had - where price was mentioned and people said 'yes, but it's the best - streets ahead of the rest and so surely worth the extra'..  This makes the mass market sit up and notice - and buy.

Profits need to be made - but the reputation has to be rebuilt.  B&O has been riding its reputation which over the last 2-3 years has actually stopped the company from going bust in my opinion. Now, a lot of people who bought B&O (with the previously formed romantic notion of blindly buying B&O believing it to be the best) are disillusioned with B&O products - and need to get that belief back in the brand in order to start purchasing again. If not now, in the future.

I know the future products are going to do justice to the name, but for now - a few improvements at the sake of a small dip in profit would go a long way to repairing the damage already done.

I may be a lone voice here though! πŸ˜‚

Lee

 

Well put, Lee!

Location: Sweden

My B&O Icons:

Beovision-11.png Beovision-11.png
Beosound-Emerge.png Beosound-Emerge.png
Beoremote-One.png Beoremote-One.png
Beoplay-M5.png Beoplay-M5.png
Beoplay-M3.png Beoplay-M3.png
Beoplay-Earset.png Beoplay-Earset.png
Beoplay-Beosound1.png Beoplay-Beosound1.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png

Well put Lee... You're not the only one. 

My B&O Icons:

BeoCenter-9500.png BeoCenter-9500.png
Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovision-11.png Beovision-11.png
Beosound.png Beosound.png
Beosound-Essence.png Beosound-Essence.png
Beosound-Emerge.png Beosound-Emerge.png
Beosound-Balance.png Beosound-Balance.png
Beoremote-One.png Beoremote-One.png
Beoplay-S3.png Beoplay-S3.png
Beoplay-M3.png Beoplay-M3.png
Beoplay-H9i.png Beoplay-H9i.png
Beoplay-Earset.png Beoplay-Earset.png
Beoplay-E8.png Beoplay-E8.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png

Karel Uyttendaele wrote:

Well put Lee... You're not the only one. 

 

Add another one😁

I know this is a few posts back but...

That Geneva sound company seems to be bringing back the stereo console! Mammoth piece... and price.

Location: San Francisco

I'm an automotive audio and acoustic engineer. I design loudspeakers and full sound systems for new automobiles. I also dabble with studio, consumer and pro audio projects from time to time.

the zeppelin dont take the i pad , most docks don,t

B&O has found a way to fit all OS 4  products with out hiding the speaker covers.

and it works with your beo 4, now that is cool

I saw the product on the B&O website and thought "that looks like ass."  Then I saw Lee's posts and thought "actually that looks kind of cool. If only it did ML."  Then I saw Steve's posts and thought "okay, it's getting cooler."

Anyone remember this thing? http://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=372  BS8 looks like the modern version of that.  And with the ML-like workarounds, this would be pretty cool in a link room.  It's a link speaker AND it'll charge your iPhone!  Great!

Then I saw this post...

Stars wrote:

I'm probably even younger than you. I can assure you that never ever, will any serious AV enthusiast choose to have an iPod dock over a complete system and if they're worried about the clutter that comes with an AV setup, then they should consider B&O, as my setup has no wires on show and I challenge anyone to find a more compact loudspeaker (even passive) that has the sound and size combo of the BeoLab 3.

To bring an example to your theory, the "younger generation" you describe would wish to have ever smaller TVs, when in actual case they want bigger and bigger screens.

As far as this goes, maybe people would want a little all in one dock system or maybe they'd want a big huge system.  B&O makes both.  They now make something for everyone.  Well, everyone with enough money anyway.  But if you look at the BS8 and think "this is crap, I'd rather have something more like my BS3200 with some BL3s."  Great news!  B&O makes something like that called the BS3200 and the BL3!

There are people that will like this and people that won't like this product.  If you don't like it, well, you clearly weren't the target audience anyway.

 

FWIW, I downgraded my TV size and got rid of my surround sound and have been happy as a clam since.  A happy clam, that is.  Not a clam getting boiled for soup.

......
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