A possible explanation may be the asymmetrical geometry of the room?

The BL5 uses room calibration for the room average. BL90s on the other hand uses room calibration to a single listening position (and a number of single position calibrations can be joined together if required).

Rather than swap L/R channels, try and see if swapping the physical positions of the loudspeakers makes any difference. That difference may be good or bad but it may help you identify what steps to take next.

If you then recalibrate with the swapped speaker and it sounds as per the original setup - I would say it is the room function.

You don't say if playing the BS5 is via the PL& SPDif connects or vi a TV with sound processing? if via a TV, the PL may be attenuated (despite the SPDif music signal) differently as per the settings in the Beovision Sound process settings??

10

Thanks for your reply. 

no tv in the system. The speakers are connected with spdif and fully wired power link  

the sound difference is quite dramatic. Using an iPad plugged into the behringer ufo 202 I put into mono and then used the balance in the iPad settings to pan left and right. This made the difference in sound very obvious.  

I’ve had other speakers (Sonus Faber) in the same position with no trouble. 

I am going to swap the speakers around and see if the problem follows the speaker or the location. 

I will report back.

No change after powering up the system this morning. 

Left channel still sounding brighter and more detailed  

i used a db meter on my phone and it had a volume difference between speakers of about 1db (left is louder). I ran a test and I can’t hear the difference at 1db so it’s not volume causing the shift in balance. 

I switch the speakers around (heavy work) and consequently the sound moved with the speaker. 

After recalibration with the speakers now switched places the tonal balance has stayed with the speaker although perhaps the difference isn’t as evident. . Strangely though the balance hasn’t shifted far to the right as it was to the left prior to shifting the speakers. If anything it’s still biased slightly left. That would suggest the room is playing. The left speaker is about a meter and half from the left wall. The right speaker is about 2 meters from the right wall. Both speakers are about 1/2 from the rear wall. My seating position is dead center.

This is cooking my brain. 🤯 I’m particular and I have to get it just right or I won’t sleep. 😭 

Hi, Good Morning.

OK, so....

1. the PL cables from the BS5 to the BL5 are in place

2. the SPDif cable goes from the BS5 to a BL5, then daisy chain to the next BL5

3. physically swapping the loudspeakers about has reduced the problem but did not solve the issue

4. both speakers are in corner positions albeit not 100% symmetrical.  

So my view is as follows:-

1. Check the BS5 balance setting in the menu/maintenance/sound section. See if you can steer the attenuation balance to eaqui-sound at your listening position.

2. The room is playing a major part of the process. Maybe a factory reset is required (hold the square button for 10 seconds IIRC. 

3. You need to know how many calibrations those loudspeakers have done. I have heard they only allow 20 calibrations before needing a service reset. It may be one unit is not properly calibrating?

4. Remember, (my opinion) that the BL5s are really omni directional. There should not be a single narrow mode sweet spot. Room calibration is average for the room and stereo image should be heard at any point between the loudspeakers. That said, it seems logical that the attenuation from each loudspeaker should be able to "steer" the sound to a central eaqui-sound balance point. Hence, check balance in the BS5 menu.

5. Another thing to try is to remove the SPDif from the BS5. The sound quality will diminish but this may address the balance issue (I cant remember if SPDIF signal is for music and the PL cable is for combined or single volume (balancing the attenuation)

6. This may identify if there is an SPDIf cable issue or SPDif processing??  

Hope this helps narrowing down the problem.

Great idea with removing the spdif cable. 

it may be a digital audio problem.

i have tried much of what you have mentioned including the balance attenuation. ( that function didn’t actually work at all and made no difference 🤷‍♂️

Mr 10Percemt you are THE MAN. 

it was a digital audio problem. While playing I removed the digital cable from the beomaster 5 and no difference to sound quality.

checked some setting and noticed that the speaker type didn’t have Belolab 5 selected. Not sure why this would make any difference but changing it to have beolab 5 Andy’s the speaker and I t’s all balanced and sound ping like it should.  

so it’s not the room. Thankfully.
but there is a problem with the analog connections. Could this be a faulty power link cable? probably doesn’t matter using digital. 

I have unearthed another problem though. I have my TT plugged into the line in (via a phone preamp). Switching the speakers to link option 4 and then pressing LINK RADIO is how I have been having this work but this no longer works. 

I’ve turned the speakers off at the power point a few times and this hasn’t rectified it.

again Mr 10Percent thank you for your interest and help.  

Mr 10Percemt you are THE MAN. 

it was a digital audio problem. While playing I removed the digital cable from the beomaster 5 and no difference to sound quality.

checked some setting and noticed that the speaker type didn’t have Belolab 5 selected. Not sure why this would make any difference but changing it to have beolab 5 Andy’s the speaker and I t’s all balanced and sound ping like it should.  

so it’s not the room. Thankfully.
but there is a problem with the analog connections. Could this be a faulty power link cable? probably doesn’t matter using digital. 

I have unearthed another problem though. I have my TT plugged into the line in (via a phone preamp). Switching the speakers to link option 4 and then pressing LINK RADIO is how I have been having this work but this no longer works. 

I’ve turned the speakers off at the power point a few times and this hasn’t rectified it.

again Mr 10Percent thank you for your interest and help.  

HYN Harry,

think you solved that one not me.

I forgot the BS5 has speaker settings. I guess this tells the BS5 to send the music signal to SPDif and volume info via PL. IIRC, tone controls then get blocked out/disabled. 

by daisy-chaining the PL cables, you may be able to identify if a channel is damaged or not. If the external cable is in good condition, you may have. Connector problem. By logically going through the connects, L/R switching and cable swaps, you can work out if there is a fault.

I am not familiar with adding a TT/Preamp direct to the Line in on the BL5 and adjusting the Link settings? I would instinctively have connected the TT/Pre to the Aux line in to the BS5 and then swing the dial to AUX. I don’t know if that would work or not for your setup

happy hunting

10

Problem solving is always a team effort. Helps think in different directions. 

The only way to use the line input in the beomaster 5  is via that awful behringer ufo202. it has a built in phono stage. However I’m a bit of a dummy sometimes. I really like my pro-ject valve pre amp and it’s only just occurred to me to keep using this and use the line input in the Bernringer (rather than the built in phono stage) and I’m happy with the result. 

That input was being used for something else BUT it’s not to much of an imposition to just swap the cables over when I need to.

I can sleep easy tonight.