I recnetly tried out and was blown away with 2XA9 MK2 where I connected one side to be left and the other right from my TV. The 2X A9 connected to my Sony TV easily outperforms  pair of BL 8000 + BL2 by a huge margin.

I own BL 8000, 6000 (both with BL 2s for bass)  and  a pair of A9 and find the A9 to be the best speaker of the lot - whether on its own or as a pair.

Jaffray, re: your 2XA9s. Cool idea. I assume the connection is wired to/from l & r channels on your TV, yes? What cable do you use?

Have you tried to group the two together as a wireless stereo pair? I understand that Apple now allows this for, e.g., HomePod pairs, using AirPlay 2.

Hi

Welcome to the forum.

1. Being that the A9 is in its' fourth iteration i doubt it will be gone any time soon.  The A9 is pretty rock solid and it's the best bang for buck speaker in the range, i would be more concerned with how it sounds and how easy it is to integrate in to my setup versus if it would be gone any time soon.  I appreciate your concern, but if we wait for what's around the corner, we can always continue to wait.  If you feel the design is dated, there is your answer.  It's quite iconic to me though. 

2.  Yes you can put the BS2 in to a speaker group on the app for music (ie playing the same source at the same time either in the same room or in a different room), and as a side line, if you connect to a B&O TV, there is a menu item on a B&O TV also called speaker group that is however just for WISA speakers and not NL speakers.  But i'm thinking that you're considering connecting these to a Samsung, LG or Sony, etc?  If so, then why not try what the other poster has written and put one left channel in to the one of the BS2 and the other in to the other.  The things you would have to consider is, does the BS2 have line sense? Ie if it gets a signal it turns on from stand by and then starts playing and if you're connecting it out of the headphone socket of your TV, can you regulate the volume via the headphone socket on your TV?  Just some considerations. 

The A9s foot print isn't that much larger than that of a robot (miele) vacuum. 

I reckon, go with an A9, put it in the corner, and when the B&O soundbar comes out in the near future, go for that for your TV.  Or get a bigger place and go for the 90s ;-) 

Cheers

M 

 

 

Thank you for your input! I have not tried A9s in stereo but will give that a shot. The only problem I have with that is space restrictions in my home. I can sort of make do with 2 BS2s but most likely on a single a9 if I were to go down that route. I'm sure they sound awesome and will definitely consider the a9, as you recommended, even by itself!

... or maybe I'll get rid of my bed to make space for the 2 😁

BeoFrederic wrote:

Jaffray, re: your 2XA9s. Cool idea. I assume the connection is wired to/from l & r channels on your TV, yes? What cable do you use?

Have you tried to group the two together as a wireless stereo pair? I understand that Apple now allows this for, e.g., HomePod pairs, using AirPlay 2.

I'd also be interested, as BeoFrederic mentioned, how you would stereo pair them wirelessly to the TV as that will be optimal. Saves me all the trouble to cable manage BUT, and a big but, I will be sacrificing sound fidelity which I feel uneasy about...

Aussie Michael wrote:

2.  Yes you can put the BS2 in to a speaker group on the app for music (ie playing the same source at the same time either in the same room or in a different room), and as a side line, if you connect to a B&O TV, there is a menu item on a B&O TV also called speaker group that is however just for WISA speakers and not NL speakers.  But i'm thinking that you're considering connecting these to a Samsung, LG or Sony, etc?  If so, then why not try what the other poster has written and put one left channel in to the one of the BS2 and the other in to the other.  The things you would have to consider is, does the BS2 have line sense? Ie if it gets a signal it turns on from stand by and then starts playing and if you're connecting it out of the headphone socket of your TV, can you regulate the volume via the headphone socket on your TV?  Just some considerations. 

I am planning to connect it to a Samsung "The Frame" I have in the bedroom (booo I know 😮) but from preliminary research, it seems the only wireless option I can use is bluetooth which is definitely not optimal. I'm going to ask my dealer to see what he has to say as well. If I go with the BS2s and cannot cable both to the TV, I will only be getting sound from one of them which is definitely not giving me what I paid for so that may not be an option altogether...

I'm leaning a bit towards the A9, as you recommended, but should probably have it in my space again to see if it fits as the corner is quite small, to be honest. So in the case that the space is just small, I might have to find a way to connect the second or both of the BS2s wirelessly or (cable manage) to the Samsung TV.

 

One more thing I'm wondering:

Is there a way to wirelessly stream from a turntable (after the Phono pre-amp that is) to the speakers in a wireless fashion? I really want to have the turntable as a wireless source, at least for the time being, before I move as there is simply no way to connect with wires between the turntable and speaker as the speaker is besides the couch and the turntable is closer to the front with the TV. I recognize that it is, in a way, the wrong way to go about it without wiring the turntable directly to the speakers for the highest quality of sound but for the current space, I don't want to do too much with cabling as I think I'm moving soon.

 

Anyway, thank you Michael for your input and I'll sure consider moving so I can fit the 90s 😁

Having an A9 offset to the side of the TV, but using it for TV sound is a slightly odd experience to me.

In my bedroom, I have a B&O TV wall mounted, and an A9 off to the side 1.5m away.

I dont really use the A9 for TV audio, as the TV itself it more than good enough.

But on the odd occasion I've tried it, the soundstage (such as it is) coming from the A9 at the side seems misplaced vs the image coming from directly in front of me.

I'd personally get an LG OLED (this years model), which are WISA capable for the first time, and a pair of BeloLab 17's, which are also WISA capable.

The 17's are by all accounts the most under-rated (not any more perhaps) speaker B&O have made in recent years.

You can Airplay music to the new LG OLEDs too, as that's also a new feature of this years TVs from a few brands.

 

kornelius wrote:

Anyway, what do you all think? Single A9 at the corner, single unit but somewhat stereo-like playback, or try to fit the 2 BS2s and find a way to reroute cables to the TV without causing too much mess if that's even possible?

I owned a MK 1 A9 for many years - said on this forum how much I rated it. Sold it recently to buy a more portable BeoSound 2. Although the BS2 is decent, the A9 completely blows it away on so many levels. The clarity is immense and it really shakes the room. Unless portability is your priority (it's far easier to move a BS2), then go for the A9 every single time.

Not sure I'd bother with the MK4 either. I've seen a new MK2 for 50% of the original price and many discounted MK3's.

I haven’t tried AirPlay 2 wireless. Although, I can do it using an AirPort Express (with the AirPlay 2 firmware). For cables, there might be a better option but I just used a stereo to RCA cable. I just plugged the left to one A9 and right to the other A9. The A9s are on line to work this way. Interestingly, now I can connect to the A9 in stereo mode using the Airport Express (or TV’s headphone jack), or can AirPlay into each A9 which I labeled as A9 left and A9 right on the B&O App.

I just did an A-B test compared to a BL 8000 + BL 2 as a result of being able to AirPlay from Apple TV to the A9 and the TV outputting to the BL speakers. First, there was no audio synch issue  across all speakers (So kudos to AirPlay and Apple TV), but the sound on the A9 is so much more punchy and wider than the BL 8000. Not even close...