Ouuups - Barry beat me on that question ;-))))

I just set up a new Core with Beolab 5's. The speakers power up the Core is activated via the app. As far as I'm aware, no need for the digital out connections to be used in this configuration. 

Sound quality is brilliant via Spotify!!

The recommended setup is to use the digital end-to-end signal from the Core to the BL5 (via optical-to-coax-converter) and at the same time use the PowerLink connection in parallel to maintain data communications. This setup avoids static noise.

Roger

Roger wrote:

The recommended setup is to use the digital end-to-end signal from the Core to the BL5 (via optical-to-coax-converter) and at the same time use the PowerLink connection in parallel to maintain data communications. This setup avoids static noise.

Roger

The BL5 will give priority to a signal received on the SPDIF socket over PowerLink.

Roger

Thanks Roger - very helpfull.

A set of BL20 or BL18 via SPDIF driven by the Core would also be nice ;-)

MM

Roger wrote:

The BL5 will give priority to a signal received on the SPDIF socket over PowerLink.

Roger

Are you sure? With a Beosound 9000 / Beocenter 2 setup the only possibility to activate SPDIF was to use CD as source. That's why I was using my BL5 in Option 1 (Volume Control via Beo4).

You are correct - a better way to explain it is by example:

The BeoSound 9000 and BeoLab 5 were designed for each other: Listening to radio and the speaker signal would be carried through the PowerLink only, activate CD and the BS9k would get this data communicated through the PowerLink and would give preference to the SPDIF (if present) - but would still work in "radio mode" if no digital signals were present.

Roger

That would mean, that only the source, that can be activated via the CD command throught the ir/Core, would activate the digital connection.

Any other source/command would ‘play’ through the analog/PL.

According to the list of ir-commands for the Essence (would be the same for the Core, I suppose), that would be activating ‘Spotify’.