BL17 vs BL3 vs BS-Balance vs Level VS Edge

[Sia43]

Do you know of any professional comparison made between these Beolabs like in a hifi  magazine or similar?

Do you possibly own  pair of BS-Balance or BS-Edge speakers and could share your  experience?

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

I have both.

I use the BL3’s as rear home theatre speakers and the 17’s as stereo music speakers.

BL3 vs BL17 aren’t even if the same league. The 17’s will destroy the 3’s in every way.

The 3’s are good but don’t have much impact or bass. The 17’s have much more bass and punch.

How were you planning on using them?

[Sia43]

I would like to use a pair for listening to music. I have a pair of BS-levels (+ a BL11) and a pair of BS- Emerges i two different rather small-ish rooms and thinking of  BL-3 or 17s or maybe  a pair of BL-Balance for a medium size room (<50 sqm). I have listened to Balance and like the sound but am not a fan of their looks.

I like the sound separation capability of BS-level (and to lesser degree the Emerge) but although they sound nice and clear, they are not made for bigger rooms.

Larger floor based Beolabs are not an option. I neither like their looks , the space they require or their prices.

 

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

The BL3’s could be fine IF you add a subwoofer.

The 17’s can be ok on their own depending on your taste. For music the bass should be enough.

[beojeff]

I was really surprised by how much better the BL3 pair sounded when adding a BL2 subwoofer. They sounded like a completely different speaker. Also, the Bl2 and BL3 look great together.

[Sia43]

Thanks everyone for your comments.
Generally, I listen to classic music, jazz and some older music from 60-70s. What I really appreciate is not how loud the speakers are or how punchy bass they can deliver. What I do care for is clarity of the sound and the ability to separate different instruments and voices. BS-Level does that while they are not suitable for larger rooms.
Maybe I should just forget about the look of BS-balance and get a pair after all or wait for what will come next!

[LeMirage]

I also use a pair of Levels for music and alway wondered how they compare vs a set of 17’s. Really like the look of the brass version of the 17, but they are very hard to find…. Would prefer them with a Core and Halo for control.
Any experience here for a set of Level vs BL17??

[Sia43]

I would also love to hear about any experience with a paired set of BS-Edges!

[SimonWeir]

As an owner of 3 sets of BL17, I am a big advocate for these often dismissed/overlooked speakers, plus I prefer them to BL18, even though the BL18s outsold the BL17 10 to 1.

BL17 are so tuneful, plus are so accurate, but also versatile, especially for their size.  You can use them for any music or role in a movie surround setup, and they never get close to what they can manage.  Also the build quality is impressive… they are heavy beefy units.

For their size they punch well above their weight.

I use four (2 x FL + 2x FR) for music with a BL19 and would say I prefer this for music than my Beosound Theatre.

I have tried a pair of BL17 in a direct sound comparison with a pair of Levels and a pair of Balance.  To my ears the BL17 sit above the Level and below the Balance in capability and sound quality… but the Balance looks hideous on the wall and the Level’s weakness is the wall mount with power connector is not a strong physical connection to the wall; plus they can distort when played hard.

I can see the Level becoming the new choice for surround speakers (because of cost, size and frankly there is nothing new else out there) but remember you get what you pay for and BL17 are close to 1.5 x the cost of a pair of Levels.  Just look at the specs, their is no comparison… the BL17 are a true BeoLab speaker and the Level is a portable speaker.

Level:
2 x 4” woofer drivers 1 x 2” full range drivers 2 x 0.8” tweeter
2 × 30 W class D for woofer 1 × 30 W class D for full range 1 × 15 W class D for tweeter
39 – 23000 Hz
Maximum Sound Pressure Level @1m 96 dB SPL
Bass Capability 79 dB SPL

 

Beolab 17:
1 x 3/4″ tweeter 1 x 6″ woofer High frequency driver: ¾” dome drivers with off-set placement 1 x 160 watt class D tweeter 1 x 160 watt class D woofer
31 – 24,000 Hz
Maximum Loudness @1m (SPL) 106 dB SPL
Bass Capability 90 dB SPL

 

Balance:

2 x 5,25” woofer drivers 2 x 3” fullrange drivers 2 x 2” full range drivers 1 x ¾” tweeter
2 x 200 watt class D for bass 2ohm 2 x 100 watt class D for fullrange 4ohm 2 x 100 watt class D for fullrange 4ohm 1 x 50 watt class D for tweeters 6ohm
26 – 23,000 Hz
Maximum Sound Pressure Level @1m 104 dB SPL

Bass Capability 88 dB SPL

[steve1977]

@SimonWeir, this reads like a very nice speaker combo. What TV or otherwise do you have the BL17 connected with? Do you just use them for movies or also for music?

