Hi Beoworld!
A few years ago I purchased a Beomaster 5500 receiver that came with a bunch of Master Control Link stuff (several relay boxes and transceivers) that seems to be of the MCL82 type. I've now tried to set up a link system for another room with two passive Beovox CX50 speakers and an IR transceiver connected to a relay box (which is connected to the second speaker inputs of the Beomaster). I got the sound to work alright in the other room but the transceiver doesn't seem to be responding to any remote control signals (e.g. from the beolink 1000). It works to press the left-hand button on the transceiver to turn the sound in the other room on and off (pressing the other buttons doesn't lead to anything noticeable though) so it's not completely dead. On the other hand there's no red light or anything indicating that the transceiver is on standby to receive signals from a remote control.
Is it supposed to work to control the Beomaster 5500 through a MCL82 system using the Beolink 1000? Only the Beomaster 5000 is listed as supported in the manual but that's presumably because the 5500 had not yet been released at that time.
Gustav
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Master Control Link (82) compatible with Beomaster 5500 and Beolink 1000?
17 replies
It is my understanding that the MCL82 is only for the Beomaster 5000 or the Beocenter 7*** range. These were made before the Beolink standard that the Beolink 1000 (and all later B&O IR remotes) were built to.
I think you would need the later model MCL2a, also sold as the 'X-tra Speaker Kit', along with the compatible transceiver.
As far as I know the MCL cable you have already (with the 3-pin speaker plugs) should work with an MCL2a, so hopefully you'll be able to find one, with a transceiver, cheap on eBay. There don't appear to be any listed now but one will come up I'm sure.
Sold without an MCL cable, you should only have to pay about £20-£30 for it.
Location: Liverpool
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Thanks!
I should be able to find an MCL2a somewhere. It's just too bad that I have two MCL82 relay boxes and three transceivers that I can't use, at least not with the Beolink 1000. Do you think it could work with some other, older B&O remote, provided the Beomaster 5500 could interpret the signal?
Thanks, I've managed to buy an MCL2A (relay box +transceiver) online for a good price so will try this out when I receive it.
Noted on the volume control of the MCL2AV: I saw this in one of the MCL 2 Owner's manuals. This could be a nice feature in one of my possible linked rooms. So if I understand it correctly, I could either connect two passive speakers such as my CX50s to an MCL2AV (in which case I need to get a Beolink passive to go between) or two active ones directly to the MCL2AV? If I manage to find an MCL2AV without the transceiver, would the MCL2A transceiver that I bought also support the independent volume control?
I'm hoping to connect two rooms linked to the main room: first the one mentioned above with either the MCL2a or the MCL2AV, and then another one on the other side which may not need its own remote control ability since there's only a glass door in between which is most often open. In this case I can maybe use the old MCL82 relay box just to hook up the additional speakers (passive ones). But how do I set up this as a "star" network, i.e. splitting the MCL cable from the Beomaster in the main room and one cable going left and another right to each of the linked rooms? In the owner's manual there is mention of a "connection box" for this purpose but I can't seem to find this online. Or is there an MCL cable splitter that could be used for this purpose?
) it's much easier to set up an MCL2 system that works as you'd like than with Masterlink (ML), especially with older kit like yours. In theory the sound quality is better with ML but you'd need good ears to tell. ML has the additional advantages of volume control on the IR-eye transceivers and the option for standard CAT6/7 cabling and RJ45 plugs though. (4) MCL cable is hard to come by nowadays but there are fairly straightforward options if you're happy for something a bit less neat than real 7-core MCL cable. The 7 conductors are left speaker + and -, right speaker + and -, low-voltage trigger power, data signal, and a shield around that data signal. The trickier bit is the shielded data cable but something like about a pound a metre. The colours are all wrong of course but that's easy to figure out. This is what I've been using with the shielded data cable wound around the outside. It all functions fine and the 0.75mm2 cable carrying the amplified audio signal is pretty similar to the original MCL cable.Location: UK
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Thanks guys for all your replies, it helps a lot.
@Guy: Regarding the connection box/terminal block, could you give some more details on how this would work as I'm not that experienced in wiring? I guess one wire in and two wires out for each of the seven wires of the MCL, right? What kind of terminal block would you recommend? I've got a rather long MCL cable with the speaker plugs in one end that I connect to the Beomaster. Not sure if it's possible to cut some of this at the other end for the shorter connections. Otherwise need to find another MCL or make as suggested by speedsixdave (very good suggestions there!)
@speedsixdave & @Madskp: speedsixdave, are you saying that independent volume control wouldn't work with passive speakers connected to a MCL2AV? I got the impression from the others and also elsewhere that this would work regardless if using passive or active speakers, but I may certainly be wrong. Currently I don't have a MCL2AV, just a MCL2A (soon) that I will try first to see if works to control the Beomaster via the beolink 1000. I could also look into the Beolink converter option as suggested by Madskp.
@All: good points regarding powering the MCL 2AV. If I end up getting one I will probably get the MCL2P as well and hook up two Beovox CX50 since this would be the cheaper option compared to getting Beolab speakers.
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