Earlier this year, Bang & Olufsen launched the Beosystem 9000c music system in Europe, and this summer, it’s finally our turn to get a chance to look, feel, and hear it in Hong Kong. An intimate number of by-invitation-only guests were among the chosen few to see and audibly experience the unveiling of the latest gear released by the famed Danish luxury audio brand at a dinner hosted by Bang & Olufsen, with VIPs invited by Robb Report Hong Kong.
For as long as memory serves, Bang & Olufsen has been renowned for its stellar releases that eventually end up on Robb Report’s Best of the Best lists. Love at first sight and sound, we slipped one of our favourite disks into the Beosound 9000 CD player, and awaited the notes of TLC to hit the air. As the first beat resonated, flushed with memories, we were plunged into awe. Paired with the Beolab 28 wireless stereo speakers, all within earshot were transported back to their days of youth. A powerful listening experience, we left with goosebumps as mellifluous beats of 1990s R&B took us where we wanted to go: on a trip down memory lane. Bang & Olufsen was banking on that nostalgia—and what a payoff.
Last year, we spoke of how Bang & Olufsen brought retro turntables into the new century; this year, the brand is revitalising CDs in ways we had not thought possible. The notion that everything old is new again holds water, but those brilliant engineers are elevating the auditory experience in unfathomable ways of creativity and inspired, engineered genius.
“With our Recreated Classics series, we are showcasing how Bang & Olufsen’s unique capabilities within sound, design, and craftsmanship are creating long-lasting, circular products,” says Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, director of product circularity and portfolio planning. “We want to demonstrate that a second-life product can be just as attractive as a new product and that a high-quality item such as the Beosound 9000 doesn’t need to have an end-date.”
According to Billboard, CD sales have seen a steady incline since 2023 after a tailspin since the early 2000s when music file sharing went viral, only to be outsold by an even older relic, the retro-chic elegance of the classic vinyl. But even in the digital age of music sharing apps, B&O’s products are not for the masses, but the classes—a classic for the ages, in fact.
“More than showcasing our commitment to product longevity, we wanted to celebrate the revival of physical media that has taken place in recent years,” Hansen continues. “Vinyls and CDs have returned to being something special, where people invest time and energy to connect with the music and artists they love. Longevity in design and the passion for music listening are essentially what we are celebrating with the launch of Beosystem 9000c.” He emphasises, succinctly, “It is all about keeping listening choices alive.”
Since our interview with Bang & Olufsen’s CEO Kristian Tëar, where we discussed how the brand doesn’t have customers but genuine fans, the community has long espoused the belief that the gadgets and accessories by the company are timeless beacons. Believers passionately speak of their speakers, audio systems, and even cordless telephones, often asking interior designers to build around their favourite accessories, truly living Bang & Olufsen’s motto: “Creating products that can stand the test of time.”
For hardcore collectors, audiophiles, musicians, and creators, Bang & Olufsen has sourced 200 units of the original Beosound 9000 CD player and then recreated to Beosystem 9000c. Its factory in Struer, Denmark, which originally created the multi-disc player back in 1996, is the motherboard that’s painstakingly retroactive in bringing magic and machine together. As per the brand, “the CD players are disassembled and thoroughly inspected by a team of skilled service technicians, including many of the same colleagues that worked on the Beosound 9000s in the 1990s, using the original workshop tables. Every component is painstakingly cleaned and repaired, and once they have been inspected, each Beosound 9000 is individually tested and fine-tuned to meet Bang & Olufsen’s exacting specifications.”
A high note also includes the nod to industrial designer David Lewis’s original work, as the Beosystem 9000c is an extension built on the original design of his CD player. Its colour palette of Cosmic Black and aluminium finishes are a mix of modern elegance and vintage chic. For sound fidelity, the Beosound 9000 has been equipped with Beoconnect Encore wireless technology to allow seamlessly sound syncing with the Beolab 28 floor speakers.
“We wanted to enhance the graphic edge of Beosound 9000 whilst maintaining the integrity of the original design. To do this, we introduced a Cosmic Black finish to Beosound 9000’s aluminium back plate so that the CDs stand out even more as artworks, which was Lewis’s original design intention,” says Tiina Kierysch, head of design at Bang & Olufsen. In doing so, it results in “a stark contrast against the natural aluminium on the control panel, creating a bold and modern finish whilst referencing the 1990s aesthetic of the original CD player. The result is timeless […]. Even though the two products were designed in different decades, they become closely related through the application of colours, materials, and finishes.”
Lewis believed in “slow evolution” in design; his ideology leaned on the idea that any product should have a long life, both in desirability and endurance. Legend has it, he was walking past a record store in London where six CDs were displayed in a row, which inspired the look of the machine, hence the album art was revealed in a linear manner, with six visible CDs and a swift movement of the CD clamper, not the disc itself—ingenious.
Beosystem 9000c is limited to 200 units at a retail price of HK$425,000. It is available for order at selected Bang & Olufsen stores worldwide, including Hong Kong. Learn more about the Beosystem 9000c here.
