BeoLab 9 - do I need BL2?

32 replies

mr_anders_son wrote:

beocool wrote:

mr_anders_son wrote:

Ok but someone said if you even have BL5 you need BL2 in a cinema setup 5.1??

Those people probably are deaf! 😎 Beolab 5's have bigger bass drivers and more powerful amps than the Beolab 2 and are more accurate. Beolab 5's produce enough bass for use in a home cinema setup, if you ask me.

I mean more that in cinema setup you have a separate channel for sub, and there will not BL5/9 help or?

My B&O dealer told me that when you choose "subwoofer off", the "subwoofer channel" is distributed to the two front speakers.

 

I previously had BL6000 as front speakers with a KEF subwoofer. I was very happy with it, but bought the BL5 a couple of years ago any way. At first i was a bit disappointed with the bass, but the B&O people had forgotten to set the subwoofer to "none". After I turned the subwoofer to "none" the BL5 came to life.

Adding a BL2 to the BL5 doesn´t sound like a good idea. Not to BL9 either, after what I´m told from B&O.

mr_anders_son wrote:

Ok but someone said if you even have BL5 you need BL2 in a cinema setup 5.1??

Absolute nonsense! BL2 couldn`t add anything to bass coming from BL5. It`s getting just "louder". I think, for music BL9 will be enough, you won`t need a BL2 . for cinema surround I`m not quite sure....but as you already own a BL2 check it out. But if you are not satisfied with the bass of BL9 you should go for BL5 and not for BL2. Bass can be very annoying in some rooms, that`s the good thing with BL5 - you got the auto-calibration. Check it out with BL9. Set subwoofer to none and try a 5.1 movie. I think this should work but I never tested it....

Stefan

 

I'm in exactly the same scenario as you are mr anders son. I have just recently sold my 8000 and Lab2 combination, for Lab9.

I've spent a couple of days before I sold the old speakers to see if there is any huge benefit coupling a Lab9 with a Lab2. Obviously when testing the Lab9 without the Lab2, I have turned Subwoofer off so that the bass frequencies are channeled to the 2 Lab9s.

With music, There really isn't much noticeable difference in terms of bass performance. Even if there are, the difference is just tiny. Not much point keeping the Lab2 for that tiny amount of improvement even if detectable to your ears.

With movies, I think the Lab9s by themselves are good enough. The Lab2 just adds that little punch on the very very low frequency sounds but again the improvement is not day and night.

However, with the acoustic lens, the vocals have improved immensely for both music and movies!! I say the upgrade is very much worth it considering I didn't have to pay too much out of pocket with the upgrade.

The only benefit of having the extra sub is that you can adjust the "volume" of the sub separately, so if it's too boomy, you can turn down the Subwoofer level.

It looks like Mr Anders(son) is going for some BL 9. Will they be white?

I demoed the BL9 from having exactly this setup. My conclusion was for music the BL9s on their own were fine and the BL2 made no difference. However watching movies with lots of surround sound effects the BL2 made a definite addition, so I have kept the BL2 when I upgraded from BL8000 to BL9.

So the need for BL2 probably depends on your use; i.e. music vs movies

The BL2 is a great sub so it was also nice to not part with it

Don't have BL5s but understand the BL2 would not then be needed

Speaking in pictures:

Adding a Beolab 2 to a Beolab 5 is like putting low fat milk (BL2) and full fat milk (BL5) together... You won't notice the difference :-)

The bass drivers in the BL5 are just pure evil, you can literally "see" the bass waves in your room.. BL2 was good but nowhere near, so adding it makes no sense.

Seriously, I did some experiments as I got my BL5s and still got the Lab2 and, as all the posts mentioned,  the effect was somewhat boring. The bass of Lab5s is much more precise, the Lab 2 bass is deep but in my opinion a little overblown and not that precise.

So adding a BL2 to a BL5 setup ruins the performance of the 5s in my opinion.

Check the 9s without the bass if you're ok with it, leave it like it is. More bass doesn't equal better music oder better reproduction ..

 

my set up is for movies and audio and i looked at the BL9 without the lab2 and for music it is fantastic but for movies i felt i missed the rumble when a car smashes up or guns are fired on the screen.

for me the question is what is my system for music / film and at the moment my main room will always be my cinema set up and one day link rooms will be for audio only so as sad as it is its lab 8000's and lab 2 until i can buy 9's and keep the 2.

 

testing in progress.....🤔

I went through the exact same test myself... then took away the Lab2 and sold it.

The BeoLab 9 seem faster with Bass, and although incredibly 'bassy' (especially when watching Blu-Ray) they are less 'boomy' and are 'sharper' in their response.  The Lab2 is good, but i found it unnecessary with BeoLab 9.

If you need a BeoLab 2 with BeoLab 5.. ummm... no comment.

If that makes no sense, i understand.. 😂

Lee

Yeah I am thinking of 4 BL5 and 2 BL2s!!!

Great surround or?😎

 

Ok.. I think Idont need BL2.

I have tested with music and there is no need for that

Movies...hmmm...I don´t think so either..ok I havent test all my 400 DVDs, but anyway

I tested even BL8000 without BL2, and I was pretty suprised that there was so much Bass

But I have never disable BL2 in the menu of BV9

So there is proof that if you have no BL2 the BS3 system pass this to front...nice

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