The Babies have arrived, installed and running!
The courier arrived with a two man team with this huge plastic wrapped box on a pallet and trolly.
Up the stairs, in the apartment, pallet removed and it was time to contemplate the next move as the couriers departed!
Huge box, but thank goodness no shipping or other damage - they're faultless, absolutely mint and beautifully finished! :D :D
The packaging was excellent and very well thought through to help prevent shipping damage.
Not wishing to make mistakes or have a slip/accident damage etc, I really took my time in unpacking and setup, and thought about every move before executing it.
Interestingly, all the leads are very good quality - but no sign anywhere of audiophoolery - just good common sense and solid engineering as one would expect from a firm with the reputation of B&O for science lead products and R&D.
The speaker outlets on the V1 are all RJ45, 8 pin/8 connector; one plugs in the RJ45 to 8 pin DIN lead into the RJ45 socket on the V1, and the other end into the DIN powerlink socket on the back of the speaker, found after removing a small cover, in which resides the mains socket, switches for left, right, or line, and environmental position - wall, corner or free, as well as another DIN socket to allow daisy chaining to the other speaker; simply set the switches to tell which speaker to play left, and which to play right and you're done.
After checking that everything was as it should be, it was time to switch on and setup speaker groups and levels etc.
The V1 allows different speaker groups for different functions, turning off or on the relevant speakers as needed, and one can set individual distances and levels as well as combinations of speakers for the different groups saved.
The surround sound processor permutations and sound tailoring options are particularly extensive, and far beyond what one finds in a current Yamaha or Sony for example - I can see myself spending quite a bit of time digging down in all the advanced menus later on.
To get things running, I setup the default TV group to just use the active speakers in the TV as per usual, i.e. stereo (Lab 9's off); another group I called Cinema with the V1 now configured in this group to be the centre channel, in conjunction with the Lab 9's all running, and lastly, another group I called music, where the Lab 9's run, and the V1's speakers are off.
The value of the V1 in terms of the surround sound processor alone is mind boggling - as I've said elsewhere, it has more in common with a professional device than a consumer item - but the payoff is in the flexibility and ease of use once everything's set up and configured, to give maximum versatility and intuitive operation to the lucky owner.
So, once set up (which I did with a tape measure for distances and an SPL level meter for matching speaker volumes) one can change between speaker modes at the press of a button, and the speakers just switch on or off as required, and with the relevant distance and level settings preset by the user.
I can see though why B&O offer a home visit/consultation to do the setup of their AV systems for the uninitiated though - if you had no prior audio experience or were just clueless, you'd probably want someone else to set it up for you.
Audiophile mythology has it that speakers take eons to run in; I've read on B&W literature that the mechanical stresses from manufacture can take approximately 15 hours to settle down, and temperature effects can cause the sound to 'change' for up to a week. B&W also state that anecdotal evidence that suggests much longer periods of running in, is mainly down to the user getting used to the sound rather than any inherent change in the speaker per se.
B&O say nothing about 'running in' at all, and doubtless some of their customers would crank it to the max straight out of the box.
However, I like to err on the side of caution, so apart from 65db of pink noise in setup, the first couple of hours I just played some quiet Orchestral (Grieg) at Granny levels for a start, and then after about 3 hours, brought the volume up to still quiet-ish, but otherwise moderate but not loud levels.
Fortified with yet more coffee! I sat through the 2 + hours of my demo playlist that I'd used in the in-store demo and afterwards replayed on the ESSony/SBL system.
There's no doubt - I don't think I'll need to be doing much in the way of carefully level matched AB's with the SBL's to pick differences to be honest - unlike amps and CD players the differences are quite marked and obvious - as the sound is in another league again.
Similar to what I noted in the shop demo, the resolution is substantially higher, and with it very noticeable gains in clarity, detail and the markedly natural presentation of vocal and instrumental timbre over my now previous ES Sony/SBL system. This is one very, very natural sounding loudspeaker.
Transient response, again as noted in the shop demo, is much more precise and accurate in the way it 'tracks' musical dynamics and with it the sense of involvement in a musical performance.
It's very early days; I've had them running for 5 1/2 hours now, and notice some things I didn't in the shop; the top end is exceptionally clear and natural, but no hardness, harshness, glare, grit, shout, edge or excessive brightness to be heard thus far - the sound is exceptionally clear, with outstanding reproduction of tonal timbre, and yet smooth and relaxing to listen to.
The sense of bass weight and extension imbues the sound with a sense of majesty and easy effortlessness that the ES Sony/SBL's could never match.
I'm finding that even listening at low to moderate levels, the sound has a real sense of scale and presence, and the listening is very involving yet very easy on the ear - there is no sense of listener fatigue after nearly six hours now whatsoever.
I'd have to put that down to active operation and the much lower distortion, and the scale and weight in the sound also means the volume doesn't have to be cranked right up to make it sound full and rich - it just is, even though it is idling along.
Soundstaging and imagining is noticeably better too, albeit that was never a strong point of the SBL, and with the new speakers crammed in front of the old to listen to them, it won't be until the SBL's are gone and I can set the Lab 9's up properly that I'll hear the full story on that point.
So, are they worth the money?
Well, as I say, it's only been a few hours, but absolutely.
It's hard to put a percentage on an sonic improvement, but I'd say about 30- 40%, perhaps more, over the Sony/SBL's. It's not as big a jump as it would be if they were Lab 5's rather than Lab 9's, but the combination of the very noticeable and worthwhile improvement in sound, plus the aesthetics and the ability to be rid of racks, and boxes that an active solution brings, adds up to a very high ownership satisfaction quota even given the formidable cost and early days as I say.
As the hours of operation build up, I'll gradually start working them harder re the volume, and also will watch a movie or two later in the week time permitting.
I've taken some happy snaps with the iphone and put them up on flickr and linked here with a 'guest pass'.
I'm sure there's ways to show the pics here directly but its been a long and exciting, albeit tiring day, and I've other technology to interest me at the moment!
So that's an early report and some pics; doubtless more to follow..
Take care and Best Wishes to all
John...
