B&O On Location: Demos

Day 3 - Listening Tests and Demos

We headed back to The Farm for the most anticipated of the trip's activities - the listening tests. Instead of visiting the same room we visited the first night, we were taken to what looked to be a conference room. The room was filled with hard surfaces and a disturbing lack of furnishings. Nary a soft surface to absorb sound in sight. We were treated to a 7.0 (they consider the BeoLab 5's full range) demo of the bean scene from House of Flying Daggers and the big wave from the HD DVD version of The Perfect Storm . Of course, the first thing that was said by the B&O staff was that the room was a bit bright. Yeah, a bit. Some of the highs were a bit unbearable but overall it was a fairly interesting demo.

Next, we were introduced to the BeoVision 9 - Bang & Olufsen's new flagship 50" display. At ~$20,000 one would wonder why a 50-inch plasma utilizing Panasonic glass would interest anyone that didn't have huge piles of money cluttering up the house. Well, the BeoVision 9 is much more than a just a 720p display. The display sits on top of a large integrated center channel that utilizes the B&O Acoustic Lens Technology. The base of the unit swivels at a touch of a button on the remote. There are presets for the remote so that you can program different positions for the TV depending on your sitting location. The picture brightness will also adjust automatically to the ambient light in the room.

But that is not all. Remember that all the B&O speakers are powered. This means that they can all be controlled by the BeoSystem 3 - essentially a processor that can control up to 10 speakers. The BeoSystem 3 can also "flip" your room so that if you have an "everyday" viewing area on one wall and a "movie" viewing area (with a projection screen) on another, the BeoSystem 3 can be programmed to utilize the same speakers in both configurations. Surrounds become mains and mains become surrounds. It is perhaps a hard thing to describe but very intuitive when demoed. Although the unit is designed by, and probably best used with, B&O speakers it can be used with other systems as well. You would need to provide amps but the unit can decode all the current DTS and Dolby formats as well as set channel levels and distances. These settings can of course be modified based on the different area presets.

But that is not all. On top of all this, the BeoVision 9 has the BeoMedia 1 integrated into the unit. The BeoMedia 1 is essentially a media server for music, Internet radio, and pictures. Rather than streaming media off other computers on your network, the BeoMedia has an integrated hard drive that can be used to store all of that media locally. Reportedly, the BeoMedia can be set to automatically download media from your computer as it is added (music only, not pictures). The interface to the BeoMedia is the coolest I've seen to date. It even allows you to web browse with the remote in what looks to be a fairly effective way. This is something I've never seen done without the aid of an external mouse. I'm hoping to get a unit to test in the near future.

The picture on the BeoVision 9 looked very nice. I didn't notice any real obvious problems during the short demo. Of course, Bang & Olufsen provides all of their own electronics with the set. What this unit really represents is the idea of total system integration. When you buy this display you get a display, processor, media server, center channel, and more all in one box. All you need to buy is a transport and speakers. I guess if you have the money and want the ultimate in clean installs, this is the way to go.

Additional Products

We got a chance to see and, to some extent, play with a number of different products from Bang & Olufsen while visiting the mock store at The Farm. We toyed with production units like the quart milk box shaped BeoSound 3 - a portable radio/SD card reader, the desk-sized BeoLab 4 speakers, and even a pyramid-shaped speaker designed for nearfield listening with interchangeable exterior grills of different colors to fit any mood. The Serene cellphone was interesting - a cool if slightly pointy portable phone with a camera in the hinge. I loved the the circular keypad and the way it automatically opened with just a touch, though the fact that you have to talk into the screen and listen to the keypad seemed a little counterintuitive to me. The phone retails for around $1500 (yikes) while the EarSet 2 retails for a "mere" $300 or so. The EarSet 2 is a Bluetooth headset which claims up to 4 hours talk time and 100 hours of standby time. It looks kind of like something made by the Borg but it is light and seems to be fairly comfortable. You'll be reading more about the EarSet 2 in the future.