Bang & Olufsen Beosound

[sukh_m]

Not heard it, only the premium audio system (which I thought i was very good).

Anyone heard both? Is the B & O better?

Any opinions appreciated

[silverspeed]

Think the general concensus is that its possibly no better than the Premium Audio unless you want to pay for those lovely tweeters that come out of the dash.

[laracer]

sukh_m said:

Not heard it, only the premium audio system (which I thought i was very good).

Anyone heard both? Is the B & O better?

Any opinions appreciated

It is a matter of personal preference - I previously had a V8 Vantage with Premium and I now have a V12 Vantage with B&O - I personally think the B&O is superior, however I would not pay £5000+ for the B&O option as both these systems are very good.

[mikey k]

Consensus is it is not worth bothering on a new build, nice on a used car but not significantly better than Premium set up.
Not that many of us use ANY stereo in the Aston

[CatalystV12V]

Had premium in my old V8... Have B&O in my new (to me) V12.. .IMHO the premium sounds better...

[sukh_m]

CatalystV12V said:

Had premium in my old V8... Have B&O in my new (to me) V12.. .IMHO the premium sounds better...

interesting, any particular reason why?

[CatalystV12V]

I guess it’s fairly subjective, and has been discussed before... I find the premium to have a warmer and less clinical sound to the B&O... The premium seems far better in the mid-range.
The B&O seems to be all about the high end frequencies and the bass (sub woofer)... It seems much harsher than the premium.. but then again I'm nearly 50 so maybe it’s my hearing starting to go
Messing about with the some of the auto settings helps...

But watching the the B&O lenses go up and down is really cool

[BingoBob]

Until one gets stuck with a hideous (and expensive sounding) grinding noise.

[v8woollie]

CatalystV12V said:

I guess it’s fairly subjective, and has been discussed before... I find the premium to have a warmer and less clinical sound to the B&O... The premium seems far better in the mid-range.
The B&O seems to be all about the high end frequencies and the bass (sub woofer)... It seems much harsher than the premium.. but then again I'm nearly 50 so maybe it’s my hearing starting to go
Messing about with the some of the auto settings helps...

But watching the the B&O lenses go up and down is really cool

When you get to over 50 watching anything go up and down is really cool

[AWV12]

CatalystV12V said:

I guess it’s fairly subjective, and has been discussed before... I find the premium to have a warmer and less clinical sound to the B&O... The premium seems far better in the mid-range.
The B&O seems to be all about the high end frequencies and the bass (sub woofer)... It seems much harsher than the premium.. but then again I'm nearly 50 so maybe it’s my hearing starting to go
Messing about with the some of the auto settings helps...

But watching the the B&O lenses go up and down is really cool

+1

In my V8V I had the premium (=Alpine) system, and now in my DBS I have the (standard) B&O, and, as written in other threads about this subject before, the Premium system sounds much deeper and warmer and has a wider dynamic range compared to the B&O. It is mainly due to the very restrictive (compressing!) DSPs of the B&O setup. If any one knows a way to disable the DSPs (and just use the amp and speakers) it would be more than welcome!

The B&O system is "lifestyle" (I hate that word) and the Alpine is more for audio lovers. Even if the B&O system had the same price as the Premium, I definitely would go for the Premium! (a friend of mine has a Beemer with Harman Kardon, and even that system has more dynamic range than the B&O!).

The crisp highs are a good point of the B&O tweeters, but I even find the (sub)woofer of the Premium system more "expressive" than the "limited" one of the B&O.

But of course it is subjective. Best is to go your dealer, take a favourite CD that you know very well, and compare it right after another (every AM dealer normally has Premium and B&O systems on stock).