Simon, I still think that they have great products. Love beoplay a9, beosound 2 but i think that beolab 50 can't compare in design with beolab 5 for example... If it happens, I don't know which audio brand I'd choose, I really like the combo that B&O delivers. Maybe they'll sell B&O to Harman/JBL (like they did with the car audio business) but after that I am not sure about the future quality of B&O and the sound.

They do have some good products I agree. I like the new Harmony, the BeoLab 50s and 90s, also the Edge; but aside from the Edge (to a point), what percentage of people in this limited market to begin with are able to afford these products and help the company stay afloat? An example of bad decision making in my opinion. Make smaller versions of the Harmony, lower the price to be more inline with the competition (a previous post highlighted B&O were somewhere between 2x and 3x the price of competitors before, not the 10x + they are these days). They have become greedy along with so many other companies these days and this is the result. To make matters worse, quality doesn't even match the price. No point having expensive products if nobody is going to buy them. What about product testing? That has been questionable in the last 10 years, as has product integration and software development. B&O used to have a reputation for superb quality, design, function and integration in the past, and now? The sad truth is they are just not up to par anymore and I find that a great shame. BeoPlay was an interesting idea, although I was never a fan of that route personally, but it has turned out to be a positive path for them to some extent. It's not enough though and products are too similar in look and function. There's just not enough creativity and thinking about the future and they have shown this by being late to the digital age and lagging way behind. Where are the young innovative students from Universities (for example) with all their inspiring and interesting concepts, which I am sure are out there in abundance? To me, there's a real old school feel of the older generation people at the top still stuck in the past with arrogance and perhaps ignorance blocking the younger more creative talent from exploding through with their ideas. A further example of bad decision making stunting the company's chance for any change or growth. It's not about products anymore, a complete rethink and new business model is needed. Simon.

trackbeo wrote:

I'll try updating the HomePod software (3 GigaBytes!) when I can take it back to the house where it was originally configured and where a registered, verified, Apple-head loaned me their iPhone to do it. [SNIP] EDIT (later): Updating the software [12.4] caused the Homepod not to work *at all* in "Everybody Play" mode!

So I gave up and re-configured the HomePod to play for all users only on its own WiFi network.  In that mode, and with all the Siri & etc. features turned off, it finally worked as a plain dumb AirPlay speaker.  For me to use it, this required connecting my friend's iPhone to *my* home network, and then using their Home app in my house to configure the HomePod (which it found via Bluetooth because of course HomePod couldn't connect to the network at my location).  After shooting the new WiFi credentials to the HomePod and switching everybody-play into on-this-network-play, all worked as expected.  

The only remaining question is, now that my friend is back at home, can the HomePod device and/or the entire Home config be deleted on the iPhone with no ill effects?  Or does Apple reach out over the internet to my house, where it knows (remember, it knows!) that particular HomePod is attached and disable it?  Because the "normal" configuration will have Siri turned on, and maybe be streaming Apple Music or whatever, it could be considered insecure to leave it running if my friend's account deletes it.  I think I'll test that.  More later...  [EDIT: Yep.  Deleting the "Home" from my friend's phone remotely disabled the HomePod at my house, via the internet!]

So is it a BeoPlay killer?  Only if you use some of the features I turned off, like Siri and/or home control.  As a speaker, it's a little upper-mid-bass heavy, seemingly doing the psychoacoustic trick of boosting a higher octave to simulate lower bass.  I haven't moved it around to see if it re-adjusts for the room every time it boots; that would be worth it.  Otherwise, except for looks -- which is important to a B&O lover -- there is no reason to prefer it to a Sonos.

[EDIT: Not only that, certain versions of iTunes simply stop playing when they attempt to access an Airplay2 device, but work OK with an Airplay (1) device, e.g. iTunes 12.9.5.5 (running on MacOS 10.14.5) stalls on the HomePod & its Airplay icon turns from blue to orange.  This is easily verified by updating an Airport Express 2nd gen to the Airplay2 firmware and the same stall happens, until you downgrade it back again.  But, for example, iTunes 12.8.2.3 (MacOS 10.12.6) works just fine with the HomePod, probably because it only uses Airplay (1).  Buggy bugs bugging buggity bug.  Hopefully they'll fix them soon, but for right now, they're killing me, not BeoPlay!]

