Hi Will,

The emotiva looks like a very reasonably priced product. Don't think you can find much alternatives at that price point. I paid around $1000 for the Marantz SR6007 which also provides amplified channels and a lot of flexibility in the input/outputs.

So basically this is the same layout as I'm looking to do. The only question indeed is whether there is a disadvantage in terms of sound quality. Are the Beolab 3s going to perform worse than if they were connected in pass-through filtering by a BL2 (aka would the BL2 do a better job as an audio processor)?

I'm not a specialist and really don't know/understand the implications :)

Thanks for any input !

David

Have you ever thought of getting a dac pre with built-in low pass filter for subwoofer output? I just stumbled on one on the www.peachtreeaudio.com website called the Grand pre. It looks amazing. Also I suggest you get some good quality custom cables to connect to your beolab 3s to the sub because you will need them anyway. The dac might be pricey but I think quality dacs make huge leaps in sound quality. The sound quality improvements are not as tangible in terms of frequency response or dynamics but it definitely makes the sound more involving and less tiring for long listening sessions! I think it has to do more with psychoacoustics than anything else. If different playback softwares in computers can make or break a system then I will say Dac quality will be even more important. 

Sorry I didn't know you are on a tight budget for a dac. I guess the emotiva will do just fine. BTW you can always get deals for secondhand units on www.audiogon.com  

Thank you Wonder, seems you can't really be on a budget when buying DAC's, they are by no means cheap.  I was hoping there would be a good choice of product that wasn't too expensive that would just allow the sound to be passed through to to both units simultaneously using different inputs.  Later I could then upgrade to something more expensive to improve the system.  Both the BL3's and the PV-1D can trim off what frequencies they don't want so having something with an adjustable crossover would not be as important till I can afford more sophisticated equipment.  I was considering just using an receiver for the time being but I don't want to to butcher the sound too much.

This is what happens when I try to buy a TV, speakers and a sub all at the same time :/

Being in the UK seems to make things harder as things like the Emotiva would prolly cost me a fortune in shipping + taxes. They don't seem to have retailers in the UK.

I think we are digressing regarding the DAC issue. As Nano says, one can always upgrade to a better DAC at a later stage.

B&O themselves promote the BL3s as speakers you can stream directly from an iPod or through an AirportExpress. The Playmaker can be connected to BL2 and 3 in series and again while we are maybe not dealing with top of the line DACs, the audio results are excellent. Its the beauty of these active speakers....

I don't see why a decent receiver would butcher the sound more than whatever goes into a Playmaker ? Am I missing something?

Just to add to this, a number of B&O dealers actively suggest going through the Sonos Connect route in order to simplify distribution of the music to the Beolabs...

Are you considering to upgrade your DVD player as well? You will totally not go wrong with the latest Oppo BDP-95 offering. It is a network player, top performing blu-ray and dvd player and the latest version will now have digital inputs and asynchronous USB input as well! It will come in at around a thousand dollars but it is well worth the money! It is a surround processor as well! The list goes on..... I am so going to get one for myself even though I don't really need it lol. You might want to wait for the flagship BDP 105 though apparently it is going to be ground breaking.

Or you can look at the Pioneer N-50. It might not have a subwoofer output but you can connect your ipod/iphone to it and the USB is asynchronous! I think it fits right in your budget as well. I am not sure whether you can control volume through it though.

My bad. The Oppo BDP 105 is the only one with digital inputs and will serve as a replacement to the BDP 95. So you will have to wait. The BDP 95 is rated stereophile class A just for its CD playback function so imagine how much a bargain you are really getting. 

Nano_Cell wrote:

Hello iridium,

One idea I have come across for doing my set-up is using the following audio processor:

link

That would allow me to plug the speakers in via RCA L&R then plug in a sub to the S/W Out.  Not perfect and not exactly as cheap as I was hoping it would be but it is as good as I've found without going in to serious money.  It also offers the ability to adjust the cross-over to the sub so you can get the most out of both.  Not sure if there are disadvantages to this set-up in terms of sound quality.

Any opinions on this would be appreciated!

Will.

Hi Will,

I am using the Emotiva UMC-1 as a surround processor in my setup.

I have it connected to a pair of BL 1's, BL2 and BL8000.

The reason for buying the UMC-1 was because I didn't want to go on a beovision. After some research I heard about the Emotiva and it should be the best in class competing processors up to $1500 for sound quality.

If you are also using it with rears, then maybe you should not connect it to the line port of your beolabs, butmake a fake connection to the powerlink (for more information search my posts on the forum)

If you read about the Emotiva it's a lot about bugs, which don't exist anymore on the current firmware, so don't be misled.

When I first set it up, i ran Emoq and changed the settings to some actual distances, crossover, etc.

I was searching for a long time for good EQ settings, because for movies it was great, but for music I was dissapointed and thought it was much better connecting my speakers through the BL2 onto the beocenter.

But after a lot of research I was able to improve the sound quality. I discovered everything was out of phase, so that's why it sounded strange. I did run Emoq again and just left the distance settings (even where they were very strange settings). I also took the Emoq settings and corrected these settings to my own reference curve. And now it sounds absolutely amazing, even better than connected to the beocenter.

I'm really happy with my choice for the UMC, because the sound quality improved, I've got dolby surround and can use the internal DAC for my mediasources.

Funny thing is that Emoq thought the BL2 is twice as far from the listening position as it really is, so it does have a little lack, but is corrected perfectly by the UMC. It sounds very thight, powerfull and absolutely not boomy.

I hoped this helped.

Hey guys,

Sorry for the delayed response!

Iridium - The Sonos connect looks like a good cheap option if I was only using BeoLab 3's, shame it doesn't have 2 sets of RCA output's.

Wonderful - The BDP-105 looks interesting, not cheap though! Looks like it does everything though which is nice.  Does annoy me that their designers thought it would be awesome to stick one of the HDMI inputs on the front.  I would use both those inputs, 1 for the PC and 1 for the Tivo box but 1 cable would be hanging out the front :/  Certainly might consider saving for that though.  As for the Pioneer, not sure that would be of any use.  As you say it has no connection out to a sub.

Desmo - Thank you for you input on the UMC.  Seems like a good unit.  Problem is that it has HDMI ports on it which I would like to use as they are there but they are only version 1.3.  I could wait for the new version that will be released but then the price goes up significantly.  Also I have a bad record of getting faulty products and ordering a product that I can only get from the US is going to be a right costly pain to send back.  Think I might have to avoid Emotiva which is disappointing.

All in all it appears I may have to change my plan on what to buy.  I wanted something cheap but it doesn't look like I can get what I require for under £600.  I might go down the video processing route on top of what I want so I can see it costing me about £1000.  Perhaps that BDP-105 or similar is the way to go.

On the bright side I have my BeoLab 3's now and they are a nice set of speakers for the size :)