Built in bluetooth receiver in Beosound century, are there experiences here?

7 replies

A friend of mine owns this system in his kitchen. He installed it in 1995, hanging on the wall, no cables visible. The radio was connected to FM using the cable distribution.

Today our belgian cable distributor Telenet decided to switch off the analogue cable signal, so FM isn't usable anymore on his Century. Using an antenna isn't possibile: almost no FM signal.

He decided to keep this wonderful system, but he likes to use a Bluetooth receiver and stream his content by using his smartphone.

I don't know the possibilities of B&O systems today. The target is to implement a non-visible bluetooth receiver.

How could I realize this in his system. Does B&O offer something, or what else should I use?

Thanks!

Gert

Hi Beeldbuisje, and welcome!

There is an AUX connection on the back of the Century (and an AUX selector button on the front) that you can use to play sound from an external source.

When you know what kind of (bluetooth) receiver you like (for example apple airport express or google chromecast audio) you can ask Steve at Sounds Heavenly for the right cable to connect it to the Century. To make it 'invisble' is probably the trickiest part, however, if there is a Coax cable for the antenna signal already, it might be possible to replace that with an audio cable (and keep the receiver in the 'technical' room). In that case Bluetooth might not be the best choice, and an Airport Express over wifi/lan is better.

Always a good decision to keep on using these great classics!

Good luck, let us know please how you will proceed.

Regards, Johan

Location: Netherlands

My B&O Icons:

Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovision-10.png Beovision-10.png
Beosound-5.png Beosound-5.png
Beoremote-One.png Beoremote-One.png
Beoplay-H8i.png Beoplay-H8i.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png
Beomaster.png Beomaster.png

Tibo electronics might also have a nice solution for you (if I remember well, Steve sells these too). Again, the nicest would be when you can place it away from the Century to have the minimum of cable clutter.

Location: Netherlands

My B&O Icons:

Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beovision-10.png Beovision-10.png
Beosound-5.png Beosound-5.png
Beoremote-One.png Beoremote-One.png
Beoplay-H8i.png Beoplay-H8i.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png
Beomaster.png Beomaster.png

An unconventional but working "multiroom" audio solution for your use case is a FM / VHF test generator

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fde.elv.com%2Felv-hq-stereo-ukw-pruefgenerator-sup2-komplettbausatz-091048


This little device can be used to insert any audio signal into the radio antenna cable of the corresponding device (it's only allowed for home use of course). This means that e.g. a Google Chromecast, an Apple Airplay receiver or a Bluetooth receiver can be used for every audio system you have that has a simple FM antenna input. No modification of the audio system required, just connect it with the antenna cable to your Century and you're ready to go.

I don't know if its output power is high enough to feed a complete house cabling.

Thanks to all for the tips!

It doesn't matter what kind of bluetooth receiver it will be. As long as it can be made invisible. It just has to cooperate with that guy's smartphone bluetooth streams. It could be a very easy thing. Especially, very small πŸ˜•

And indeed, when it's very small, it could be connected by the AUX input. I'll look further what's on the market.

The different task is not to find a device for this - there were some good suggestions here.

They can easily be hidden behind the BeoSound.

The triggy part is that the all need power....and where to get that from!

You could expand through the existing powercord for the BS - it will need some DIYing.

The device that TWG suggested might be a good idea, since it can be placed away from the BS, if you can locate the antenna.
One benefit there: if there also are some masterlinked devices in the setup (a BL3500 or alike) it will be very simple to operate.....just push Radio and the β€˜new’ station number.

MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

Edit!

Just noticed that it is a Century - please forget the note, I made about masterlinked products....this is not relevant here.

MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

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