Hi Kim,

What speaker(s) do you have currently?

If you're in Speaker Mode 2 on the BeoSystem 3 / BeoVision 7, then it should be automatically sending the Centre Channel input to your Left Front and Right Front speakers, thus creating a phantom centre.

Cheers

-geoff

I just tried this - it is not possible. If you deselect center speaker you cannot choose speaker mode 5 anymore, you only have speaker 2 or 4 options and speaker 4 is just stereo signal thru all speakers and some bass boost.

Just to make sure everyone understand what phantom center channels means:

In surround sound setup some (or maybe most) other brand surround prosessors can mix the center channel into left and right front speakers so you can have setup with "true" surround sound without dedicated center speaker.

Hi Geoff

Yes, you are right. I have BL5's as my main speakers and they play the center channel excellent in speaker mode 2. But that is not surround! Even if I select the speaker mode 4 it's still just stereo played through four speakers.

What I need is my two BL5s playing front and phantom center and my two BL8000 playing the surround channels.

I have a BL7.4 used as a center channel in TV mode, but it is under the TV on the wrong wall.  My cinema setup / listening setup is rotated 90 degrees for optimal BL5 placement.

As the software is, I have to add a second center channel for cinema mode. For testing it's two BL6000, but of course that is no match to the BL5s. That became obvious to me, when I did some listening tests A/B repeating a scene from Fifth Element in speaker mode 2 and 3.

As I wrote in the first post I heard it's possible to enjoy surround with a phantom center channel on newer beosystems. However I also heard I needed a hardware upgrade to allow it on my beosystem 3. A bit odd considering my beosystem is already able to create the phantom center in speaker mode 2 and 4 as you suggest.

Bottom line is I'm considering buying an external surround processor or upgrading my beosystem if possible, so any input on that is appreciated.

My input to Bang & Olufsen is a software upgrade that makes speaker mode 4 play 4.0 and not a 2+2 when a multichannel signal is fed. Alternatively allow not to setup a center channel speaker and then have the fronts play a phantom center.

I forgot that there is AST. It might be the answer to your scenario - visit your local dealer to get a demo. It is more advanced sound prosessing than phantom setup is. Maybe Geoff can explain further how surround sound is decoded with AST?

Please correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is that the AST cannot be installed on older versions of Beosystem 3 due to hardware upgrades along the way.

Thank you Akoro for also posting the image of a tv and cinema setup which closely resembles the setup I would like. That is without a dedicated center in cinema mode.

Hi

i have a similar setup to akoro except Tv and screen being the other way round.

I have installed a seprate centre speaker for the cinema setup but find myself using speaker 4 in both setup as the dialoge cannot be heard on speaker 5 setup.

i have also enquired at my dealer who has quoted me over £600 for AST to be installed on my BV7 mk3 and £90 call out fee with £85 per hour to look at my speaker query -

Hi quader

It sounds like you're listening to stereo from two sets of speakers and not surround sound then.

Have you tried adjusting the speaker levels in the audio menu? You can't adjust the center speaker level up but you can adjust all other speakers down. I adjusted my front and surround speakers two ticks down from the default level. This makes dialog more hearable.

The AST should be for correcting less than perfect speaker placement. Not a missing speaker. My speakers are perfect, placed perfect and I spent days measuring, listening and moving around, so no artificial tinkering with the sound is needed.

Of course if AST can make a phantom center without manipulating anything else it's worth considering, but I would prefer the Beosystem in itself being able to mix the center into the front.

kimchr wrote:

Yes, you are right. I have BL5's as my main speakers and they play the center channel excellent in speaker mode 2. But that is not surround! Even if I select the speaker mode 4 it's still just stereo played through four speakers.

What I need is my two BL5s playing front and phantom center and my two BL8000 playing the surround channels.

I have a BL7.4 used as a center channel in TV mode, but it is under the TV on the wrong wall.  My cinema setup / listening setup is rotated 90 degrees for optimal BL5 placement.

kimchr wrote:

As the software is, I have to add a second center channel for cinema mode. For testing it's two BL6000, but of course that is no match to the BL5s. That became obvious to me, when I did some listening tests A/B repeating a scene from Fifth Element in speaker mode 2 and 3.

Bottom line is I'm considering buying an external surround processor or upgrading my beosystem if possible, so any input on that is appreciated.

kimchr wrote:

 

My input to Bang & Olufsen is a software upgrade that makes speaker mode 4 play 4.0 and not a 2+2 when a multichannel signal is fed. Alternatively allow not to setup a center channel speaker and then have the fronts play a phantom center.

Speaker Mode 4 should really be thought of as a "Party" mode, and shouldn't be considered for any kind of "serious" listening... In theory, if your Speaker Roles are set up correctly, then you should be getting a 4.x (the .x depends on the Speaker Types in a BS3) with the setup I described above.

Let me know if this works - if not, then let's start talking about what HW/SW version you have and I can do some asking around to people who know more about these things than I. My problem is that the stuff I'm working on is usually a generation ahead of what's in the stores... so I'm not a very good reference for the existing gear - but I know people who are... :-)

Cheers

-geoff