I'm so thrilled with the sound quality that I'm willing to put up with these technical issues. My previous pair of stereo speakers were more traditional hifi, but incredibly good bookshelves - Guru QM10 MK2 - lots of people on this forum are from Scandinavia, I'm thinking some might be familiar with those speakers. They were spectacular, but I'm done with speaker wire, amps and sources. I had a massive receiver powering my old bookshelves, and I never want to deal with that again. Even if B&O products didn't look amazing, I would still be done with traditional hifi. But when you combine the simplicity of digital sources with B&O's aesthetic, I'm never, ever going back. 

The great thing is that my Balance stereo pair sounds even better than the QM10 MK2. Comparing them to other B&O speakers is an interesting proposition because I think they're a class above all of the "cheap" B&O stuff, but still well below Beolab. The A9 MK4 was my favorite lower tier B&O product before the Balance (I almost bought one multiple times) but the Balance in stereo is on another level entirely. I've only had a cursory listen to the BL28, and there's no question they share a lot of tech. Yes, the 28 is much, much better. But is it 10K better? Probably not, but I would still buy them if they were within my budget. 

Hopefully this helps.

Thanks for the information. I agree about the Beolab 28, i like them very much too! The Beolab 9 are very good, but i missed a little bit 3D. The sound is great, bass, mids en treble good in balance, but you never got the idea the artist stands in front of you (the Beolab 28 sounds really 3D, top!)

I think i have to ask my dealer to pair them in a separate room for a good listen session.

Thanks everyone for an awesome conversation on both my issue, sound quality options in stereo, cabling between two speakers, as well as comparing to other stereo. So much to learn.

A small update I have got today is that I can confirm my speakers were indeed connected to 5GHz but the blinking on the access point did not seem to correspond to drop-outs. In fact, and I was both excited and mad about it, the stereo pair was working well finally. Even on 5GHz. I have not done anything. Or have I?

I must confess I have recently unplugged my wireless completely for almost two weeks due to travelling. Only never tested stereo pairing since. So I wonder if this simple thing may have solved my issue. I still find it difficult to accept that Beolink multiroom has worked perfectly the entire time while stereo mode using the same wireless network wasn’t, making me think that network cannot have been the reason.

I have also split up my frequencies and given them two different names. Connecting to the 2.4 and pairing the speakers using 2.4 I have not had the time to test yet.

I was told by my ISP that one difference between the 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies is that 2.4 has more coverage while 5 has got a better performance if the device is close to the access point.

Not sure how stereo will work from now on but I have got a couple of things to try that I have learned here. So I’ll know what to do. If it still keeps cutting out, I have now got proof that they CAN work just fine even using 5GHz.

As for the sound, I have not dared to give the 28s a listen but I definitely wouldn’t call stereo on the Balance harsh. I do think it sounds basically like one Balance, only twice :). Plus the stereo dimension. Meaning pretty fantastic. I will need to do some more serious listening before I swing by my dealer’s and compare them to the Beolab 28. Of course I expect the latter to have the advantage.

Not sure if it was mentioned, but if you are subscribed to BETA SW, you will loose the stereo pairing functionality. Just FYI. 

Glad to hear it is working. It should work on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz so I am glad to hear this is also the case. It could be the band separation that helped but it could also be the improvements done in the latest software release that has made a difference. If you run into any issues at least now you know where to start the troubleshooting. Otherwise I will be happy to assist.

BeoMegaMan wrote:

Not sure if it was mentioned, but if you are subscribed to BETA SW, you will loose the stereo pairing functionality. Just FYI. 

This is not correct. You need to separate the pair to sign up for the Beta SW but once they are signed up you can create a stereo pair and you will still receive Beta SW on both speakers when available.

c-larsen wrote:

Glad to hear it is working. It should work on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz so I am glad to hear this is also the case. It could be the band separation that helped but it could also be the improvements done in the latest software release that has made a difference. If you run into any issues at least now you know where to start the troubleshooting. Otherwise I will be happy to assist.

Yes, I also assume it would have to work on 5GHz. I noticed there was an update waiting for me (version 1.8.10009 and I was on 1.7.40060) but I decided to keep my testing tidy and tested first with the older version and I still got the above results). Otherwise according to the release notes of 1.8.10009 it was only Google Chromecast that was updated.

It would be nice to have a list of release notes available for each product. The app is able to show it but after the update it is gone.

And for the record, I did participate in the beta program ahead of the Beolink release but opted out after it cause I only wanted to test Beolink ;).

Bottom line: awesome help, so happy with the outcome and the learning, I feel much safer and self-service now. Thank you so much! :)