#beocenter

[stone-cold-groove]

From the classic audio files: a page from the 1982 Bang & Olufsen catalog.

[yodaprod]

Bang & Olufsen (1972)

[vizreef]

Beocenter 2800 (Denmark, 1978)

[formlab]

Beocenter 2800

[miesvanderho]

The yuppies in Xmas vacation have my beocenter sex machine!!! I'm a yuppie!!

[jet-teeth]

Ohhh I sure do have some Thoughts about this one! I'll put it under a cut because this is a long stream-of-thought ramble ahead, with lots of pictures:

First, as for why there is so little scifi design/tech sampling the industrial design look of this era, this is just my assumption but the rounded smooth-tech look fits a bit into a funny place culturally: I think "cassette futurism" has a lot of that tech-nerd appeal since it still has a very engineered look, aesthetic covering is minimal and there isn't much exploration in the variety of materials used, which also makes it fit very well into the "gritty" flavor of sci-fi which really seems to dominate a lot of our culture/is what seems to be the bigger interest The smooth, colorful and rounded shapes of that 90s/2000s era has this bubbly optimism about it, which I think is at odds with what the "cultural preference" is in terms of what kinds of stories are usually told in scifi (lots of dystopian stories, and a lot of franchises that have their aesthetics rooted in the 70's and 80s which have stuck around ever since.) So this might be one factor, another is that a lot of the "futurist" stuff from this era is often seen as "objectively bad design" - specifically I'm thinking of concept cars here, there seems to be a lot of hate for the 90s "jellybean era" and the sometimes-awkward futurist look of the 2000s. I think why we give this era a tougher time vs the older, more boxy cars, is because it lives in this odd overlap of sculpting/obscuring a lot of the engineered aspects, so it starts to put it into a different spot in our minds in terms of perceptions: it is now more of a sculpture, a rolling sketch, and the constraints the engineering/packaging of these vehicles can limit a lot in that respect (rules about safety have also kicked in by now, so all the crazy shapes like the tailfins and sharp corners of older car designs are not something that can be explored anymore.) The disconnect of intent and execution probably tainted this era of industrial design aesthetics, at least for automotive, for a very long time. Anyway, I think there are honestly some Vibes to be pulled from that era, so add automotive designs/concept cars to your search list, handled right I think some of the from language could totally work "Jellybean era" cars (90s): Izuzu vehicross (I unironically kind of like these, it's such a rolling sketch. There is Potential here)

Rando concept cars:

2000's "Futurism" industrial design:

Related vibes: B&O BeoCenter:

Which relates to the AIBO dog (the evolution/lineup of these toys is great ref too)

Additional mentions and thoughts: sure, the "translucent tech" craze is a very memorable aesthetic from this time, but I think there are more subtleties and common patterns to branch off this one We all think of stuff like this:

..when I think the "common thread" of a lot of the 90;s tech, toys especially, as well as phones and handheld gadgets, generally had this "overbuilt" look to them. I think that's more the thread to follow, since the translucent thing is just one additional color/material/finish choice that happens to be on top of this underlying trend in the shapes

(Everything very rounded, but also kind of tough-looking. Also, colors!! Maybe super funky graphics are another angle to explore)

Anyway, bit of an early morning infodump haha, but I hope you find this useful or at least interesting! Def made me think about it too, because it's true you don't see a lot of work out there that is inspired from this era, and especially not in any big media that I'm aware of

A robot from a world where the '90s never ended

The lore and story are good I promise

[llybaek]

My 10 year old TV gave up, so I replaced it with another 10 year old TV. This one is a whole different class of TV. I wouldn't have been able to afford this setup from new. But buying it defective and fixing it myself, it costed me almost nothing.

