I like your positive attitude Paul 🙂

Hehe thanks Flappo! ;)  ;)  ;)

BeoSound 8 Review

I bought iPod Touch 64 and BeoSound 8 a few weeks ago.  An audio system, in my view, no matter how expensive or otherwise, needs time to have the electronics (conductors, semi-conductors, capacitors, coils, etc.) burn-in and for the drivers to break-in mechanically.  Every time one uses an audio system, the sound changes after that system warms up.

To understand my bias, I have to mention that I come from an audio league where CD players include vacuum valve tubes and amplifiers are hybrids with tube input statges with pure class A MOSFETS that dissipate a lot of energy as heat (apologies to nature and greens).  I also come from the black vinyl league when it comes to classical works. 

It is impossible for me to transfer my analogue to digital, not due to lack know-how, but due to time constraints and impatience.  Remasted analogue recording are now avaialble, but will never sound like good analogue playback.  The following is the writing of an ordinary person who enjoys a good system but does not write reviews.  I have tested BS8 with 320mbps music ripped from CDs.  The test was limited to Classical (chamber, concert, sonatas, and opera), Jazz, Smooth Jazz and Jazz Fusion. 

First audition

This system is definitely not intended for large rooms or even for family and friends dinner unless it is the background music.  However, smartly enough, this little gadget, is equipped with dynamic drivers that provide high sound pressure levels to match its amplifier.   The result: clear lows and mids at low volume levels.  It bears reminiscence of sweet sounding 20w tube amps that were matcher with high SPL drivers characterised by large diaphragms / transducers.

Fidelity / detail

The BS8 provide detail across the whole range without being clinically disturbing.  It is definitely a system that you can listen to for an extended period of time without fatigue.  What really surprised me, it its ability to handle online radio broadcast for Classical and Smooth Jazz.  Vocals sound so accurate with it.  Try it with Liz Wright, Giorgia Funamti, Andrea Bocelli, Anne-Sophie von Otter, Placido Domingo, Randy Crawford, or Kelly Sweet, and it will give you a good surprise.  With chamber, and Jazz band, it showed weight and detail that I could not expect from such a small system.  In a word: Spectacular.  Somehow, it falls short of doing so with large orchestral works and with classical piano works.  Overall, BS8 is soft, and pleasantly mellow with good mid and low details that I did not expect from a small system.

Soundstage

In my view a good soundstage is the result of good detail and transparency.   These are the results of good design, good recording, and good placement of speakers.  B&O has overcome the issue of speaker placement using the adaptive switch (Free, Wall, Corner).  This switch did a very good in preventing lows from overwhelming the mids and the highs to retain detail and transparency.  One would say that two speakers so close would never give a soundstage. I agree, but you could feel the space around the instruments with regular musical works.

Net Radio

BS8 gave me a few pleasant surprises with radio streams of the genres I listen to.  I am a bit reserved so as not be seen promoting some stations where I should not.  But, it does very well with 128 and 196 online streams.

Conclusion

For small rooms, or casual fatigue-free listening with pleasant detail and transparency: this is the system.  For audiophiles: if you think you can use an iAnything for music listening, BS8 is worth the money asked.  May its designer rest in peace (David Lewis 1939-2011).

Just ordered some orange frets to go with the orange fret on my forthcoming BV10-46 (red fret option, too). Loving the BS8. I even like those silver-grey frets.

Good detail and transparency is a wise description of the BS8. It definitely exceeds expecations as a device and sound quality. I love it. Not sure if you guys are aware, but if you buy Airfoil, you can use it to wirelessly stream audio from your laptop to your iPhone/iPad connected to the BS8, which is ideal for protected audio (such as football commentary) you can't get via your iPad.

"Overall, BS8 is soft, and pleasantly mellow with good mid and low details that I did not expect from a small system."

This is what im finding with B&O. Great for warm sounding Radio 2 and Jazz/classical. But, I find it not suitable for playing my dance music tastes. My Century sounds totally lifeless with dance and RnB music which of course is my taste. Since B&O seem to be aimed at the older guys, i'm thinking that is deliberate. Great review Abz but hasn't really inspired me to buy one for listening to my music on. Although, I love it as part of an interior design piece!

I'm in shopping in London Thursday, so i'm going to put a few B&O dealers through their paces...

Abz,

Welcome to BeoWorld !