I agree. I have 3 Beoplay and 3 HomePod speakers. Here are a couple of my observations:

1. HomePods in stereo pairs sound good as a bookshelf speaker and at it’s price outperform the Beoplay M5, Beolit and others I have tried. Homepods sound about as good as the beosound 1 at a much lower price. I replaced an A6 and 2 M5s with HomePods and there is no looking back...

2. Beoplay has better higher end  speakers like the Beosound 2, Edge and A9 are best in class IMHO. I love the A9 and they work great with HomePods and other AirPlay 2 gear. I have 2 A9s now. I love them!

3. Beoplay battery powered products like the P6 are best in class IMHO.

4. Beoplay headphones look great but sound is so-so. I got rid of all my Beoplay headphones...

I avoid using ANY B&O software if possible. 

I agree. I have 3 Beoplay and 3 HomePod speakers. Here are a couple of my observations:

1. HomePods in stereo pairs sound good as a bookshelf speaker and at it’s price outperform the Beoplay M5, Beolit and others I have tried. Homepods sound about as good as the beosound 1 at a much lower price. I replaced an A6 and 2 M5s with HomePods and there is no looking back...

2. Beoplay has better higher end  speakers like the Beosound 2, Edge and A9 are best in class IMHO. I love the A9 and they work great with HomePods and other AirPlay 2 gear. I have 2 A9s now. I love them!

3. Beoplay battery powered products like the P6 are best in class IMHO.

4. Beoplay headphones look great but sound is so-so. I got rid of all my Beoplay headphones...

I avoid using ANY B&O software if possible. 

I agree. I have 3 Beoplay and 3 HomePod speakers. Here are a couple of my observations:

1. HomePods in stereo pairs sound good as a bookshelf speaker and at it’s price outperform the Beoplay M5, Beolit and others I have tried. Homepods sound about as good as the beosound 1 at a much lower price. I replaced an A6 and 2 M5s with HomePods and there is no looking back...

2. Beoplay has better higher end  speakers like the Beosound 2, Edge and A9 are best in class IMHO. I love the A9 and they work great with HomePods and other AirPlay 2 gear. I have 2 A9s now. I love them!

3. Beoplay battery powered products like the P6 are best in class IMHO.

4. Beoplay headphones look great but sound is so-so. I got rid of all my Beoplay headphones...

I avoid using ANY B&O software if possible. 

I agree. I have 3 Beoplay and 3 HomePod speakers. Here are a couple of my observations:

1. HomePods in stereo pairs sound good as a bookshelf speaker and at it’s price outperform the Beoplay M5, Beolit and others I have tried. Homepods sound about as good as the beosound 1 at a much lower price. I replaced an A6 and 2 M5s with HomePods and there is no looking back...

2. Beoplay has better higher end  speakers like the Beosound 2, Edge and A9 are best in class IMHO. I love the A9 and they work great with HomePods and other AirPlay 2 gear. I have 2 A9s now. I love them!

3. Beoplay battery powered products like the P6 are best in class IMHO.

4. Beoplay headphones look great but sound is so-so. I got rid of all my Beoplay headphones...

I avoid using ANY B&O software if possible. 

Jaffrey2230 wrote:

I replaced an A6 and 2 M5s with HomePods and there is no looking back...

2. Beoplay has better higher end  speakers like the Beosound 2, Edge and A9 are best in class IMHO.

From a few high-end loudspeakers, and otherwise completely interchangeable products, neither the B&O dealers nor Bang&Olufsen will survive.

Jaffrey2230 wrote:

I avoid using ANY B&O software if possible. 

A key differentiator could be easy-to-use software. A great user experience should be the target. But as long as Bang&Olufsen affords an incompetent software development team, the future looks very dark.

HomePod is too closed. Amazon, Google and Sonos are better. B&O’s connected line is getting better very quickly and prices are much more competitive. Main problem in US market is retail presence. I had given up on their headphones, but they recently put out an excellent firmware update for the H9 noise cancelling headphone. Made a big difference. I miss the fact they don’t have a Beolab 6000 replacement, but their designs are still A+ in my opinion.