Bang & Olufsen has resurrected another one of its stunning legacy products as part of its Recreated Classics series, which takes icons from the past and updates them for the modern era. After revamping the iconic 4000c turntable four years ago, the program has now revived the beautiful and highly desirable Beosound 9000 CD player from the 1990s. Meet the Beosystem 9000c Music System, a modern sound system that includes a fully restored Beosound 9000 CD player accompanied by a pair of Beolab 28 speakers. In case you’re not aware of the Beosound 9000 CD player, it’s an iconic piece of audio equipment created by the Danish manufacturer in the pre-streaming era which allowed six discs to be stacked behind a glass panel, allowing for hours of music to be cued up. The stunning design of the CD player was penned by the late British industrial designer David Lewis, who was also responsible for many other B&O designs during that era.
The project began with sourcing 200 examples of the original Beosound 9000 units, which were then brought back to Bang & Olufsen’s facility in Struer, Denmark. It is the same place where the original Beosound 9000 CD players were made back in 1996. The meticulous restoration process included stripping down each unit by the company’s service technicians to clean, repair, and replace any non-functional component. “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. 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,” said Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, Head of Product Circularity & Portfolio Planning at Bang & Olufsen.
To match the Beolab 28 speakers, Bang & Olufsen’s restoration team inverted the deep black and natural aluminum finishes of the original product. They paired it with new aluminum lamellas on the cylindrical form of the Beolab 28 sculptural speakers. In addition to the six-CD changer, the Beosystem 9000c also has an AM/FM tuner. Furthermore, the Beolab 28s, the Beoremote One remote control, and B&O’s own smartphone app allow the Beosystem 9000c to function as a thoroughly modern music system with music streaming services and wireless playback through the speakers via Airplay 2, Chromecast, or Bluetooth 5.0. Limited to just 200 units for sale globally, the Beosystem 9000c is priced at $55,000, which sure is an astronomical figure. But CD players are making a comeback in a big way. Originally introduced in the US in 1983, the compact disc paved the way for digital music. Over the last four decades, music lovers purchased 14.9 billion CDs in the US, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. While the compact disc started to fade away more than a decade ago, its sales have been steadily growing over the last few years.
