Today, Bang & Olufsen – the audio company that made “the most beautiful gadgets in the world” – is re-launching its iconic CD player, the Beosound 9000. If you lived in the 1990s, you definitely saw this CD player in one place Honor, six discs and shiny glass lid, either at your best friend’s house or in the background of an episode of entourage. Now you can buy it again as new from Bang & Olufsen instead of bidding on it on eBay.
This is the second project in a series of what the company calls “recreated classics.” Bang & Olufsen sourced 200 original Beosound 9000 units and brought them to the company’s factory in Struer, Denmark. There, the Bang & Olufsen team, some of whom worked on the original models, carefully disassembled, cleaned and repaired each device. Each was then individually tested and fine-tuned to meet B&O audio standards.
To give it a more modern look, the team reversed the original’s black and aluminum finishes. The new black back plate makes the CDs stand out even more as works of art. But don’t worry – all aluminum parts are from the original Beosound 9000. The parts were all brushed, etched and blasted at the Bang & Olufsen factory, then re-machined and anodized to match the look of the classic player.
The souped-up CD players are only sold as part of a package that includes a pair of high-quality Beolab 28 speakers and a fancy Beoremote. The products are bundled under the name Beosystem 9000c. Only 200 units will be produced and each package will cost $55,000. While this price is out of reach for most of us, the Beosound 9000’s design is worth celebrating for what it represents.
What goes around
The Danish brand has long placed emphasis on the longevity of its products, using high-quality materials and paying attention to longevity. The products also exude a timeless, whimsical charisma that you can’t get anywhere else. I always think of the Beosound Bluetooth speaker as looking like a picnic basket, but in 2021 the company also released the Beosound Level, an exceptionally beautiful $2,000 Bluetooth speaker designed to be can be easily repaired; The battery, wood and fabric elements are all replaceable, giving the speaker a lifespan of decades rather than years.
“The consumer electronics industry is not as resource efficient as it should be,” says Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, head of product circularity and portfolio planning at B&O, whom I contacted via email. By combating obsolescence through design, he says, his team can “create a movement toward a more durable future, where products serve a purpose after their first useful life cycle.”
The original Beosound 9000 was designed by David Lewis, a legendary industrial designer whose work is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art. The design of the player – whose interior is completely visible and surrounded by glass – was based on the concept of “audiovisuality”, the idea that it is beautiful to expose the basic functionality of a musical device.
Of course, seeing a see-through computer case or a flip phone with an exposed hinge isn’t a big deal these days. But in the 1990s, watching a smooth clamp slide silently between CDs or the Beosound 9000’s motorized glass lid slowly swing open was the height of luxury.
Come back
Bang & Olufsen’s new release also comes at a time of CD revival. In my twenties, I worked at a record store – which we called a record store, even though we mostly sold CDs. Bands there played free shows and signed autographs during the day, and we wandered over to the death metal or African funk listening stations because the country section was too crowded.
The click-click-click The images of people rummaging through boxes of jewelry boxes are permanently embedded in my brain. Many of us miss it, even those of us who weren’t old enough to listen to music on CDs back then, as evidenced by Generation Z buyers devouring long-neglected CD collections.