There was one thing we didn’t have time to add to the redesigned Beocentral: a Further Reading section. But it’s here now and you can find it at the bottom of most pages in our reference section:

If a product is mentioned in our Crowood Collectors’ Series book, you can see which pages it’s on. Products currently in Bang & Olufsen’s range have links directly to the relevant page on B&O’s site, while older products have a link to the specifications in B&O’s Product Archive. Finally, almost every product has a link to BeoWorld’s description, so you can easily find their opinion of it too.

Today we’ve launched a redesigned version of Beocentral. There are many improvements, here are some of the most important ones. We hope you enjoy what we’ve done.

New graphic design

Beocentral has a new, clean style which takes advantage of large monitors but works well with mobile browsers too. It looks great on an iPhone and even better on an iPad.

Easy to browse and discover

Improvements to the Reference Section give a better overview of B&O’s product range, making it easier to casually browse through the site and discover products you didn’t know about.

Better organised

The structure of the site has been improved, giving better access to the Workshop Notebook and Beomic sections. There are fewer categories in the Reference Section – all products are still included, but now you’ll find them in more logical places.

Better search – on every page

Beocentral’s search page has been completely redesigned. Results include a snippet of text containing the term you searched for to help you see its context. Pictures are included too, where available. You’ll find a search box at the top right of every page, just type what you’re looking for and press Enter to see the results.

Online index of our book

The search page includes an index of our book, Bang & Olufsen. Now you can find what you’re looking for on the site, then read about it in the book straight afterwards.

More information: Glossary

Our glossary is a new section containing definitions of B&O-related terms.

Beautiful colour charts

Bang & Olufsen change the colours and finishes of their range throughout the years. Beocentral now shows you which colours a product was available in throughout its lifetime.

Better page names

Beocentral’s new page names are based on the full product name. With no obscure product to guess it’s much easier to find what you want. For example, the Beogram 4000 page used to be www.beocentral.com/products/bg4000, now it’s just beocentral.com/beogram4000. We’ve also shortened the site’s address by dropping the www: now we’re simply beocentral.com.

More pictures, new pictures

Beocentral is renowned the quality of its pictures, the best of any historic B&O site. We’ve improved further by re-photographing some items and adding more pictures showing different views.

The December 2009 edition of Hi-Fi World (available now) contains a comparative review of the Beocenter 3500 and Sony HMK-80B. This is part of the magazine’s regular “Olde Worlde” feature in which classic models are reviewed to see how they have stood the test of time. With this month’s focus on high-end 1970s music centres, the choice of a Beocenter 3500 could not have been better. The article is written by Beocentral’s Tim Jarman.

Hi-Fi World December 2009

You can subscribe to Hi-Fi World, the UK’s fastest growing audio title, via the Hi-Fi World website.

The July 2009 issue of Hi-Fi World magazine is on sale today and contains an article by Beocentral’s Tim Jarman describing the best B&O models from the 1960s to the 1990s. The article is accompanied by pictures from the site and contains plenty of useful advice for anyone interested in starting or expanding their B&O collection.

The BeoVision 8 range has been expanded with the addition of a new 40-inch model, the BeoVision 8-40. The BeoVision 8 range is described by B&O as “entry level” but even so, the new TV is quite well specified. It has a Full HD (1920×1080 pixel) screen with a refresh rate of 100Hz, twice the usual 50Hz.

The set lacks the glass contrast screen present on the more expensive BeoVision 6 and BeoVision 7 ranges but it does have an unusual loudspeaker system which uses a central down-facing woofer an addition to the stereo speakers to improve bass performance.

BeoVision 8-40 will be available in a choice of two colours: black or white.

Only a few months after making a large part of their range available in white, Bang & Olufsen have announced a similar number of products will be available with a gold-coloured finish.

Gold products are made to special order (meaning a longer lead time) and will be priced at a premium, we estimate 10-15%.

Although not to everyone’s taste, there’s no denying that the deep black of the LCD/plasma screens and loudspeaker cloths contrast well with the gold of the cabinets. To keep the colour palette to a minimum, the gold colouring even extends to the stands for televisions such as the BeoVision 7 and the bases of the BeoLab 6000 speakers. This is a wise choice because the standard silver stands which work well with the current range of colours would not go well with gold.

Televisions available in gold are: BeoVision 4-50 and 4-65, BeoVision 7-32 and 7-40 and BeoVision 9. Speakers with a gold finish are BeoLab 6000, BeoLab 8000 and the entire BeoLab 7 range (7-1, 7-2 and 7-4). Both remote controls (Beo 4 and Beo 5) can be ordered in gold and surprisingly only one music system: BeoSound 1.

A PDF format brochure showing the products in the dramatic setting of the Zaha Hadid building at Ordrupgaard is available for download here. As far as we know a printed version is not available but B&O really should start putting brochures like this into print as they show the products off so much better than the current catalogues.

A non-DVD version of the BeoVision 7-40 has been added to the BeoVision 7 range. This means that the BeoVision 7 is now available in two screen sizes (32″ and 40″), both with and without an integrated DVD player.

Even though the new BeoVision hasn’t been officially announced by B&O and there are no details on the company’s website yet, it is already being advertised by dealers. With a price around £1000 less than the DVD-equipped version they will surely be keen to start selling them as soon as they can.

Because there are no photos of the TV on B&O’s site, we’ve Photoshopped our own version to show how it will look, the only difference being the lack of a curved DVD drawer beneath the screen.

Details of the DVD versions of the BeoVision 7-32 and 7-40 can be found on B&O’s own BeoVision 7 page.

Bang & Olufsen have announced that the BeoSound 5 is now available, 3 months earlier than expected. When it was announced in November last year, the first deliveries were scheduled for April 2009.

It’s not surprising that B&O have made it available sooner; shifting back-orders will surely help cash-flow in what must be difficult times for the company. The main reason for the delay between announcement and availability seems to have been to give the company time to finish developing the BeoSound 5’s software. Perhaps they reached the point were it had all the right features and was stable sooner than they planned, or perhaps the software is good enough and any remaining minor problems can be fixed by sending out automatic updates.

Bang & Olufsen’s auction of the first BeoSound 9000 in white and a matching pair of BeoLab 8000 loudspeakers has finished. The winning bid was 105,000 DKK (€14,000). This is quite a premium over the usual price, but the money will go to a worthy cause: UNICEF.

A very limited number of signed first editions of our book, Bang & Olufsen, are now in stock at the BeoWorld Gift Shop. They are ready for immediate dispatch and priced at £29.50 each with free delivery worldwide. The price includes a small donation to BeoWorld to help pay for the site’s running costs. They are certain to sell out quickly—order yours now by following this link!