[ultimatebeo]

DE STIJL. BEOLAB 5000. 1988. Designer: Gideon Lindinger-Lowy Whilst being a trendsetter in their own right, be that through superb deign or technical innovation, B&O have also always been proud to communicate their influences and inspiration. And the Beolab 5000 is an absolute "purest form" example. A powerful and imposing wall-mounted active loudspeaker, it is a perfectly executed functional take on the classic Piet Mondrian abstract squares paintings from the modernist De Stijl movement of the early 20th Century. And they still sound beautiful. WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE 80s BANG & OLUFSEN LOUDSPEAKER?? SLIDE 2 - Lena Grummesgard assembles Beolab 3000 and Beolab 5000, Lemvig, 1988 SLIDE 3 - Anita Kjærgård assembles Beolab 5000, Lemvig, 1988 #bangolufsen #bangandolufsen #beolab #beolab5000 #coolspeakers #modernism #cubism #destijl #pietmondrian #mondrian #modernistart #beovox #beomaster #beocenter #vintagehifi #activeloudspeaker #wallspeakers #80sstyle #80sinteriors #retrointeriors #midmod #stylemood #hifispeakers #retroaudio https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2I_KGJBwE/?igshid=1r0pbcc8f0b47

[eightiesfan]

Bang & Olufsen 1985

[purlturtle]

I was born in 1979. My parents had a top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art Bang&Olufsen CD and tape player, the Beocenter 9000:

It had touch-sensitive glass surfaces that would open and close the CD or tape compartment, start the music, raise the volume and so on.

At the same time as I was slowly getting old enough that my parents would allow me to handle it, this was on TV:

And it made me just LOSE MY SHIT to have something IN OUR OWN HOUSE that did the same thing. (Listen, I was a kid, I had no idea what VFX were.)

Good times.

My parents also had the same tea glasses that Picard used for his "tea, Earl Grey, hot", but I digress.

It just now occurred to me that some of yall don't remember a time before touch screens

Like. The first popular touch screens I knew of were high end new-edition ipods and that was their defining trait. No buttons.

"But how do we use it without buttons?" Well. It has three buttons. Power and volume.

My whole class full of middle class kids had ipod nanos, ipod shuffles they got for Christmas. I had an MP3 player, and before that, a cassette player and a portable CD player.

The 'ipod touch' was goddamn crazy. Like, space-age shit.

I swear to god when I got one as a gift from a well-off relative it had no music, no games, I didn't know how to connect it to the internet, nothing, but the reality of a smooth screen that responded when you touched it like some kind of goddamn hologram, like a pocket mirror with color-changing cuttlefish skin that knew I was touching it, that I just spent a solid hour and a half in my room just swiping the screen back and forth.

And the idea that you could connect to the INTERNET on it?? And not the expensive shitty pixelated crap you paid $50 a minute for on your flip phone, but WHOLE WEBSITES? JUST LIKE ON A LAPTOP? Ooooooooooohmygod.

And it was small enough to hide under the covers with!! I could read after bedtime!!! Before that, I had a second-hand digital camera, and I'd take photos of my comic books during the day so I could read through them later on the tiny ass 2"x2" view screen. And before THAT, it was a bedside lamp I'd scramble to turn off if it sounded like someone was getting close to the stairs.

And after the ipod touch, card readers started getting touch screens. I didn't think I'd ever get used to being encouraged to smear my fingerprints on the glass.

And SMARTBOARDS? Hoooooooooooooooly shit.

Like. I'm not even old yet, and every so often I just suddenly remember that the world I knew at that age doesn't exist anymore.

And what's all this going to become?

Who knows

[periodically80s]

[onlineantiques]

#bangolufsen #turntable #soundsystem #bangandolufsen #recordplayers #music #musiclover #hifi #stereo #beocenter #beocenter2200 #madeindenmark eBay item number 234103860966 https://www.instagram.com/p/CRwJHiYI1W3/?utm_medium=tumblr

[planetofneworleans]

Bang & Olufsen Beocenter Century (1993-2004)

[skynnexav]

Now at SkynnexAv bang and olufsen beocenter 2 dab version keep your eye pealed open 👀👀👀 shortly on our website #skynnexav #bangandolufsen #beocenter #beocenter2 #dvd #cd #iconic #design #art #sound #worldwideshipping #freedelivery #💶💴💸💵💷🇨🇳🇨🇦 (at Skynnexav)

[retroaudiophiledesigns]

Bang & Olufsen

[haverst]

Bang & Olufsen, Beocenter 2000 Hi Fi System, 1979-1981

source

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