The electronics which make the Serene work (for example the motorised hinge, the acoustically transparent click wheel and the phonebook syncing with other phones in the house) are actually quite expensive. The build quality is also second to none.
As I said, I'm not a huge fan of the Serene. It's worth the money IMO, but it's not B&O's best product. I know of somebody who used to work for Orange and now has one, he's very very happy with it (not earning that much money either, he just loved the design).
I'm not sure where people get their opinions in this thread though. B&O TVs are second to none in terms of picture, sound and design. Their newer speakers are pretty outstanding too (2001 onwards, when they introduced the BeoLab 5s, some of the best speakers ever). The CD players are pretty good, although they really do need a decent audiophile quality source here.
My B&O separates system is, as I've said, the best system I've owned in terms of sound. I've had Cyrus, Rotel (still do), Linn and some of Nad's higher end gear. The B&O beats it all in terms of sound, although it did cost a fair bit in comparison to the others, but not a huge amount more. None of the other systems work off one remote control like the B&O, none of them are built like it, none of them offer decent link systems which don't cost a stupid amount to get going and none of them look like the B&O. Most of the time when I'm listening to music, it's in the background while I'm doing schoolwork, so why have a system which looks like a science experiment gone wrong?
Some people need to go into a (good) B&O store, have a look at the latest TVs & sound systems (well, ignore the entry level speakers, they're rubbish).
