Hi,

The fluid sweet spot requires Ultra Wide-band connectivity which I don't think was available when Beolab 28 was developed.

Kind regards, Steve.

Does anyone have information if we can use the Level in near future to use in a surround sound configuration?

And what about the so called upgradeable hardware in the BL 28 that was supposed to future proof it when new wireless tech came along? :)

In reality I think this is a gimmick more useful for  a single pair in a smaller appartement where you move around from kitchen to sitting area.

The BS TH offloads processing from the BL 28's anyway if I'm correct?

A calibration done through the BS TH sounds completely different from a room sense calibration of the BL 28 directly. Even more so when you throw the BL 19 into that mix.

I also wonder what the true benefit of an additional set of BL 8 is opposed to a pair of BL17 when all sound profiles are coded in the BS TH...

At this point I'm not sure what the best setup would be when you start with BS TH + BL 28 + BL 19 (BL28 is setup as surround atm)

Any experience in how the BS TH handles the BL 20 sound output?

 

Many thoughts and questions :D

all the best

As someone who has a 65 G3 Theatre with 6 x BL17s and a BL19, whilst imo the BL8 are a natural successor to my BL17 they are too much money for me to swap out my 3 sets of BL17s for what I will get in return.  As arguably the swap will be governed by the law of decreasing returns in what new sound detail, clarity, emotion I hear and feel.

Were I starting again Yes, highly likely I would not get a BL19 and buy a set of BL28 and 2 other sets of BL8s with the Theatre.  But the price gap is too wide.  Especially with the recent increase to the Theatre.  I am just glad I was an early adopter almost 1 year ago.  I will say my best decision was changing the G2 to a G3, it did cost me £2,300 to part exchange back with my dealer but imo worth it when the G3 was released.

My concern and rhetorical question is B&O leadership forgetting their own marketing… the cleverness of the Theatre to bring alive older BeoLabs was a big selling point, as well as sharing the bass across all speakers.

I suspect many existing customers were hoping for Atmos speakers for the height channels with the same specs as the Theatre as the up and side firing in the sound bar are good just not BeoLab good; and these BL8 are on the tech specs too good and too pricy for the occasional sound of church bells in James Bond.  [side note the clip played in the dealers & on the YouTube video above is not an Atmos track, the bullets do not come from the correct location because it is a 5.1 DD track… check the dealerships app next time you demo any of their clips, it will not say Atmos… it sounds much more expansive when the same clip is played off Apple TV or UHD Blu-ray with the same setup).

Last thought… I am not an UHNW target market customer, but I do sit in the Top 3% on salary in the UK, and I have spent close to £50k in 8 years with my dealer being an early adopter or put it another way spending £500 a month every month for the previous 84 months!  Explain that to your family, £500 a month is on par with average car payments or interest only mortgage payments before inflation.  It grieves me as a customer who has upgraded from an Avant to Eclipse Gen1 to Eclipse Gen2 to Theatre.  But with the BL8s sorry B&O leadership whilst your designers are on fire with outstanding speakers you have imo missed the mark on the feedback provided from customers like me who cannot justify to keep on upgrading when something new is released when what I have is damn fine!  Plus my wife would say since moving to B&O TVs we have had 4 sets in 8 years two broke (red screen) and the Pioneer Kuro plasma we had before lasted 10 years.

So how will the touch panels on the BL8 work if it is hooked up to a system like the theatre.  Will hitting PLAY cause the whole 5.1 system to play (hopefully) or will the 2 BL8 speakers just play independently (God I hope not)?

link

link

Nice little speaker. It seems that the ‘Bang & Olufsen’ logo is lit when turned on. Like it!

Could it be a render error? In any event, I would hope that in configuration this could be disabled. Call me a fossil, if you will, but I loved the old green light/red light signifiers.

Beolab 8’s beam width control lets you switch seamlessly between two listening experiences. Narrow down with precision audio channelled directly to you. Or go wide and diffuse sound throughout your space. Which mode is it in? The LEDs on the front will enlighten you." So it's not a rendering error and I 100% doubt you can turn off the lights as it's a UX feature.

Can anyone provide an explanation for how the "beam width control" actually controls the beam width on the Beolab8? I understand what the feature is supposed to be. I understand how this feature is supposed to work on B&O speakers with mechanical baffles. It is not clear to me how B&O would accomplish this with a seemingly standard 3-way configuration.

Glitch

 

What is going on with the total lack of Airplay 2 and Chromecast? That's a total pass for me without it.