At the time I could tolerate their look (and today also [and the idea that you could use different covers to change their color to something more acceptable]) & liked the resulting sound at the place I heard them.I never got to hear those Beos', but they did catch my attention...until I got to see one of the cut-away renderings of it's innards. Still somewhat directional (as per current Ohms' with the tweeters), going 4 way (!) with onboard amps and room-correction eq running the xover.
Ahead of it's time...but didn't deserve looking like a Dalek having gone through reconstructive surgery after a starvation diet.
Immediate potential shrink of the potential buying pool. Danes...*sigh* Biolabs' 'top tier' speakers always tended towards 'edgy sculpted'.
B&Os' electronics always had a minimalist style that is appearing again with others SS items. I'll applaud that... *s*
Personally, I'm striving for a simple cylinder about navel height. No real 'color' to speak of but uniform, unassuming in appearance.
One thought is to coat them with Black 3.0, which is about as weird as I'd subject anything to....
Current working versions a friend calls my 'steampunk speakers', which I kinda like. It's the 'right' bits 'n pieces that count anyway.
Cheers, J
The newer speakers from them visually fell off the edge of the deep end for me. I couldn't get past the visual enough to pay attention to the sound.
And, at no time did I ever have the money to buy the 5's & had I had the money, they aren't what I would have spent it on.