Should I switch from PC to Apple?

20 replies

Our system consists of three rooms connected by Masterlink. Room 1 has a BV7 MKIII, Beosound 3000, speakers and Apple TV. Room 2 has speakers with a B and O eye/puc mounted on the wall and an Avant that is not connected to the Masterlink System. Room 3 has a PC with Beolab 4000s and and Beoport. We also have an iTouch that we use to control both iTunes on the PC as well as the Apple TV. Is there any functionality we would gain by replacing the PC with a Mac, probably a Mini?  The PC works fine but since receiving the iTouch as a gift from my wife and purchasing the Apple TV and seeing how well Apple works, I am looking for an excuse to buy a Mac.

Also, we have a Beosound 1 in our bedroom and an unused set of Beolab 4000s. Ca I use Airport Express to connect the sytem to these and if so would it be easier with a Mac than with the current PC? 

Thanks!

Airport Express would work the same way on a mac and on a PC. So you'll have to find anothr excuse ;-)

But do you really need an excuse?

No, you are correct, I do not really need an excuse. I did think of another question. I am using Beoport and Masterlink to distribute N.Music/iTunes through the various rooms. This works but in order to use iTunes I must press N. Music then Stop on the Beo 4 and then can use the iTouch to control the iTunes.

If I switched to a Mac, am I correct I would still use the Beoport box but would need to download and install the program from Ostrund?

Also, with that program and Beoport would I still need to start N.Music and Stop it or would pressing N. Music take me directly to iTunes without activating Beoplayer?

Thanks!

 

N.Music will take you right there! I am using a Mac Mini with Beoport (BS 3000 as audio master).

Best regards

Ralf

My B&O Icons:

BeoCenter-9500.png BeoCenter-9500.png
Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovision-11.png Beovision-11.png
Beosound.png Beosound.png
Beoplay-V1.png Beoplay-V1.png
Beoplay-H95.png Beoplay-H95.png
Beoplay-E8.png Beoplay-E8.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png
Living Room: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-2 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 8000 (Rears), Screen: Sony KD-85XH9096
Home Cinema: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-4 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 4000 (Rears). Projector: Sony VPL-HW55
Home Office: BeoVision 11-46, 4 x Beolab 3, BeoCenter 9300 (BLC 1611/ML/NL)
Bedroom: Sony KD-65XH9077, Beosound Essence MK II with Beolab 6002 and Beolab 11 (all white, wall-mounted)
Dart Room: BeoPlay V1-40 on floor stand
Guest Room: BeoVision 7-40 MK IV, Beolab 7-2, BeoSound Ouverture

For sure you need to set the programs to start at start-up.

Ralf

My B&O Icons:

BeoCenter-9500.png BeoCenter-9500.png
Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovision-11.png Beovision-11.png
Beosound.png Beosound.png
Beoplay-V1.png Beoplay-V1.png
Beoplay-H95.png Beoplay-H95.png
Beoplay-E8.png Beoplay-E8.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png
Living Room: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-2 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 8000 (Rears), Screen: Sony KD-85XH9096
Home Cinema: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-4 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 4000 (Rears). Projector: Sony VPL-HW55
Home Office: BeoVision 11-46, 4 x Beolab 3, BeoCenter 9300 (BLC 1611/ML/NL)
Bedroom: Sony KD-65XH9077, Beosound Essence MK II with Beolab 6002 and Beolab 11 (all white, wall-mounted)
Dart Room: BeoPlay V1-40 on floor stand
Guest Room: BeoVision 7-40 MK IV, Beolab 7-2, BeoSound Ouverture

Sounds like you have a great set-up so I would encourage you to take the step.

I recently bought a Macbook - the first Apple "pc" in our house, and I have been experimenting on the best ways to connect and use it.

In my wintel pc days I started using Beoplayer, then bought a Beoport, and then switched to mainly using iTunes (the old Beoworld contained tales of some of those adventures) - I liked iTunes because I could create cover art for CDs for my wife's car and also because it inetgrated with Last.FM (see my signature block) something I could never get BeoPort/Player to do.

I am using the BM-link software with the BeoPort and either a Beo4 or an Apple Remote.

With both I can use Front Row (but I have not got the Beo4 to fast scroll) -- but I have found my collection is too big for ease of use with Front Row's interface (or my metadata (iTunes tags) is too mixed up).  However Front Row's cover art is nice to have going in the background when we have visitors.

As an aside I have been trialing TuneUp to see if that will improve the metadata including all my blank cover art.

I find the Beo4 manipulation of iTunes difficult and for this reason I would favour a Macmini with a wireless mouse and keyboard over an Apple TV - again this difficulty may be how my collection is (dis)organised but I did find ticking OFF the "group albums by artist" to be useful.

