Welcome to the forum! Congrats on your first post!

I'll bump your post because it's a great question... Stage vs. Eclipse sound. I suppose one could argue this is a silly question because the price difference between the two options is so significant, perhaps they wouldn't be cross-shopped. But nonetheless, an interesting question.

1. Stage bass performance is supposedly quite, quite good. I haven't heard it myself so I can't say but everyone here says, and everything I've read says, that it's quite impressive. Now, that is a relative statement--impressive compared to what? And if your comparison is a standalone 12" subwoofer you might indeed find it lacking. If you want the bass performance of a 12" standalone sub, you may not even find BL28 or BL20 satisfactory. You may need two BL19's or a pair of BL50. Others can chime in more.

But yes--good research--you cannot connect other speakers to a Stage.

2. Three options I am aware of for connecting BL28 to a non-B&O TV. (a) WISA (dongle or external box likely required); (b) S8 connection hub; (c) optical cables.

3. Eclipse is designed as a 3.0 standalone system which is expandable using other B&O speakers to much larger surround setups, in which case you can use the entire Eclipse speaker array for the center channel alone.

I'd love to hear from people more familiar how the Eclipse sounds compared to Stage. My guess is Stage has more bass performance because it has newer generation, high-excursion 4" drivers. The Eclipse's 4" drivers are the previous generation with less performance (but not poor performance--great performance!)

I hope that helps and kicks off the discussion. Welcome again.

Thanks for the answers and opinions. I wasn't really aware that its not that easy to get the same (or 'equivalent') sub performance as I have now. However, I'm willing to do a step back if that simplifies my system. 

I agree with you that many reviews rate the stage as quite good, but as you said compare to what? Only my sub alone is more expensive than the Stage it self, so it's also hard to compare as its in another segment. I didn't really thought about that point  This goes the same way regarding your point that the Eclipse and Stage are usually not being cross-shopped. 

As digging through more online reviews I think I need to forget the soundbar option anyway as it will be 'ok' but will never get close to my current setup, also has to do with woofer size which a much smaller soundbar just can't compete with. 

This leaves me to the final question if I should go for a pair of BL28 and use a convertor box. Would be great to hear users opinion on bass levels of the BL28. 

Probably just need to checkout the local dealer to evaluate the sound my self, but probably like many of you want to get some own research done before walking in to the dealer and doing it sales pitch. 

Exactly what PaulGiles writes, the Stage has an incredible bass. I had the Avant NG with 2x Beolab 20. 3.1 with this setup was amazing, especially the Avant was the center speaker and the Beolab 20 for the rest. I changed to the LG and the Stage and of course there is a different but the Stage is amazing when sitting in front of it. With a good source I could swear the Beolabs 20 are still playing but they aren't there anymore. Simply amazing. 

PaulGiles wrote:

Yep. Just confirming what we already know and love B&O really do know their stuff when it comes to sound. Pop along to you local dealer and test them side by side.

Thanks for all the input and its really down to hearing it your self and deciding what you prefer. This is mostly true for all audio but I thought there would be a clear difference in sound between them but apparantly they are close and have their own specifics. use cases and price. 

Apparantly we will be going for the Eclipse route, basically because I don't like that the Stage can't be extended to any other speaker in the future. I could buy a stage and wait for the moment it will allow connections but it will not be able to do any B&O integration stuff like use the Beoremote to controll all the other devices. 

To start off will go for the Eclipse with a Beolab 19 to give some punch in movies. Could I use two Balance's as Left and right channels? I'm going to the dealer but still like to be informed myself as my experience with other brand dealer is they don't know everything whats possible or not.