So encouraged by feedback on Beoworld about the Beolab 3s, I finally sprung for a used pair from MoreThanAV. My gf and I took a trip out there last week, they're a couple of minutes from Gatwick, and it was a really enjoyable experience.
They're in a warehouse a little off the beaten track, and it's a wonderland. Half a dozen Beolab 5s dotted around the place ("Daleks!"), Ian's dad made us a cup of tea, and then it was down to a quick listen.
Sure enough, the Beolab 3's are as amazing as I remembered them from the B&O store in Dublin, but substantially less intimidating to the wallet. I play a variety of obnoxious crap to make sure there are no sudden holes ("bass... check." "treble... check." "imaging... bloody hell... check!"
I'm about to escape for a couple of months rent when the topic of DACs comes up. "Well, have you considered the Playmaker?"
Now this gives me pause. It's not a cheap piece of kit, it's very much Apple-oriented, and I'm on not-even-Windows, I'm on Ubuntu Linux. Used to be a programmer by trade, that's just how I work these days. I know, for sure, that if it works at all, it's going to be three days of messing around to get the Playmaker talking to the Linux laptop.
(I don't use CDs. Too hard to back up. Buy 'em, rip 'em, play from the HD as Turing intended.)
But... well... at some point, you've gotta trust the people who make your things, so I say "OK!" and figure I'll use an analogue wire for the moment and sort it out and/or use the mac. If they can make speakers like that, and they say The Way is this funny looking bathroom tile, who am I to doubt it?
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So I get the rig home, unbox, strew cables all over the living room (longer mains leads! longer mains leads!) and plug everything in. The setup is:
Ubuntu Linux PC -> Focusrite VRM box (headphone amp) -> Playmaker Line In -> Beolab 3
or
Mac -> wifi -> Playmaker DAC -> Beolab 3
And, by Santa's beard, it's absolutely great. I've done sod all to the room, the speaker placement is terrible, the Focusrite box is a sodding headphone amp, and in spite of all that... even playing from compressed sources... very very very nice indeed. Good, good.
Off the mac, however, it's double plus bonus points good. There are a couple of annoying glitches.
a) Mac's on older operating system, so only iTunes can talk Airplay - no Airplay Mirroring or "send all audio over Airplay" option. If I upgrade to Snow Leopard, it'll do "send all audio over airplay" but, for the moment, it's gotta go through iTunes. This means no Spotify on the mac for now, or through the Focusrite box.
b) I can't remember how to use a mac, it's been so long.
However... blow me down, losslessly ripped CDs going straight to the Playmaker sound... cut-your-fingers-on-them sharp, and full, and rich, and beautiful.
But you knew the gear sounds like that already, that's why you're here, right?
Here's the kicker.
a) I finally figure out the front of the Playmaker is a volume control. Who knew? With aesthetics like that, I assumed it was meant to be stuck beside yer wifi box and never seen again but, no, no, it's got uses. Shame, it looks like network infrastructure, not a B&O user interface, but that's life.
b) I figure out, with some messing about, that you can play decent quality audio right off the iPhone.
Girlfriend thinks this is just about the best thing in human history and, at that point, is entirely sold on this B&O stuff. The "you spent how much?" goes right the heck away, and it is very clear that we have crossed the domain marker from technology to magick now. Who cares how it works or how much it cost, I can play this right off my phone with a click!
So Ian got that one right, the Right Answer is the Playmaker. It's still a pain in the butt - won't talk to Linux by AirPlay or by DLNA, won't talk to Andriod by DLNA either. I had high hopes for