[SimonWeir]

I have just changed 6 days ago my Gen 2 Eclipse 55” to a Beosound Theatre on a motorised wall bracket with a LG G2 65” screen.  Movies are my thing with Music secondary.

Everything is run through the TV i.e. music is via an Apple TV 4K using either Apple Music or Amazon Music or YouTube Music (I subscribe to everything!).

To my ears Apple Music on the ATV like for like track/sampling rate etc sounds better than Amazon Music.  Also if you search for a specific track in Apple Music and click to see the sampling rate select the best rate… to my ears when I listen to all versions of Fleetwood Max Everywhere (there are many recordings to stream) you can hear subtle differences through the BL17.

I do not use the apps on the TV.  Also have a Sky Q on UHD 10bit, and a Panasonic UHD Blu-ray… I still buy the 4K disc for those films I except to be epic eg Tenet, Topgun Maverick (waiting for release in the UK in November) and stream from Netflix and Amazon Prime, Disney, Paramount those which I think are a 1 time watch.

[Sia43]

Thanks Simon for your comment. It seems like most people only have good experience with BL17s and I will try to find a pair to carefully listen to although it will most likely become difficult as they have been discontinued for some time now.

Before I bought my Levels, I listened to a single BS-Level and a single BS-Balance and although Balance does have a bigger sound and able to convert more watts to waves (800 compared to 120), I would say that I like Level’s sound image better, which provides better separation and higher clarity while the bass produced by the BS-Balance is domineering and blurs out mid-range signals, in my opinion. I’m however not sure how they would compare in pairs but I must say that I’m happy with my BS-levels and addition of BL11, which compensates for the weaker BS-levle’s bass register. However, I’m trying to find a pair of speakers for a bigger room.

I have also done some careful listening to the theater and also it is a very capable speaker and has loads of possibilities, I beleive it needs ot be acompanied by several other speakers in order to provide a good listening sound image, which will become very expensive.

BS-Edge on the other hand seem to have both the power and the drivers to provide a big and clear sound image (despite its awkwardness in placement and lack of dynamic room adaptation processor).

[SimonWeir]

I listened to the Edge and it only sounds great when positioned out.  I thought it lacking when positioned against the wall.  It is a big unit! so impractical for most people unless you have a mighty loft space or open plan room.  At the same time I tried an A9, which was well an truly beaten by the Edge in my blind back to back audition.

I considered the Edge for my Study, but I have decided on a small Shape setup.  I just have a bias against single speakers, and I cannot get past the need for 2 units for the stereo sound staging.  For example I have currently in my Study 2 x A1 Gen1 and these are much better than in the same room a single Echo Studio.

I also considered a Level for the Study and a Balance but the room is not big enough plus I go back to needing for my ears a pair of units so a Shape will be my next purchase.

Re the Shape, I also considered adding a Shape to my Lounge speaker setup because a large Shape setup or multiple smaller setups would be amazing in capability and sheer beauty of what is attached to the wall over in my opinion BL17 or BL28 and I suspect cheaper!

[LeMirage]

Thank you Simon and others!

Next to my two Levels I also have a brass Beosound Edge in the same room as written in my “bought an Edge” topic.

I use both my Level Stereo pair and Edge alternately depending on music type and more important volume (time of the day, neighbours etc) . The true stereo effect of 2 paired Levels is a big plus but like written above they really do distort at higher volume levels. The Edge alone also sounds much fuller with much deeper bass obviously.
Like written on my Edge topic I feel there is a general misconception about placement of the Edge. Mine is placed is near the wall and it sounds gorgeous. Simon, when you listened to the Edge did they configure beam control right? Difference when placed near a wall between setting back drivers On and Off is absolutely HUGE! With the back drivers off it sure sounds much thinner then it should considering it’s size. And I am 100 percent sure there are some people in this B&O world out there who got an Edge demo at the dealer with a perhaps ignorant sales assistent or intern with just the two back drivers switched on in beam control setting and ran away 🙂

Edge is still one of the most underrated speakers, even our beloved John prefers it above A9 in his review!

