S3 speakers arrived today - unpacking and first play!

258 replies
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Dave Farr wrote:
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.

thank  you, it seems there is hope to get the setup i had intended to work.

When setting up multi speaker mode, it seems to be important to do the master speaker first and then the slave. I've just discussed this with B&O Manchester today as I was visiting and they have experienced similar issues to me with them.

Dave.

Madsholme

 

No as of this moment it is not possible to use line in in true wireless, if i understood Dave he now has them in wired mode. 

 

It should be in the future maybe possible with a software update to enable line in in true wireless but this only BnO knows. I agree that this is a very strange limitation. I can just imagine that this has to do with the fact that both usb in sand bluetooth in are digital signals. Although off course the analog signal in line in is processed to digital signal i can just suspect this is the reason for why not line in works!

 

My guess is, that it has to do with bluetooth.

Both channels are seperated in the first speaker and only one is redistributed.

You (they) can't do that with an analog input.

MM

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

I thought i'd hook a pair of these up tonight and have a listen.

One S3 on its own....sounds good. Better by quite a way i'd say than the A2. Not quite as powerful as BeoLit 15.

However, hook up a pair (I am playing a pair in True wireless mode - i.e. wirelessly connected to each other and streaming Bluetooth from my iPhone 6) and they are a completely, completely, totally different sound - not just twice as good, ten times as good!

I am completely blown away by the sound of this small sub-£600 system! Not often am I so impressed, certainly not so quickly, but I'm in love with these! It makes me wonder if I want an A6 in my dining room for sure.

I have experienced all the issues Dave has mentioned earlier in this post. I think i'd like to use a pair of these wired to an Essence so I can use the multiroom function with them, but I really can't describe how great they sound as a pair - i'm totally impressed! 10/10 for a little pair of speakers - the sound is making me bery happy 😁😁😁😁

If anyone has a pair - i'm currently listening to "Talking in your sleep" by The Civil Wars on Deezer.

I also enjoyed Muse's Supremacy, AC/DC Back in Black, and Adele's new Hello. There you go - there's a playlist to take to your dealer for a demo! 😎

Nice to actually have a stereo pair of speakers as I have been listening to a fair bit of Avant/BeoLit/A2/A9 lately - you forget how great it is to have a bit of stereo separation!

Nice to hear, Martin.

Makes me want to buy a second one.

I am still impressed with the sound of mine - more impressed than ever expected.

How far apart are yours placed/how big is the room?

Pics, if possible - please ;-)

Location: Flensborg————Danmark

Millemissen wrote:

Nice to hear, Martin.

Makes me want to buy a second one.

I am still impressed with the sound of mine - more impressed than ever expected.

How far apart are yours placed/how big is the room?

Pics, if possible - please ;-)

There is a tv - and there is a BV.

@MM, you really should buy a second S3. The stereo separation is excellent - even when next to each other on a table as I tested them at first. At two metres apart even in a large room, they easily fill the Room as they are so easy to angle outwards if you want to. They are a bargain and I'd much rather have a pair of S3's rather than an A6 any day.

It would be nice to hear someone's thoughts/experience on a comparison between a pair of S3's and an A6.

Dave.

Hi guys.

I just registered here to comment in this thread. I got a pair of S3 at less than half price so I can't complain about that. For the S3 my expectations were: finally a true wireless speakers i could use with my computer, warm and detailed sound, a joy to use.

Pros: true wireless, small, kinda prettyish (maybe moreso in white with the custom covers), usb input.

Cons:I'd never say that they sound bad, but I don't think B&O got the tonality quite right. They are a little bright. I would prefer my Sonos Play 1 if I had to choose, and of course a pair of Genelecs at the same (original) price kinda smokes them. But that is alright, they all have their use. 

USB connection is a little ackward because you can't change the master volume in Windows (dunnot about OS X and Linux). I do understand that this is because you are supposed to change the volume on the S3 itself, but it just doesn't feel right.

Both the wired pair mode with either bluetooth/line-in/usb and true wireless mode are unstable and really f.... up. True wireless also lags a lot, so not very usefull when streaming video, which again makes invalidates the S3 as wireless computer speaker. 

The point of B&O is to have a certain standard, in craftmanship, sound quality, features, easy to use etc. Unfortunately I think the S3 falls short of this standard. In the end I returned them, even though I got them for less than half price. It just wasn't worth it.

Capitaine wrote:

The point of B&O is to have a certain standard, in craftmanship, sound quality, features, easy to use etc.

Welcome Mon/El Capitaine 🙂

Out of interest what is/are your other B&O kit/ experience(s) ?
How would you get them at half price? Since they certainly don't have a 50% margin, that would mean someone would have had to pay for you to have them? Seems strange on a new product?
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