Tristán White wrote:

Why is it that B&O get trashed on groups like these? Are their
products really that poor in your opinion? I'm seriously interested.
Not trying to be picky.

The products are not bad per se, at least they don't try and redefine what
we hear like Bose do. But they are frighteningly overpriced for the
performance they give.

Also, in your opinion, how much are aesthetics worth (irrespective of
better quality? 10% on top? 20%? 50%? This is a serious question: I
appreciate that you are into "sound" more than "beauty" (so am I) but
there must be a time when you get two similar systems but you are
willing to pay more for the better looking one.

Indeed - you may not be able to put a price on what you like, there's
nothing elegant about my audio rack - Panasonic DVD, Liteon DVD-R, Yamaha
amp, all different shapes and colours. Thing is that it, combined with the
low-end Monitor Audio Bronze speakers makes a better sounding system than my
friends B&O. Yes the B&O has a lovely TV stand that rotates, whereas mine is
fixed to the wall. Yes it has a CD changer, hung on the wall, that always
stops the disc in the same orientation it was inserted. Yes its a neat,
tidy, interesting looking install, but ultimately it's not got that feeling
of immersion when playing a DVD, and it cost more than my cars.

He had them wierd dalek-looking speakers for a while, they were loud, and
went low, but sounded brittle and harsh. And cost something crazy like 15000
quid IIRC.

I mean, looking at B & O's products give me the horn. Opening a CD
with that clever little sliding mechanism, my earbuds are gorgeous....

You don't see my earbuds when they're inserted.

and I remember the first time I saw a friend of mine's TV that moved
via the remote control that I saw in the early 90s, that gave me the
horn too.

Whatever floats your boat. Loewe also make good looking tellys with nice PQ
(and B&O do make good televisions) but they cost less.

I'm not saying that I would blindly spend my cash on something for
aesthetic reasons only, but they would certainly play a part in the
price over quality debate. I would be willing to skimp a little on the
quality if aesthetically it was out of this world. Does this make me
shallow? Does this make me less of a music lover? I think not. It
means that I want to enjoy my music in a surrounding that is more
beautiful, surrounded by more beautiful equipment, and that in turn
will also increase one's receptiveness to beautiful music.

Ok.


I think calling B & O "hi fi for the deaf" is a tad unfair, because
I'm not blind and with something as beautiful as a B & O system, some
selective deafness is probably entirely justified.

Heh - it's a phrase I coined when my friend got them crazy speakers, they
went so loud but never sounded quite right at any volume, on top of that the
measurement microphones extend in some strange phallic manner, an were very
small!



--
The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel
with the pestle has the brew that is true.