[Fox1106]

Hey all, has anyone heard if the 18’s are going to be discontinued. My dealer is selling them for 30% off at the moment. I was thinking of buying a pair but it has me wondering is something new on the horizon?

[trackbeo]

— What location? (Generally I mean – I don’t want to snap up your bargain, I promise.)

— Is it for new orders or a for a showroom pair? (You’ll know: An April order for 18s in the USA wasn’t quoted delivery until June.) Showroom displays must be refreshed every year or two, so you’ll see an occasional discount from that.

In the USA March 1-April 30 there was a 15% reduction on Beolab 18/19/20/28, which diminished the 30% “U.S. stupidity fee.” (18s cost 29% more than EU prices incl. VAT! After recent price increases now only 23% extra.) After that sale… Beolab 20s were gone from the website/EOL. EOL on the 18s is always possible; maybe some marketing maven thinks the Beolab 28s are a better speaker than the 18s, and also pushes whole-line margins up? (Arguable whether a test tube & dog bowl can replace a pencil…)

But as design icons, I would expect that if 18s were going EOL, B&O would produce some unique “final edition”, like they did with the Beolab 5s. Maybe they’ll just update the electronics, which are dated, but still perfectly OK. So you wouldn’t really get shafted by that. But start with #2 above. Presumably you already did *ask* your dealer and got no answer?

[Author]

Posts