beojeff wrote:

Paul W wrote:

But didn't BANG&OLUFSEN once pride itself on beautiful design using the highest quality materials for a premium price?

Exactly, Paul! ... perhaps something along the lines of the BeoCenter 2, with brushed aluminum and a similar volume control, but smaller.

LOL - A wireless device in a metal case for better shielding  - isn't that a bit counter productive ... 

It's hardly sexy design is it? Will the young Apple buyers be wanting this? Hardly! No design thought! They'd of been better approaching students at a design college to come up with some ideas rather than this piece of unsexy plastic.

Reminds me of a cheap freeview box crossed with a smoke detector - no excuse for bad design with so many great International designers out there!

beojeff wrote:

It seems B&O should have taken the extra effort to make it look nice and harmonious with the style of other B&O products. Perhaps something along the lines of the BeoCenter 2, with brushed aluminum and a similar volume control, but smaller.

Or, perhaps they just figured that since it has no user interface at all, most people would simply stuff it somewhere out of view...

Think about it - that thing has probably a 2" by 3" circuit board inside. It receives radio waves and electricity, and shoves out audio into a couple of wires. Why would you want it to occupy a corner of your room á lá BC2, making you scratch your head with what to do with the speaker & power cables?

EDIT: oops, sorry, it does have an UI. This thread moves faster than I can read 😁

I imagine it's once again one of the devices that look a lot better in flesh than in the first promo pics...

Vienna wrote:

LOL - A wireless device in a metal case for better shielding  - isn't that a bit counter productive ... 

Well, Apple managed it for long enough with their metal iMacs, MBPs etc. They simply turned the casing in to an extension of the antena.

I’m a bit disappointed with how this looks too.

I was planning to connect this to my BeoVision5 (which also has a Beosound 3000 connected via ML – no additional speakers) – is this actually possible?

If so, how would you select it?

Even if it is, would I be gaining anything over having my AppleTV already connected to the BV5? (selected via V.Aux A and used to airplay things to the TV speakers)

Please chage the topic of this thread from:

The Playmaker is now official!

to

The Playmaker is officially ugly!

What a shame... looks like a light switch from the 80's ... Why not something in the design like for example the "Nest Heating control" ?

WOW!

Is that only half of it?

It looks like Paula Deen Nigella Lawson dropped her timer and the knob shot off into neverland!

moxxey wrote:

Well, Apple managed it for long enough with their metal iMacs, MBPs etc. They simply turned the casing in to an extension of the antena.

Not at similar products - Airport Express and Airport Extreme have a "Genuine Apple Plastic" case - for good reasons ... 

Vienna wrote:

Not at similar products - Airport Express and Airport Extreme have a "Genuine Apple Plastic" case - for good reasons ... 

They are plastic as they are.....£79. They aren't different products at all. Your iMac and Airport Express both send and receive wi-fi signals. Why is that any different? So does the metal B&O A8.

ultraviolent wrote:

What a shame... looks like a light switch from the 80's ... Why not something in the design like for example the "Nest Heating control" ?

When the Playmaker was only rumored as "circular music controller", I also had big hopes that it could be something like the Nest, with a circular screen showing cover art, and a big wheel to control everything like on the BS5.

Now it seems that the Playmaker is only a quick solution to finally give a kind of "Powerlink Airport Express" to customers that are already full digital.

The fact that it's only 802.11B/G seems to confirm that : there is totally no coherence between the choice of a 2,4GHz network for this product, and the fact that the BS5E is only compatible with a 5GHz network!!!