B&O, overpriced artistic piece of audio?

B&O??? Sould be called Sanford & Son. This stuff is JUNK! Paul, you have fine components, why take a big step backwards? If you want art, buy art -- a painting, a piece of sculptured furniture. In fact, the idea of furniture is a good example -- there are many pieces of "functional art" that function perfectly as furniture. B&O may be "artistic" to some folks but it does not function perfectly as audio equipment. In addition, it isn't all that distictive imho. I spent some time in a B&O store in Boston recently and was blown away at the downright lousy sound. Factor in the price points and it's even worse. This stuff is just bad. Also, there are far more distinctive pieces of equipment out there -- particularly TURNTABLES. Check out Wilson Benesch, Basis and others. The turntables may be the biggest pieces of #$$% B&O sells. They are unadulterated garbage. So far as B&O being the MOMA collection is concerned, so is the original Movado plain face watch -- cute looking bu,t again, not a Rolex when it comes to functional performance. Hell, it's not even an Oris. And, this is not as flagrant as B&O. Please tell me that you're not really going to do this.

If you want components that are gorgeous sounding as well as looking, they are out there. And some aren't too expensive. For a turntable, try the Michell Gyrodec or Oracle Delphi. For speakers the Gallo Nucleus Reference. For amps some of the Cary's or Quicksilvers. For CD players the Rega Planet, Meridian or Krell. Check out HiFi News from the UK. They have photos of a lot of stuff from Europe which is very aesthetically designed.

Stepping down? You had better hope there is a safety net to catch you at the bottom.

Paul please sober up! I use to service audio gear in a retail shop. B&O = B.O.! Looks snazzy, but the build quality is, well let's just say that it ISN'T. Sounds OK but just OK. Would make a good basement-bar system (or for the garage). Or put it in your office if you want to impress the clients; that would be a fitting application (sound quality in the office isn't really a primary concern anyway). Yeah it looks pretty cool though. I liked the Euro-style Bose analogy hee-hee...

My folks brought one back from Denmark. I agree with the others, it would be a major step down. Looking good but sounding mediocre.