B&O Beolab 90

Blizzard · Oct 7, 2015

Wow this looks awfully impressive!

http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/2015/10/06/beolab-90-behind-the-scenes/

Kal Rubinson · Oct 7, 2015

Blizzard said:
Wow this looks awfully impressive!

And they sound impressive.

Blizzard · Oct 8, 2015

Kal Rubinson said:
And they sound impressive.

You heard them? If so where at?

Kal Rubinson · Oct 8, 2015

Blizzard said:
You heard them? If so where at?

At B&O back in May. My report is in the October Stereophile.

Blizzard · Oct 8, 2015

Kal Rubinson said:
At B&O back in May. My report is in the October Stereophile.

Awesome!

Rodney Gold · Oct 12, 2015

I cant find a copy Kal ..
You say "impressive" .. how impressive..
Reading their white paper makes me drool

Speaker of the future? Gimmicks?

FrantzM · Oct 12, 2015

Hi
I , also, would like to hear those speakers. No doubt we, audiophiles will "look" at it with suspicion. the Beolab 5 B&O speaker while well regarded by some people in the audiophile press didn't resonate very strongly but it is a very serious attempt at sound reproduction capable of going toe-to-toe with many separate components-based systems costing much, much more... I must however admit that the Beolab 90 aesthetics are , to me , not pleasing ... And the price is substantial.. We'll see and listen

Blizzard · Oct 12, 2015

Rodney Gold said:
I cant find a copy Kal ..
You say "impressive" .. how impressive..
Reading their white paper makes me drool
Speaker of the future? Gimmicks?

I'd say the technology is state of the art, but definitely room for improvement in the electronics area. If a 2 channel stand alone DAC/amp combo was made with the same DAC/amp components, it would probably be competitive at the $1500 range. But they use 36 channels. 36 channels of high end audiophile grade amplification and DAC would probably triple the cost of the speakers.

It will be interesting to hear comparisons of these units with $80000 2 channel purist systems.

Kal Rubinson · Oct 12, 2015

Blizzard said:
I'd say the technology is state of the art, but definitely room for improvement in the electronics area. If a 2 channel stand alone DAC/amp combo was made with the same DAC/amp components, it would probably be competitive at the $1500 range.

Apples and oranges. The controlled dispersion (and other features) make this so much less dependent on room acoustics and placement than any 2-channel standard amp/speaker combination that you have to decide on what parameters you will judge. Is it signal purity? Is it imaging? Is it harmonic balance?

Blizzard · Oct 12, 2015

Kal Rubinson said:
Apples and oranges. The controlled dispersion (and other features) make this so much less room/placement independent than any 2-channel standard amp/speaker combination that you have to decide on what parameters you will judge. Is it signal purity? Is it imaging? Is it harmonic balance?

It's another option for folks looking for an $80000 system. Some will love it for sure.

anders · Oct 12, 2015

Rodney Gold said:
I cant find a copy Kal ..
You say "impressive" .. how impressive..
Reading their white paper makes me drool
Speaker of the future? Gimmicks?

I think it has a much better chance of being the future instead of this

docvale · Oct 12, 2015

I would love to listen to a speaker like this.

This kind of speaker, together with products from Meridian (or even Devialet, as long as we're talking about electronics) are conceived to "simplify" the listener setup, serving a product that has been conceived with the harmony of each component.

The drawback is the intrinsic limit in flexibility during the process of the system assembly (since there's no system...). Obviously this product category selects its buyer community a priori.

The possibility to apply DSP processing that can eliminate the disturbance provided by the lack of acoustic perfection of the room could also overcome the legitimate doubts of analog listeners (these B&O speakers also come with XLR analog connectivity). I'd be very curious to hook a phono rig and listen

Groucho · Oct 12, 2015

docvale said:
The drawback is the intrinsic limit in flexibility during the process of the system assembly (since there's no system...). Obviously this product category selects its buyer community a priori.

I think audiophiles can sometimes lose sight of the fact that they are in a tiny minority. The engineers and designers at B&O probably laugh long and loud at the antics of audiophiles if, indeed, they ever give them a second thought.

But these speakers... am I to understand that they really do look like a popup laundry basket or those collapsible exhibition signs? Or maybe they are meant to be channelling modern architecture e.g. the Schlumberger building. If I were them I would have attempted a simple cylinder, elliptical, or box cross section with a fabric skin, even if it had the radical shape underneath.

docvale · Oct 12, 2015

The possibility to afford a $80k sound system (sources not included) belongs to a tiny minority too... outside the audiophile community, apart of some wealthy guy who's passionate for nordic design, these speakers are not going to sell in many copies.

The looks of them triggers some perplexity to me too.

Kal Rubinson · Oct 12, 2015

docvale said:
The drawback is the intrinsic limit in flexibility during the process of the system assembly (since there's no system...). Obviously this product category selects its buyer community a priori.

The DSP is quite flexible.

Blizzard · Oct 12, 2015

anders said:
I think it has a much better chance of being the future instead of this

The world's finest caps. But hard to justify the price. Their resistors are the only ones I'll use.

Blizzard · Oct 12, 2015

docvale said:
The possibility to afford a $80k sound system (sources not included) belongs to a tiny minority too... outside the audiophile community, apart of some wealthy guy who's passionate for nordic design, these speakers are not going to sell in many copies.

The looks of them triggers some perplexity to me too.

I'm thinking they are more of an experiment to see how far they can take DSP. Kinda like an F1 car for Honda. What they learnt will probably trickle down into lower cost designs. It will also raise eyebrows and reinforce their rep as a manufacturer that pushes the limits.

Kal Rubinson · Oct 12, 2015

Blizzard said:
I'm thinking they are more of an experiment to see how far they can take DSP. Kinda like an F1 car for Honda. What they learnt will probably trickle down into lower cost designs. It will also raise eyebrows and reinforce their rep as a manufacturer that pushes the limits.

An experiment and a demonstration. The DSP, by its nature, is fungible and scalable. The hardware can be produced more cheaply according to demand.

Rodney Gold · Oct 13, 2015

i have fiddled with DSP and DRC since the mid 90's .. always looking for that holy grail of tuneability and ability to "remove" the room.
These speakers, on paper , are as far as I have EVER seen anyone go.. a technical tour de force .. a hard core audiophiles wet dream in configureability , placement etc..
the more I read their white paper manual for these speakers , the more I desire them.. even unheard!!
Anyone want to buy a slightly used set of giya G1's and a devialet?

Blizzard · Oct 13, 2015

Rodney Gold said:
i have fiddled with DSP and DRC since the mid 90's .. always looking for that holy grail of tuneability and ability to "remove" the room.
These speakers, on paper , are as far as I have EVER seen anyone go.. a technical tour de force .. a hard core audiophiles wet dream in configureability , placement etc..
the more I read their white paper manual for these speakers , the more I desire them.. even unheard!!
Anyone want to buy a slightly used set of giya G1's and a devialet?

Just setup the Giya's and the Devialet in your bedroom

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