Getting creative with a projector and B&O set up

5 replies
H(
hjmoore7 (archived2)
Bronze
7 posts
Posted October 13, 2019 at 16:54 GMT
#2128768

Hi,

I currently have a 135" projector screen, which is powered by a sony vw360 4k projector and a Marantz 7012 av receiver.

In terms of speakers I am currently using the Kef R300's as centre, front and rear speakers combined with a B&W PV1D subwoofer and 4 KEF Ci200rr-thx ceiling speakers.

For years I have been looking at getting some B&O speakers, but as I now could not imagine myself going back to a tv, the lack of dedicated centre speaker has always put me off - which is what led me going with the Kef's.

Originally I was torn between getting BL 18 fronts + with BL 17 rears or getting BL 17 for both the front and rear speakers.

However, after having a home demo, I was not that impressed with the BL 17's. It could be due them being on the floor so not ideal hearing height / size of the room, but it looks like I would most likely get BL18's front and rear - although the sales people suggested BL 3's could work well as rears, as theyhave an acoustic lens. (mentioned due to my concern that having BL 18's front and rear would be overkill)

The main thing though stopping me from pulling the trigger is getting a centre speaker. In particular, the thing that confuses me the most is I always thought that the front 3 speakers should match, so i'm not sure how this is achieved with a b&o set up.

Recently I realised you could use a variant of the beolab 7's as a centre - and have seen some pretty good prices for them. However, I can't see how regardless of if you have beolab 18, 20, 90 etc. they just match perfectly with the beolab 7.

As i mainly uses the speakers 90% movies 10% music, a centre speaker is of high importance to me.

In terms of my current thinking i have a couple options:

1) continue using the KEF r300c as a centre speaker

2) use a BL 7.6 as a centre speaker

3) use BL 12.3's as a centre by putting both speakers together and use them horizontally as a centre speaker

4) using the new sound stage as a centre

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but upon doing some research I saw that you could extract the speaker of the beovision eclipse and use that as a centre/receiver. As I am looking for the best experience possible, how well would this work? My thinking is this would provide the best possible centre speaker (out of all options mentioned above), whilst simultaneously getting the benefits of a b&o system. 

If I was to go down this route, would i have any issues getting full dolby atmos / dts-x via my kef ceiling speakers? Or would only the BL speakers work correctly with it?

Sorry if there have been any repeated questions, and would much appreciate any advice.

Thanks

 

.

 

JA
Jaffrey
Bronze
529 posts
Posted October 15, 2019 at 04:06 GMT
#2128769

Interesting. I had just the opposite experience. The BL 17 have a wider soundstage than the KEF R300s and hence better for movies IMHO. However, based on your choice, using the BL 18 up front and BL 3 or BL 17 for other speakers would work well. May be you should have another listen to the BL 17. The BL 3 as Center might work well since it sounds similar time the BL 18 from what I recall...

H(
hjmoore7 (archived2)
Bronze
7 posts
Posted October 16, 2019 at 15:05 GMT
#2128770

Could it be anything to do with the size of the room? The room I have it in is living room/kitchen setup. The room is about 10m x 6m and I have my sofa around 14 ft away from the projector. The other thing that surprised me was the vibrations coming off the BL17 - they vibrated more than the BL 18's and even the BL19.

JA
Jaffrey
Bronze
529 posts
Posted October 18, 2019 at 19:33 GMT
#2128771

Interesting. I think BL 17 has a very powerful sound. The vibration might indicate some sort of a defective unit? Interesting. I think the BL18 sounds more balanced than the BL 17, although the sound is deeper on the BL17 (Interestingly I have listened to the BL17,18 and 19 just like you). The BL18 and 19 sound excellent together. Just as the BL8000 + BL BL2 do. I am about to replace my BL6000 with BL17 in a few days :)

D(
doonesbury (archived2)
Bronze
180 posts
Posted October 26, 2019 at 16:23 GMT
#2128772

I REALLY dislike option 3 (orienting the BL 12.3 horizontally).  Note that the BL 12.3 have the ALT.  When oriented correctly, the ALT are designed to distribute the high frequencies over a 180 deg. horizontal arc with limited arc "height."  Reorienting the speakers as noted will lead to a very narrow horizontal sound distribution with very wide vertical sound distribution in the high frequencies which is the opposite for good listening.

I have an all BL system:  (2) BL5, (1) BL 7.4 (all in front) and (4) BL3 (surrounds).  I custom made stands for the BL7.4 and BL3 speakers such that they are the same height as the BL5.

To make this work for the front, I have a suggestion for you that I have in my projector system:  use an acoustically transparent screen.  My front speakers are behind the screen and all at the same height.

I recall reading of a sound comparison of the BL3 and BL5.  Supposedly, the listeners found that they sounded very similar, other than the much deeper bass extension of the BL5 vs. the BL3.  Note that there are often many used BL3 and occasionally BL7.4 that show up on ebay for not too much money.  I encourage you to look into these speakers.

Regarding the signal for the active speakers, I went the non-B & O route with a Integra preamp/processor.  If you go with this route, look into one that has Audyssey or similar sound processing system.  The preamp/processor should come with a microphone that plugs into the unit.  Locate the microphone at the seating positions (some units will provide multiple mic positions while others will permit only one position).  There will then be a setup via the unit that sends test signals through each speaker individually.  When complete, the unit will adjust levels, frequency response, etc. for the speakers.

Good luck.

D

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