S3 speakers arrived today - unpacking and first play!

258 replies
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I have mine in true wireless 9.5 meters apart. Only seldom i get any real stutter but not sure if this is due to my source or the wireless connection. I have an iPhone so don't want them connected with Bluetooth as the iPhone does not have aptx=lack of sound quality. To solve this I bought a raspberry pi and programmed this one to act as an airplay server (30£)(airplay is wifi losses audio, compared to aptx not a major benifit else than that airplay buffers two seconds sound in the network, but compared to regular Bluetooth audio this is a real big sound quality improvement for iphoje/Ipad etc.). The trick is here that one can connect the raspberry pi to the left speaker with the USB in. Hence it is possible to run them in true wireless with airplay. This is not possible for example with an airport as this only has audio like out, and the s3 does not support true wireless with line in!

 

This works very good.

 

And after 1 week I am very happy with them. My living room is close to 50m2 and the sound is still very good for ambience and soft listening to music, even with having them put the speaker pair this far away which is far from optimal.

 

Very happy buy, and works well with the USB in jack!

I have mine in true wireless 9.5 meters apart. Only seldom i get any real stutter but not sure if this is due to my source or the wireless connection. I have an iPhone so don't want them connected with Bluetooth as the iPhone does not have aptx=lack of sound quality. To solve this I bought a raspberry pi and programmed this one to act as an airplay server (30£)(airplay is wifi losses audio, compared to aptx not a major benifit else than that airplay buffers two seconds sound in the network, but compared to regular Bluetooth audio this is a real big sound quality improvement for iphoje/Ipad etc.). The trick is here that one can connect the raspberry pi to the left speaker with the USB in. Hence it is possible to run them in true wireless with airplay. This is not possible for example with an airport as this only has audio like out, and the s3 does not support true wireless with line in!

 

This works very good.

 

And after 1 week I am very happy with them. My living room is close to 50m2 and the sound is still very good for ambience and soft listening to music, even with having them put the speaker pair this far away which is far from optimal.

 

Very happy buy, and works well with the USB in jack!

Today in DK you can buy the s3 from Telia, they will sell it almost 500 DKR cheaper than Beoplay.
http://tilbehoer.telia.dk/cgi/frontend.cgi?func=catalog.show&func_id=25543&table=PRODUCT 

I bought 2 b&o units on a deal, for my own christmas gift. The idea was to use this linked up, with a chrome cast audio, so i can lissen to my music collection with out having to use bluetooth. Should this solution work ? i keep reading that linked units dosent work proberly when you use line in? also are there still problems with the unit not going into standby mode? will the unit wake up automatic when it gets a input on inline?

This is the device i had in mind:

https://store.google.com/product/chromecast_audio

 

either i want to run them wireless togerther, where one of them (the master??) gets the input from the chromecast audio, or let them be wired togerther, if that makes them run more stable? can they be wired togerther when you need to use the line in?

 

i hope some one can shed some light on this, as i need to return them with in a week, if they dont work as intended.

OK, I've just done some testing at last.

To play a pair wired together via the mini jacks you first have to put them in multi speaker mode. That means you have to press the B&O logo continuously for about 8 seconds until the LED is orange - note, it is flashing orange which B&O don't tell you. Do that on both speakers. If you try to play music now you get nothing. To get the music, you actually have to press the B&O logo briefly again until the orange LED is lit constantly - now the music appears in stereo. Then, after a few seconds, both LED's revert to solid white which again B&O don't tell you!

When they are like this, Bluetooth is not available.

So yes, they do work wired if only B&O would give customers the correct and full information.

I can't comment on what you wish to use as your source.

Dave.

As a further comment - yes, the auto sense works in this situation.

Hi Dave,

is this, what you mean?

'Press and hold for 8 seconds until you hear the third sound prompt and the indicator flashes orange. Repeat the sequence on the rest of the speakers. Lastly, select the first speaker to become Master by pressing shortly, and all indicators turn solid orange.'

From the S3 Guide.

 MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

Hi Dave,

is this, what you mean?

'Press and hold for 8 seconds until you hear the third sound prompt and the indicator flashes orange. Repeat the sequence on the rest of the speakers. Lastly, select the first speaker to become Master by pressing shortly, and all indicators turn solid orange.'

From the S3 Guide.

 MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

Millemissen wrote:

Hi Dave,

is this, what you mean?

'Press and hold for 8 seconds until you hear the third sound prompt and the indicator flashes orange. Repeat the sequence on the rest of the speakers. Lastly, select the first speaker to become Master by pressing shortly, and all indicators turn solid orange.'

From the S3 Guide.

 MM

Aha!  Bugger, I misssed that.  Thanks for re-educating me before I sent a message to Ina on the service desk.  I was only referring to the technical guide from the S3 Tech guy previously posted and hadn't re-read the user guide.  However, they don't stay orange, they revert back to white again - I don't think it tells you that which then makes it more difficult to tell which mode they are in if say someone unplugs them behind your back!

There's too much to read!  Thanks MM.  But at least they do work properly now at least.

Dave.

 

Hi, the answer is no. You can't play them in true wireless mode with line in.

 

The best option with line is is to use the usb line in. Then they work in true wireless. 

 

I run them in true wireless with usb in. 

thats an odd limitation to put on the speakers, when the compitsion delivers products who offer that, at a less price. I dont think chrome cast audio has usb connection..

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