Could you write us all a considered review of the Essence ?
- what you have found that is good
- what you discovered about its usage that surprised you (some times our toys change us !)
- what were the short comings (if any)
Hello B&O users,
I will try to explain you here what I think of my brand new BS Essence.
First of all, I have to say I used to use a BS Ouverture for 20 years, and I also recently tried a BS 5 Encore for a few days, so these are what I will compare the Essence to.
All of these gears were connected to a pair of BL 8000 and recently a BL 11 too.
My equipment consist of a box (for accessing the internet, of course), a NAS, an Android tablet ( --> I will only talk about the Android version of Beomusic here). Everything is connected through Ethernet (but the tablet of course).
What's good:
Sound quality (addition of a modern piece of electronic + high quality music files + good set of speakers). Coming from the BS Ouverture, I re-discover some of my CDs details.
Remote control: difficult to make simpler! Nice to use and obvious.
The Beomusic app recognizes your equipment without doing anything, that's nice.
Fast to start (compared to the BS5E), no noise at all (no fan)
Spotify and TuneIn included.
The Essence box is very small (about twice a Playmaker size) and can be completely hidden.
What's surprising:
Main interface (your mobile device) isn't made by B&O... This is the most important "difficulty" when you already know "classic" B&O products.
(In order to better understand the BS Essence philosophy, you'd learn about the DLNA architecture: DMR, DMS, DMP...)
The BS Essence is a DMR only.
By consequence, general ergonomics relies on your mobile device app and on your NAS interface.
The B&O app is not the only one you can use. Any DLNA / UPnP player will work (i.e. you don't rely anymore on B&O products only)
The internet radio supplier is now TuneIn (not like for the BS5 for which it's in Denmark if I understood well)
No settings! (no equalizer...)
What's wrong:
Not programmable: this is a shame! You can't ask for you favorite radio to start at 7am and to stop at 8am for example. I looked for any Android app able to do that, but it's more complicated than it looks... This function should be integrated in the Beomusic app.
The Beomusic app is slow and doesn't always restarts correctly after a correct first launch.
Android app is made for smartphone, not tablet:CD's jackets are crappy.
[Edit end of 2015] the BeoMusic app is now far better than the first releases.
When you plug everything, you have to finish with the Essence, otherwise you will see odd things with your network.
No MOTS, unfortunately...
The supplied knob is the one for wall mounting. Optional "table plate" is in fact a complete (and identical) new remote control, plus a metallic plate (not sold separately): this should be the remote control supplied by default!
I don't really know what kind of information you're expecting from me, so please ask!
I will edit this post as I find things to say... so come back here from time to time.
And please, forgive my english😮
