Thought people might be interested in my new listening room. This has been an interesting project that has taught me a lot about audio and integration but produced a nice result. I was fortunate enough to have a room that does not have parallel walls which lends itself well to good acoustics.
I worked on the project with Watt Integration who is Arizona's B&O dealer. I have a bunch of B&O equipment and was hoping to just integrate it in a new configuration with a preamp. My overall project goal was excellent two channel sound with good surround sound. To that end, here were my specific goals:
- Digital music source goes digital directly to front Beolab 5s without D->A, A->D steps
- Analog for Reel to Reel, Cassette, Turntable, etc
- Surround sound movies and audio.
- My large (250,000 track) digital music library had to be fully accessible from the system
- One remote to control everything
We had originally planned to use my Beolab 5s as front speakers and even had the thing set up that way. In the middle of his project, my dealer made me a good deal on a pair of BeoLab 90s so that changed things with the integration, but the fundamental goals did not change.
High end video was never a requirement for this project. For me, video is disposable technology that changes every few years so I just bought an inexpensive 4k TV. Good speakers last a lifetime.
So the Beolab 90s are obviously the front speakers. They are connected via SPDIF to a Cambridge 851N digital preamp and via analog to an Integra preamp/surround processor. The Cambridge functions as a digital “switcher” and also streams 24/192 lossless music from both my library and Tidal. It has 5 digital inputs. Connected to it’s inputs are digital sources I want to go directly to the speakers. One input had to be unused to function as a mute so the Lab 90s would receive no signal when switching to the Integra preamp. It has 3 digital outputs that are live simultaneously. The outputs of the Cambridge are connected to the 90s via SPDIF and to the Integra preamp via TOSLINK for surround decoding. This allows playing DTS encoded FLAC files through the Integra and gives a connection to the record bus (see below). The Integra is connected to the 90s, a pair of 4000s (center) and Beolab 3s (rear) via analog pre-outs for surround sound. The Integra has 2 reel to reel players, cassette player, a turntable and various surround sources connected to it. The Oppo bluray player is digitally connected to both preamps.
Great two channel sound was always the priority so we decided to use Beosound Shapes on the wall as dampers to reduce reflections. No speakers, no core, just dampers. This was decided before the Lab 90s so I don’t know if they are needed now or not with all the ARC. But, they work and look cool so they stay.
This is all integrated via a URC remote that controls the lab 90s (beam modes, volume, etc), the two preamps and the controllable sources. It treats the system as a "whole", talking to different pieces of equipment to achieve different ends. For example, volume control. The Cambridge sends digital out at full volume, so I wanted the same buttons on the remote to control the volume on the Beolab 90s when in digital mode and the Integra volume control when in Analog/Surround.
It all sounds pretty simple when I write it here (well not that simple), but it turned out to be more complicated than it sounds. Some of the hiccups:
- Trying to find a remote controllable digital preamp. My previous set up used a Beosystem 3 but I hated the fact that I had to use a composite video switcher to choose direct digital sources and start the CD player to get it to work.
- Integration of the two preamps and lab 90s into an integrated system with single remote control that made sense. Watt Integration gets alot of credit here. Simple is hard.
- Latency of the 90s. Geoff Martin’s web site was super useful for this info. Even in low latency mode the 90s are 25ms. This translates to 8.5m. The Integra only allows distances up to 9m. Even switching to relative distances didn't get me there. Still not entirely solved. My sofa is too close to the Lab90s for technical reasons. I am waiting for a delay box I ordered so we can add that to the rear speakers and then I can move the sofa back. This will make the listening position less locked in.
- Lack of tape outs on modern Preamps. Wanted to be able to record everything to tape or distribute via Sonos. We ended up using Integra's Zone 2 for this with a manual switch to chose the destination recording device. Also added a “Record” button added to all sources (including the pure digital) that manages the zone 2 stuff in a more functional way.
Here are some pictures. Note, this is still a work in progress. There is no trim on the rack yet and the delay box has not been added. Plus the furniture needs a reboot. Watt Integration has been great to work with. This project has been experimental and they’ve been great about helping me experiment. Happy to answer any questions.
--tom
