AV Magazines

Auteur of cool Bang & Olufsen has unveiled what it describes as 'an icon in the making' with its latest digital music system, the BeoSound 5.

Promising to deliver 'high quality music experiences in the home', the most striking thing about the unit is its design.

An aluminium wheel sits to one side of the control unit for simple single-handed operation, scrolling through menu options on the display's UI. According to the news release it will apparently be 'an astonishingly tactile experience... At once intuitive and inspiring', which is always nice.

One of the main facets B&O is praising is the oddly entitled MOTS, which describes playing a song as like 'planting a seed'. MOTS essentially scans your music library whenever a song is put on and proffers similar tracks based on the likes of rhythm, syncopation, key tonality and vocal harmonies.

It's like an artier version of Apple's Genius service on iTunes. The BeoSound 5 is actually only the control device for the main unit, the BeoSound Master, a 500GB capacity black box designed to be hidden out of view.

Available March 2009, if you're interested you'd best get saving - the BeoSound 5 will cost you around £3,500, without the speakers. Ouch.

www.beosound5.com