The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

You
might think that you’re something special just because you’re the proud owner
of the newest smartphone that pushes all your emails through immediately,
enables you to keep in touch with all your friends worldwide and upload your
pictures to a certain social network immediately. Well, you are not. Because –
in this reviewer’s opinion – a smartphone (even the new iPhone4S) is still
nothing compared to a Bang & Olufsen home theatre or speaker set.

Bang & Olufsen means big business when it
comes to sound and vision and as soon as you step in the shop on Michel Bakhoum
Street in Dokki close to Sofra and Cortigiano. you will feel like a kid in
a sweet shop.

The
spacious shop appears a bit empty but that’s mostly because all products are
flat and compact. The collection is a bit limited but there are enough
speakers, CD players and televisions to play with. If you really get bored; go
inside the theatre room and you’ll find out soon enough what is actually meant
by the term Dolby surround sound.

In this
reviewer’s opinion, the highlight of the shop is the BeoSound 8. This is an
iPad, iPod and iPhone dock with the slickest design ever; well, not really ever
because it looks quite retro. The BeoSound is made up of two round flat
speakers with a bar in the centre to place the music source on. Though all of
this might not sound very interesting yet; it gets better because the speakers
come in different colours such as pink, purple, lime green and white. So you
can customise this baby as much as you want and it’s only for 6000LE. You might
fall off your chair because of this price but that’s peanuts compared to the
other items in this shop.

The most
expensive item available for instance is a television that will set you back
250,000LE. This money could also buy you a car. The cheapest TV costs ‘only’ 38,000LE.
The average stereo set will cost you between 25,000LE and 40,000LE. If all of
this is a bit out of your price range, then opt for the cheapest item, which is
the mp3 player for 4300LE. The player’s stylish silver shiny design will turn heads, but be
warned that it only holds 4GB memory so you can’t stock up on a lot of music.

The
sound from the speakers is immaculate and most of them are equipped
with a sensor that scans the room and adjusts the settings accordingly. In that
way, you are always guaranteed great sound. However, a few of the speakers have
quite weird designs such as the BeoLab 5 speakers, which somehow reminded this
reviewer of ET (we do have a very vivid imagination though).

The quality
of most of the TVs is terrific as well and you will feel as if you are inside
the TV and not in front of it. Though the quality of Bang & Olufsen’s
products is superb, it does come at a heftier than hefty price tag.