BeoLab 3's and Mac tower

34 replies
R(
Offline
Reox (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 05:40 GMT
#1836766

Hello all,

I'm thinking of buying some BeoLab 3's for use with my G5 Mac and iTunes.
Has anyone got such a set up? Any thoughts or anything I should know?

Silly question but what do the lights do when you turn the Mac off?
Do they start up when you start up the Mac or are they permanently on green?

Thanks

T(
Offline
TheMajor (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 07:09 GMT
#1836767

They have auto stand-by.

 So when you use them they will come on and after 3 minutes they will turn to red (aka standby) 

JK
Offline
jk1002
BronzeFounder
Posted March 7, 2008 at 07:40 GMT
#1836768

You might be disappointed with the sound coming out of soundcard. I was with my Imac. There are external ones though that connect through usb. I.e. from xitel.

Otherwise, the BL3 is an awesome speaker, I have it for 2 years or so.

 Cheers

Jk 

R(
Offline
Reox (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 07:57 GMT
#1836769

Thanks for the input guys. I just looked and have a built in sound card which is
a 'Burr Brown PCM3052'. Not sure if it's particularly good or bad.

 

P(
Offline
Puncher (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 08:14 GMT
#1836770
The converters in the Emu 0202 USB get really good reviews given its price of around £70. A lot of Headphone buffs use it (or its bigger brother 0404) as the converter when listening to music from computer.
S(
Offline
soundproof (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 09:11 GMT
#1836771
Puncher's advice is good. The BL3s are seriously better than the in-built sound-card that feeds the analog out ...
M(
Offline
MrDMoulton (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 09:22 GMT
#1836772
I concur with the idea that you may be disappointed with the sound quality, due to the limitations of Apple's implementation of audio.  

A couple of years ago, I installed BL4000's as external speakers for my office PowerBook, and was appalled by how poor the audio quality from the computer was, as well as how obvious it was over the 4000s.  

The setup lasted for three days.  The 4000s got moved to the guest room and now have a much happier life as part of an upmarket clock/radio/CD system.  

Best regards,
S(
Offline
soundproof (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 09:27 GMT
#1836773
I've had very good experiences bypassing the audio out from Macs using either the toslink optical out, or USB or FireWire out feeds, to stand-alone DACs and receivers that take these signals. You then connect the speakers to them. It may sound OK using the analog out from the minijack on a Mac, but when you do it right, you'll be amazed at the sound from your BL3s.
P(
Offline
Puncher (archived)
Bronze
Posted March 7, 2008 at 09:55 GMT
#1836774
The EMU is a cracking deal at the price.
Peter
Offline
Peter
Gold
Posted March 7, 2008 at 12:29 GMT
#1836775

I use Beolab 3s with my PowerMac G5 twin 2.0 admittedly via Beoport and am very happy with the sound. I imagine the sound card is rather better in the Powermac than the notebooks mentioned though obviously Soundproofs solution is the audiophile one.
 

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