I've had both Beolab 8000's and 18's and my preference has always been to add a Beolab sub. I've recently moved from the 2 to the 19. The 19 is a significant improvement over the 2, offering greater precision and complimentary impact to the 18s. My speakers are all connected to my BV Eclipse and for movies I'd say its critical. And for dance music you also gain a significant step up in impact - you really feel the music. 

I know its another £2500, but it really completes the sound.

The placement of the sub and it’s tuning is key.

When I added the 8000 to my 18 + 19 setup, i found the legacy ones warmer in bass rendering, I was then disappointed by the 18 + 19 alliance .....

I disabled the sub to listen to 18 only and found them superior to the 8000 and including a better bass rendering.

I then moved my 19 closer to the 18, adjusted the gain, and voilà .... the 5 speakers are now filling my music space in a perfect harmony!

I have the BL18 for a month now and very impressed with the sound and bass capability. Before I had the BL14.4 and the 18’s are a real improvement.

I have the sub from the 14 still in my setup but do not use it with music, it actually gives worse bass than the 18, to punchy and heavy. The 18 is more balanced. Not sure if a BL19 sub is better than the BL14 sub (Always thought that the 14 sub was a very good sub).

Use the BL18 with BL3 and great combination. Also use a Horizon for fine tuning the sound settings.

Your personal taste, room acoustics and total setup will determine the need for a sub.

I had BL18s for four years and was always very pleased with the sound. I added a 19 recently. Makes a real difference at higher volumes. But placement is absolutely everything. Also don’t be afraid to play with the settings to optimise sound.

I use a transmitter 1 so that handles the high/Lowe pass filters.

I've got the 18s and a 19.

I use only the 18s for music really, I find it preferable to using the 18+19 (2.1) combination for music.

The bass reproduction of the 18's is absolutely fine, and when you add in the 19's I dont like the processing that is applied. in this 2.1 setup the mids just seem less pronounced.

The 18's on their own sound more coherent to me.

If you are a big film watcher, then the 19 becomes more essential.

 

 

Thank you very much everyone for your replies, that is very helpful already.

The alternative I'm considering is a pair of Beolab 9. Much prefer the idea and aesthetics of some 18's though—will consider the 19 as well.

Everything below beolab 5 needs a sub.

Hello hot knife,

I have had a pair of 18s since the day they arrived at the Greek dealer and I was super happy with them. They have very clear highs and a good capability in lows. After two years I added a beolab 2. Big improvement to the whole setup. I have the 18s and 2 connected to a beoplay v1 and I am using the setup for movies and music (almost any kind of music). According to my humble opinion they sound better when the signal processing is done by the V1 rather than a third party amp or tv. The reason I believe is simply that the V1 is doing all the sound processing and by that I mean that V1 (or any other B&O TV) "knows" the speakers you have connected to it and can do stuff like bass redirection etc.

In November 2018 I bought a pair of 9s to use with my beosound moment strictly for music listening. I knew from the begging that the 9s were (and still are to my opinion and wallet caliber) the most reasonable priced high end speakers made by B&O. They have a superior imaging (at least this is what I noticed) in comparison to the combination of 18s and 2. Furthermore they sound fantastic in all three bands (highs, lows,mids). I have tried to connect the 2 to them only to realize that at least for music the 2 is not needed. The combination of Class AB amps for mids and highs and class d for lows is magical for music listening at least for my ears and sound taste.

I definitely recommend the 9s but this does not mean that a pair of 18s do not sound good. I also had the opportunity to spend some time with a 18s and 19 setup and I have to admit that it sounds far better than the 18s and 2 setup even when they were playing from third party amp.

All in all my preference is

9s

18s+19

18s+2 (only when you have them connected to B&O equipment)

 

Sandyb wrote:

The bass reproduction of the 18's is absolutely fine, and when you add in the 19's I dont like the processing that is applied. in this 2.1 setup the mids just seem less pronounced.

The 18's on their own sound more coherent to me.

There is some truth here, certainly at lower volumes. Mids can suffer and there are times when I prefer the sound of just the 18s.

But when you get beyond about 60% of maximum volume the 18s simply cannot shift enough air. That is when a sub is necessary. The difference a sub makes at higher volumes is huge.