Has anyone auditioned the BeoLab 5 speakers?

Having read the reviews, and posts on the web I went out and listened to the Beolab 5s. In the store I was not impressed,seemed flat and a bit one dimensional.. just another prettty good speaker.

Then on a whim, I rolled the dice on a pair at about a 30% discount. Got them home and found the highs a bit grating, nice mid range and incredible bass. I listen to mostly vinyl, so I decided to mate them to a modified EAR 834P with some NOS Mullards. The results are incredible and I now understand why these speakers get very good reviews even with the Hifi press. I think running them with the standard B&O gear does them no justice, and the rather poorly informed sales assocites do not help either.

Had a chance to compare them with my buddys system,Krell 402 AMP, Mac 2300 pre, and some Focal 1037be with a VPI classic spinning. For me, there was no comparision, the Beolabs are in a different league.

Just my 2 cents...
Cheers.

I heard them at the B&O showroom in Beverly Hills on 3 separate occasions during spring and summer of 2008. Truly terrible every time with audible break-up at modest SPLs. I'm pretty sure that one of these speakers was defective, but 3 auditions over 6 months and store employees never addressed the issue. Cant't dismiss the product, but how can you ever get comfortable with the price tag when they can't arrange a decent demo.

Marty

PS It's always possible that the speakers weren't defective, but I honestly doubt that.

They appear to use the Vifa 3 inch dome midrange (D75MX-31-08). This is the same as is used on some PMC's.

It is a good sounding midrange but it cannot play very loud without compression/distortion.

In the sake of resurrection:

I auditioned the Beolab 5 and I left the store in state of shock, how great these speakers are. Absolutely stunning especially at very high and painful spl they sounded composed and I could not detect much compression & distortion. Absolutely brilliant.

Now, what I don't understand is why so many people are negative about them... I really don't, it doesn't make any sense... After all this is 21st century!! I welcome technology advancement.

I own both, a traditional setup (Audio Research GS, Wilson Puppy) in my weekend home, and Beolab 5's with BeoCenter 2 in my DC apartment. I must say, there's just no comparison ... in an unexpected way.

If the traditional setup is like a Mercedes Benz AMG S65, then the B&O's are an Audi R8. They each offer a great — yet completely different — ownership, listening and 'wow your guests' experience.

IMHO, the B&O's easily keep up with their counterpart in every way.
The biggest difference is in their qualitative sound properties. The traditional setup I describe as "warmer and fulfilling". The B&O's as "accurate and dynamic" and they both have similar presence and staging (Despite the 'acoustic lens', I still position the B&O's in a traditional manner).