While my explorations are not complete these are some early findings:

1/ I suspect I will not get an AppleTV because I do value integration with Last.FM

2/ I do MISS the B&O announcer's voice in the link rooms - she disappears when using BM-link and Apple

3/ As others have stated elsewhere you also loose the ability to receive ML transmissions i.e. the BM-link software is one-way

If the Beosound 1 has an AUX.IN then you should be able to make use of an Airport Express - but I suspect it will make no difference if the iTunes source is on Apple or on a wintel.

Not sure about the Beolab 4000s - for them I suspect the B&O Wireless approach may be the best/safest approach; but I did find a very interesting article under

Subsequently to the first post I found instructions in the Scandinavien thread on how to do the translation so here are those two posts almost perfectly translated


I am a high school who spent a significant portion of savings in the following set-up:

MacBook with iTunes to wirelessly send music to Airport Express Station, which sends the music through the mini-jack-RCA cable for my two Beolab 4000 that hangs on the wall.

Thus, my wireless music system complete and sole control is required is on the computer. I myself think it is quite excellent.

However, there is a problem ..!

Højtalerene is extremely sensitive to the signal and I therefore have to screw down the equalizer in iTunes. That in itself is not a source of major irritation, but: The sensitivity of højtalerene do that from time to time (45min - 1.5 hour intervals), switch on and off quickly.

I know this only happens if indgangsignaleret is weak and very briefly.

My question is: How can this problem be solved? I have considered whether it is possible to buy a mini-jack-resistance, which would dampen the signal without compromising the sound.


In advance, thanks.

/Thomas


Hello Thomas

Jeg havde det samme problem.
I had the same problem.

Det blev løst ved at få lavet et adapter kabel hos min B&O forhandler.
It was solved by getting into an adapter cable from my B & O dealer.

Det ser sådan ud.
It looks like this.

Efter dette kabel blev tilsluttet blev volumen nem at styre. Hvis ikke BeoLab 4000 modtager et lydsignal i et stykke tid går de i standby, det kan der kun laves om på, ved at få justeret eller fjernet det relæ som findes i højttalerne.

After the cable was connected to the volume easy to manage. Unless BeoLab 4000 receives an audio signal in a while go in standby, it can only be turned on by getting adjusted or removed the relay which is in the speakers.

Good luck !

elephant wrote:

3/ As others have stated elsewhere you also loose the ability to receive ML transmissions i.e. the BM-link software is one-way

 

Could you elaborate on this? I do not understand. What functionality would I lose?  Thanks!

Razlaw wrote:

If I switched to a Mac, am I correct I would still use the Beoport box but would need to download and install the program from Ostrund?

Yes, the software controls iTunes on you mac, so you will not have to press stop, you can control iTunes from your Beo4 (like you could control Beoport on a PC). But you can also control it with the iPod.

BMLink can sometime "lock" your ML network and nothing works on the whole ML until you turn the Beolink PC2 thing off and on again. This happen sometimes when you plug/unplug the USB socket.

A good point is that the song title info that is send over ML to your Hifi is more complete than Beoport.

 

Razlaw wrote:

elephant wrote:

3/ As others have stated elsewhere you also loose the ability to receive ML transmissions i.e. the BM-link software is one-way

 

Could you elaborate on this? I do not understand. What functionality would I lose?  Thanks!

To be absolutely sure I performed a test and will "draw" the basic set-up:

 

BeoLab 3s === BeoPort === MasterLink === BeoSound 4

 

The BeoPort connects to either a Compaq latptop (windows) or Apple Macbook by the USB and minijack connections.

With the Windows BeoPlayer/BeoPort software you can add from the MasterLink sources that exist OUTSIDE of the PC. For this I just added A.MEM (the SD card in the BS4), Radio (BS4) and CD (BS4) to the existing Net.Radio, Net.Music, Photo, PC CD and PC sources. (8 appears to be the limit)

So with Windows BeoPlayer/BeoPort software I can with the mouse or with the Beo4 select CD and play my BS4's CD through the BeoLabs (or the BS4's Radio or its SD Card).  If I press PC CD then of course I play the CD in the DVD drive of the laptop.

If however I swap out the Compag and put in the Apple then I no longer have any BeoPlayer/BeoPort software, all I have is the BM-Link that connects iTunes to the B&O World (plus other Mac applications that emit sounds).

Note there is no real user interface anymore - nothing like the BeoPlayer - all you get is the configuration utility described on http://www.odlund.se/bmlink/documentation/pages/software.html

The interface that BM-Link provides for control of speakers (on/off, mute, and volume) is shown in the screen capture below.

Because there is no BeoPlayer/BeoPort software on the Apple I do not get the lady announcing "Connecting" in my link rooms.

Nor do I get access to the audio coming from my BeoSound 4 audio master: no CD, no Radio, no SD Card ... unless I remove the BeoLab 3s from the BeoPort and attach them to an Active box or to a B&O Wireless box.

screenshot of BM-Link speaker controls

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