Beolab 50 reactions…

[Beofile7]

Yesterday I had workers in the house all day working around my Beolab 50’s which I have now had for 5 years. ‘Not that I expect it but it did occur to me how no comments were made regarding them? In fact, on reflection, in those 5 years no-one has ever made any comments about them! No-one ever! Including visitors that stay. That I do find odd? It’s as if they see these everyday, or they are so boring they do not register? My previous Beolab 5 and even my Pentas were always a conversation point with visitors? So am I seeing a new B&O first….. A 48,000 GBP speaker that is so boring no-one even sees it? I don’t care at all but it does seem very odd?

[Tignum]

I would be all over them 🙂

[NQVHNWI]

I think its call “first-world problems”.

Well where I live –  a “good” working class wage is about £12-15/day. A middle class professional wage would be less than £50/day that and a decent 3-bedroom house would be the price of a single BL90.

I think many of us here look at superyachts or million-dollar cars as excessive but when your whole household income is less than £30/day, I know that the builders that I employed to renovate my home recently see the BL90s in exactly the same light as this and cannot fathom it?

I am grateful and blessed.

[Millemissen]

They probably think, that they are ridiculously expensive….and then choose simply to ignore them.

Did anyone of these visitors/workers ever ‘saw’ them in action?

MM

[martin01]

Hi, I have the same experience. I have had my BL50 in 4 years and no comments from anyone. I have now changed my BL 50 to BL 28 and get alot more comments on these speakers together with my Teatre 77-inch and BL 8 as surround speakers.

[Beofile7]

I guess BL50 just don’t have the visual impact that other B&O products have? Millemissen… Only 2 visitors have heard them. Neither made any comment! Nothing! So I can safely say no-one has been impressed by them? When I had my Pentas absolutely everyone was raving and jeolous as. I think there is an arguement for a sound that exceeds the speaker’s appearance?

BL6000 do this. I think the Pentas did too? The BL50’s? Perhaps not? But notwithstanding the audio experience, people just don’t “see” them.

They just see “a pair of speakers?”

I can get the Beolab 28 situation…. They are for sure more interesting? I even considered an exchange. But there is a sound quality penalty too much for me.

[Glitch]

Beofile7 wrote:

They just see “a pair of speakers?”

Maybe, maybe not. They could be wondering why someone would have, not only one, but two, really fancy garbage cans in their living room. This would be especially true if you opted for a hidden wire installation. Asking about it wouldn’t be polite.

Of course, I’m (mostly) joking. I think that the Beolab 50 is one of the best styled speakers that B&O has ever made. However, B&O may have done “too good” of a job making them look “not like a speaker”.

I suspect that the lack of comments is more a function that high end stereos are simply not important in the current pop culture. I have many different high end stereo systems in my house. Some modern, some vintage, some tastefully blend with the decor, others are borderline obnoxious. I rarely get asked about any of it unless my guest is a hifi geek.

Glitch

[matador]

Glitch wrote:

I think that the Beolab 50 is one of the best styled speakers that B&O has ever made.

I think nothing can compete with the visual refinement of the Beolab 18 or in a different way, the non-speaker neo-retro-futuristic look of the Beolab 5.
The Beolab 90 has for it the eye-catching, mind-wondering look but it cannot be called “beautiful” in my opinion.

The Beolab 50 looks more like a Dyson X Brabantia air conditionner even if I would gladely welcome a pair in my living-room (thing I wouldn’t do with the 28)…

 

[Evan]

Glitch wrote:

I think that the Beolab 50 is one of the best styled speakers that B&O has ever made. However, B&O may have done “too good” of a job making them look “not like a speaker”.

This is an interesting take. It is indeed elegantly styled however I think we are starting to split hairs (we is everyone in this thread). What I think is the distinction between all of these speakers and our comments above is the geometry.

50 is truly a unique animal in terms of B&O speaker design. There is not a single, slender, delicate, maybe even striking feature about them. It is a heavy looking speaker. The 5s have aluminum discs from outer space and a strange, slender neck with a step change from its conical base. 18s and 28s are packed with unique details like the acoustic lens, or moving frets and the floating column/sub combo on 28.

I can see how 50 would generate little conversation. I think generally speaking, most average folks expect speakers to be big and heavy. The 50 is big and heavy. It is a speaker.

[Glitch]

Evan wrote:

I think generally speaking, most average folks expect speakers to be big and heavy. The 50 is big and heavy. It is a speaker.

My premise is that dedicated hifi systems have lost popularity with the general population. As such, perceiving something as a speaker may not be the first conclusion. The Beolab 50 has an arguably utilitarian shape. One could imagine a very stylish version of other items being the same shape.

I don’t think that this could be said for most of the other B&O speakers. What else could the Beolab 5 be? The only thing that I can think of is some sort of abstract art. But art usually doesn’t come in pairs.

On a tangent thought… What if Leonardo painted two copies of the Mona Lisa and they were displayed side by side? Would people still be talking about “the smile” or something else entirely?

Glitch

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