Nice, honest review on your first B&o product. I particularly like the following lines...

Abz wrote:

The BS8 provide detail across the whole range without being clinically disturbing.  It is definitely a system that you can listen to for an extended period of time without fatigue.

IMHO, that sums up the most important aspect of any Beo from an acoustic standpoint.

Many of their best designs over the years could easily be substituted in place of "BS8" in your sentence. As you have noted this in your first few weeks with the BS8 and B&o ownership -tells me there is still a pulse in Struer.

Thank you!

Paul Winn wrote:

"Overall, BS8 is soft, and pleasantly mellow with good mid and low details that I did not expect from a small system."

 

This is what im finding with B&O. Great for warm sounding Radio 2 and Jazz/classical. But, I find it not suitable for playing my dance music tastes. My Century sounds totally lifeless with dance and RnB music which of course is my taste. Since B&O seem to be aimed at the older guys, i'm thinking that is deliberate. Great review Abz but hasn't really inspired me to buy one for listening to my music on. Although, I love it as part of an interior design piece!

I'm in shopping in London Thursday, so i'm going to put a few B&O dealers through their paces...

Paul, the problem you're going to have with the Beosound 8 is the same problem you have with your Century and same with the Beosound 1. The cheaper and smaller systems don't have the bass levels you need for dance/rap/hip hop etc. For heavy bass you need a subwoofer, and the three systems mentioned don't have this capability.

Paul, if I were you I'd sell the Century and buy an Ouverture or similair. Get a secondhand pair of Beolab 4000s and a second hand Beolab 2 or 11. Then you'll only need an ipod cable and you'll have a monster system for low $$ More importantly, you'll be happy with B&O and the sounds it will give you.

There's no point going back and forth about buying a cheaper B&O system, you'll just be disappointed.....

TripEnglish wrote:

jc wrote:

Playing an iPod on the Beosound 8, soundwise you're dependend upon the quality of DAC in the iPod, or am I wrong? (apart from the codec ofcourse) 

Actually yes. The BeoSound 8 is one of the few products that's taking the output from the digital pins and using our own DAC. It's one of the advantages of some higher end docks. 

Hi everyone,

Sorry to be a geek (or at least a stickler...) but the BeoSound 8 doesn't have a DAC. We use a PCM - to - PWM converter, so the signal is never really converted to analogue until the speaker drivers... (although if we're going to get really geeky, we can argue about the truth of that statement.)

To be a little clearer... Once the signal is PCM digital(1) (either because it came in as a digital signal via the dock or the USB or after it was converted by the ADC(2)), it gets processed(3) and then sent to the Class-D amplifiers. Since Class-D amplifiers are basically a PWM-based (4) "digital" amplifier, we don't need to convert to analogue in between the PCM and the amps. Instead, we use a PCM-to-PWM converter and keep a "fully digital" signal path.

So, you could say that the signal doesn't become analogue until the PWM signals out of the four amplifiers arrive at the tweeters and woofers. Then again, some people would argue that the signal is never converted to analogue, but that would be just silly... :-)

Cheers

-geoff

Footnotes

1) that stands for "Pulse Code Modulation" for the verbose...

2) Analogue to digital converter

3) filtering and volume, speaker protection.... those sorts of things...

4) Pulse width Modulation

geoff martin wrote:

To be a little clearer... Once the signal is PCM digital(1) (either because it came in as a digital signal via the dock or the USB or after it was converted by the ADC(2)), it gets processed(3) and then sent to the Class-D amplifiers. Since Class-D amplifiers are basically a PWM-based (4) "digital" amplifier, we don't need to convert to analogue in between the PCM and the amps. Instead, we use a PCM-to-PWM converter and keep a "fully digital" signal path.

That's some very interesting stuff you won't see in the sales material! Thanks Geoff 🙂

burantek wrote:

Abz,

Welcome to BeoWorld !

Nice, honest review on your first B&o product.

Thank you for the warm welcome and the positive comments,

Let me add one more thing (from the older guy to the younger ones, lol).  An audio system that adds to your music something that was not in the original recording is a bad system.  No only does one lose money on it, but also valuable time listening to it. 

I am considering transfer of my LPs to some lossless digital format in preparation for the Encore in 2012.  I really like the idea of small footprint, portable, and distributed.

Cheers 🙂