Razlaw wrote:

or go with the 8000s.

Go with the 8000.s, they are "next of kin " to the lab1.s. They are not as detailed as the lab1,s (imo) but as rere speakers it should work.

At least demo them ? I am not a fan of the lab3's (visually)

Dealer is shipping me a Beolab 2 tomorrow to try. I honestly do not think I will like it with the 9s. 

My next step is to try the 8000s. They are simplest upgrade for me. Just plug in to my existing wall outlets for rears.

Part of me would like to try/consider another pair of Beolab 9s, or maybe 12s. Either would require some new wiring. A problem with the 9s is their low height and they would be placed behind furniture. I am trying to think of/find something to set them on that would increase their height.

I think I will have my dealer send me a long Mark 3 PowerLink cable so I can move my 9s to the rear and put one of my other pairs of speakers in front just to see what 9s sound like as rears.

Razlaw wrote:

They are simplest upgrade for me.

That covers all debates! If the 8,s do not work for you...... put the 1,s back.

I am a big fan of lab2.s but ZERO experiance of lab9,s

Try listening to the rear channels in isolation, i.e. without fronts, sub or centre. You may be amazed to find how little audio bandwidth is played! Then keep this in mind as you look for new rear speakers.

If you want 9's or 8000's as rears for purely aesthetic reasons the fine, go ahead but, as already mentioned by Peter, anything 4000 or above is more than capable, while 9's are probably "audio overkill".

Did you match the actual volume (not just the input signal), the 9's are more sensitive than the 4000's and therefore will be louder with the same input signal. This will seem to sound "better".

Not sure what you mean by input signal? I had the volume on the BV7 display set to the same level.

That's not good.

The volume of the speakers don't have to be set "visually" to the same level, even more because 4000's and 9's are not on the same league. I think that before buying anything, you should set up properly the speaker distance and levels.

1. Measure speaker distance and put correct distance from ear to speaker for each speaker.

2. Find a sound pressure tool. The cheapest is the free iPhone app "Ultimate Ears". As we are not searching for exact absolute levels but accurate relative levels of each speaker, it's really good.

3. Find a white noise source/go to the speaker setup to have white noise.

4. Turn up your TV main volume until you reach 75dB in Ultimate Ears at the listening position. 

5. Go to the speaker setup and adjust individually all speaker levels to reach 75dB (front, rear, center).

6. You're done, now the speaker levels are correctly set up.

7. Try your new configuration before buying anything 🙂

[EDIT] Mistakes corrected

Razlaw wrote:

Not sure what you mean by input signal? I had the volume on the BV7 display set to the same level.

What I mean is that the 9's will be louder than the 4000's driven from the same amplitude input signal.

mbee wrote:

That's not good.

The volume of the speakers don't have to be set "visually" to the same level, even more because 4000's and 9's are not on the same league. I think that before buying anything, you should set up properly the speaker distance and levels.

1. Measure speaker distance and put correct distance from ear to speaker for each speaker.

2. Find a sound pressure tool. The cheapest is the free iPhone app "Ultimate Ears". As we are not searching for exact absolute levels but accurate relative levels of each speaker, it's really good.

3. Find a white noise source/go to the speaker setup to have white noise.

4. Turn your TV speaker in speaker 2 mode until you reach 100dB in Ultimate Ears at the listening position. 

5. Adjust individually all speaker levels to reach 100dB (front, rear, center).

6. You're done, now the speaker levels are correctly set up.

7. Try your new configuration before buying anything 🙂

It also has to be dependant on the master volume value (e.g. 55). What do you suggest as a volume value? In my setup (BL7-1 center, BL8000's fronts, BL4000's rears, BL2) is not easy to reach 100db with highest setting on the SPEAKER Adjustment menu. I have to put the Master Volume up to 74-75 to reach 95db. And my living room is 35m2.