Don't much care for Home Cinema or even 2.1, but I can say without a doubt that the Lab 5 and Penta are at least the top two in the music category for the active line, followed by the Lab 9. Some would flip-flop the latter 2 I'm sure, though another member on here once said that the Penta gets you as close as possible to the Lab 5 sound for 20,000.00 less. Having both and having severely underestimated that the Penta was any good, I'd have to agree. The MS150 passives are probably up there near the top as well.

As far as cost, between those four you pretty much have every possible cost strata covered. Pentas can be as low as a few hundred dollars if you're willing to put in some work, and Lab 5s of course are 10-15k used or 20k or so new, in US dollar terms, anyway.

Hi there. 

I have lab 9 and lab 6000 in my tv room.

the lab 9 is excellent for TV but no good for audio as they cannot handle loud volume. I played will-I-am #thatpower and it turns the speakers down as they cannot handle loud dance music.

i had some lab 12's but found them to bright and not enough power.

i have never had lab5's but I imagine they would be the only speakers that could handle my music taste. 

Veermer wrote:

For example, the "Top three" for stereo music, the top 3 for 2.1 and the top 3 for Home cinema (5.1). Please, consider the price besides the quality in your opinions.

Having owned just about every speaker combination over the last 10 years, I'd go with:

Stereo music - BL3/BL11
2.1 - BL7.4/BL9s

Never had a 5.1 setup, sadly, but BL14s would be a great choice? Or BL9s as fronts, BL3s as rears?

The BL5s are superb, but incredibly hard to calibrate properly. I could never get them right on my wooden-floored, sash-windowed home. 

Thank you very much for the answers. And the best to complete a BV10 46 as "all in one" solution?

Seanie_230 wrote:

i have never had lab5's but I imagine they would be the only speakers that could handle my music taste. 

OK, I've got to ask based on the sentence above, what are you listening to?

D

moxxey wrote:

Veermer wrote:

For example, the "Top three" for stereo music, the top 3 for 2.1 and the top 3 for Home cinema (5.1). Please, consider the price besides the quality in your opinions.

Having owned just about every speaker combination over the last 10 years, I'd go with:

Stereo music - BL3/BL11
2.1 - BL7.4/BL9s

Never had a 5.1 setup, sadly, but BL14s would be a great choice? Or BL9s as fronts, BL3s as rears?

The BL5s are superb, but incredibly hard to calibrate properly. I could never get them right on my wooden-floored, sash-windowed home. 

 

I have a small room with a very tall ceiling and it's carpeted and full of bookshelves and oblique angles from the architecture of the building, which killed the bass on the BL1s. Ironically, after I allow the BL5s to self-calibrate I find there's actually a little *too much* bass, so I guess the calibration just can't accomodate for everything. No huge deal though, I just notched the bass control on my BM to -1.

I'll be a little sad when the 5s go, but the truth is they're not by any stretch 15-20 grand more speaker than a lot of the others in the lineup. They're still the best in my view, but there's no where near the amount of difference the price and spec sheet would lead one to believe.

For stereo music, I would say without doubt:

1 - Beolab 5

2 - Beovox MS150

3 - Beolab Penta

I can't really comment on the 2.1 or 5.1 systems as B&O do not currently make a subwoofer I would give house room to, and I've not heard a Beovox Cona!

Despite being a Penta owner and lover, I would not put Pentas that high. The MS150s certainly outperfrom them as do M100s. This is due to the bass detail which is lacking in the Pentas. They are however very easy to listen to , having no wearing treble bias and also don't distort as much at the top end. I find all ALT speakers quite tiring though my experience of BL5s is limited but when I have listened to them, they are simply in another league. The ability for them to disappear sonically is unmatched and the detail of the bass often means one listens far louder than one would usually do.

Peter wrote:

Despite being a Penta owner and lover, I would not put Pentas that high. The MS150s certainly outperfrom them as do M100s. This is due to the bass detail which is lacking in the Pentas. They are however very easy to listen to , having no wearing treble bias and also don't distort as much at the top end. I find all ALT speakers quite tiring though my experience of BL5s is limited but when I have listened to them, they are simply in another league. The ability for them to disappear sonically is unmatched and the detail of the bass often means one listens far louder than one would usually do.

I've noticed your comments about the Pentas having a "bass bulge" up high or something before and, at one point, I agreed. In fact, when I had them here I had the loudness control active and the bass control on the speaker at its lowest setting. After setting them up in another location with cement floors and a fairly simple room however, I found they really came alive in a dramatic way. So much so that I could deactivate the loudness control on the 9500 and set the bass control on the speaker to the middle position. They now please me every bit as much as the 5s do and provide far more bang for the dollar than the 5s in their given price category (since the OP mentioned comparing and contrasting based on cost not just performance).

Pentas are the one B&O product that has most dramatically changed my position on a product since I began messing with B&O. I initially found them hideous looking and rather silly, and seeing the driver layout and hearing comments about the bass problems and their being "outdated" due to the lack of ABL, wrote them off as a product that probably wasn't even worth my time. Then I ended up with that basically new pair by happenstance when I picked up a BS9000 and gave them a shot. I was obviously very very wrong about them. So I have no problem confidently putting them in my top 3. Though I have not auditioned MS150s. If I were going to go the MS150 route though, I'd probably get JBL XPL-200s instead, which are far more common and typically have already been refoamed over here.