For me the whole “two separate listening areas” with the Edge was a terrible marketing mistake! But they needed to do that to separate it from the A9, only the Active Bass port sure wasn’t enough to justify the launch of the product and price difference.
Marketing people figured out: One intense area (at the side of the big bass driver) and one for easy listening at the opposite side with just midrange and tweeter. Now who is gonna do that?!  Nobody! Problem is this marketing story scares off people buying an Edge, and it’s a shame!

Think of the latest MK A9, the rear drivers where added for one reason, to create a much more room filling sound using the wall reflection , nobody has an A9 in the middle of the room….

So much reviewers did not “understand” the Edge, it’s just a more powerful A9 with different (better…) looks and deeper bass. Simple as that.

ok enough about the Edge now 🙂

I did consider the Balance in stereo pair to compensate the bass and volume shortage of the Level but still using Mozart (like it!). I remember there was however an issue with the Balances. In stereo pair only the straight ahead sound profile was possible and not the 360 mode resulting in the fact 2 Levels sound actually better in stereo then Balance. Any info on this??

 

 

 

 

[Sia43]

Thank you LeMirage for sharing your experience.

I find your comment about the BS-Edge very interesting and as I have mentioned in another post, I did consider to buy a pair myself but rejected the idea as I felt a pair of properly positioned BS-Edges would take too much space and also expose the speaker for possible accidents.

I also confirm what you wrote about paired BS-Balance. In my opinion, the bass takes too much of the signal register and you go missing som nice mid-range details.

Back to BS-Edge, unfortunately I couldn’t listen to a paired BS-Edge setting. Have you?

For know, and from my experience while listening to one BS-Edge, it probabaly is the most intersting speaker for the application I’m thinking of (if I rest the problem with palcement aside). I will try to listen to it paired. After all they are quite pricy and will most likely be discontinued soon and given that they are not Mozart based, no future updates can be expected, so it is a bit risky.

 

[LeMirage]

This is getting slightly out of topic but any real active topic on this small cosy forum is a good one right 😉

All knowledge shared here usually comes back to one elemental question, what B&O gear sounds better!

regarding your question, no I did not listen to an Edge in stereo myself. Getting an extra one would be possible in our living but it would be sure as hell pushing the limits it looking at size and decibels versus square meters! Before buying the Edge I watched all the video’s on youtube about it and in the comments some people stated using Edge in stereo and it should sound epic…just like A9 (John tested A9 in stereo and commented on it somewhere in one of his own video’s)

For me Edge is very lonely at the top design wise, I think it’s the best looking speaker compared to all the other Beolab and Beosound material. (The brass one, with Parisian Night Blue cover).

I have absolutely no experience with Google home, that’s needed for pairing Edges. But is bluetooth used for pairing,  wifi? And for example can you control a google home paired B&O stereo pair with the Halo, essence remote? Any limitations ?  I really dont know.

 

For me the Edge with Mozart upgrade and native stereo pairing would be a dream.
So B&O wants to do sustainable, start a Mozart upgrade program for Stage, Edge, A9 please!

[trackbeo]

Sia43 wrote:

I have a pair of BS-levels (+ a BL11) and…

Sia43 wrote:

…I’m happy with my BS-levels and addition of BL11, which compensates for the weaker BS-levle’s bass register.

How are you connecting the BL11 to a source with two Levels, in sync?

[Sia43]

Trackebo they are not in sync.

The BL-11 is connected through Beolink active and then NL/ML. The delay that I can hear is barely there and I’m looking for a ML-delay box, but for now I’m happy with the setup.

 

[Stan]

I have a stereo pair of Balances that I listen to daily.  I really like them, and think the stereo pair sounds so much better (more than 2x) than a single.  I also much prefer them to the Level.  I’m not a “bass head”, but find the well controlled bass of the Balance tremendous.  I don’t know why one would want to run a stereo pair in omni mode.  This seems to defeat the purpose of stereo pairing – just run them individually if you want Omni mode.  I also don’t think the mids are washed out, but we all hear differently.

I have no experience with the Bl17s

[steve1977]

This thread gets me intrigued about the BL17.

Would it be possible to hang or mount it close to the ceiling. I am thinking to use them as rear speakers for a BV Horizon. And then I could pay music directly to them.

Any experience on hanging / mounting them close to ceiling? Thanks!

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