I used the Essence with my BL5, but returned it to the dealer after a couple of days due to terrible internal DAC (my music never sounded worst before).

Anyway, the remote worked fine.

Have you tried to put the speakers on option 1 or 2?

alee wrote:

Power off (all off) works. But not power on or volume up/down.

1) sillly question (always at first...), but did you check the batteries of the remote?

I've had odd behaviour with not_enough_powered batteries with my Essence remote control and the BL5s (in option 1).

See

I’m going to switch to mode 1 (unplug the BS9k) and see if that helps. The batteries are new, so with luck it will work directly with the essence remote. 

I’d plug the speakers into the BS9k and route everything through that, but then what’s the point of having a good quality DAC (I have a Dac2X)?

granted, everything is being converted to digital then being reconverted to analog in the BL5, so its a totally munged signal anyways. The more I dive into this, the more I wish B&O just allowed the analog signal to get diverted around the digital board in the BL5s. If they weren’t so dang good looking, I’d get rid of them entirely. 

I’m going to switch to mode 1 (unplug the BS9k) and see if that helps. The batteries are new, so with luck it will work directly with the essence remote. 

I’d plug the speakers into the BS9k and route everything through that, but then what’s the point of having a good quality DAC (I have a Dac2X)?

granted, everything is being converted to digital then being reconverted to analog in the BL5, so its a totally munged signal anyways. The more I dive into this, the more I wish B&O just allowed the analog signal to get diverted around the digital board in the BL5s. If they weren’t so dang good looking, I’d get rid of them entirely. 

alee wrote:

what’s the point of having a good quality DAC (I have a Dac2X)?

NB: there is the same multiple convertions issue with the Essence (unable to output a wired digital signal - although with WISA it's ok, but not with the BL 5s😡) --> it receives a digital signal from ethernet / wifi and converts it to analog for the powerlink/line output.

Anyway, it would be curious that the remote only works with the BL5s in mode 1😂

Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the help so far. My question about my DAC was mostly rhetorical. 

Controlling my speakers through the essence remote would have been elegant, but the truth is, I would still need the Harmony to switch through the “modes” (tv, streaming, etc) so its really not doing much for me (the essence remote).

I’ll probably just use it with my Beosound 4 in my bedroom. 

So, I’ve switched my speakers to mode 1. Two points:

1) there’s virtually no volume control lag, but the dB steps are quite wide...and wow, using the BL5 to control the volume instead of the preamp is shocking. Way, way more power on tap than I’ve experienced when using the preamp for gain.  What a waste. Not going back to that.

2) I might be able to keep the BS3k in the system, but where is the IR sensor?  I figure I can cover it with an IR emitter and as a result, keep my speakers in mode 1.

The Essence remote has some options too (from 0 to 7). Which one are you using?

The latest option I’m using is mode 2 on the chart, which is Beo4 IR (radio). 

The BL5s are set at L opt 1. My harmony remote turns them on and off correctly, but it fails to change their volume. So, I’ve still got the essence remote sitting around. 

I’m thinking that the harmony remote simply isn’t going to cut it for a mixed B&O and non-B&O setup. Maybe I have to get the lintronics system I’ve been looking at over the past two years. Then I can just combine that with my beoremotes or even my essence, and get the control I’ve been looking for. Pity that B&O uses a 455mhz IR system, but if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be B&O.