Focus your investment on the B&O TV and Speakers you really want, where they continue to deliver a differentiated product.

The Beosound 5 does not provide a seamless connection to your iTune library.  Ask yourself, if you were buying a new PC today, would you buy it with Windows XP. No. But thats what a BS5 fundamentally is in embedded flavour. The Media Player uses the same technology as on a Zune. Then think about where digital media is heading and the cloud and then it highlights how dead-end the BS5 is and how constrained you will feel in the near future.

The Beo5/6 is ancient technology that will frustrate you in minutes, then will absolutely have you banging the wall the moment you want to personalise it any further without having to make a trip to your dealer whilst parting with £50 for the privilege. 

Get an AppleTV for £99 or $99 and you'll get the function of BS5 + so much more, with simplicity and elegance that if B&O knew how to write software, then this would be it. Then, get an iPad when you really want to enjoy complete media flexibility and install the remote app which completely redefines how remote controls should be.

I love my B&O kit, but IMOP the BS5 and Beo6 could have been so much more.

I have an iPad...

And a bunch of apples... My second option would perhaps be a good DAC...

But connecting a DAC to the BS9000 aux, isn't that a bit of a luxury? Won't the BS9000 do something to the signal? Even if it won't I don't feel good about feeding the Beolab 5's with an analog signal.

Or should the best option be to save the Beosound 9000 (which is one of my favourite B&O products ever, and feed the Beolab 5's with a digital signal from an i.e. Mac Mini digital out. There's probably a "Y" connection I could find making it possible to connect both the BS9000 and Mac Mini digitally to the Beolab 5's?

To control the Beolab 5's using the mac mini, I could bump the Beosound 9000 into AUX mode, the Beolab 5's automatically listens to the digital in first anyway. I even have a spdif optical to coaxial converter! 

Does this make more sense? A mac mini and some "Y" connectors is by far cheaper than a BS5.

My iPad would be a killer remote... 😁

Hi Andreas 🙂

I've been thinking of a similar system too. I haven't been a big fan of the Beosound 5 either. I'm not a techy at all, so I have no idea if your suggestion works, but it sounds good! Must get an iPad myself 😕

At least wait until the BS5 Encore turns up and see what it offers - I think the BM5 solution is incredibly expensive (and large & ugly) for a dedicated PC on which to store your music (with known issues such as lack of ALAC support etc). The Encore would seem to make much more sense (if you seduced by the BS5 controller) to have it play music from an existing computer or NAS drive. If the Encore doesn't integrate seemlessly into an existing music storage solution I'd be tempted to look elsewhere as B&O's track record with software etc. would mean you're likely to be heading down a one way street.

Have you ripped all of your CD's in a lossless format? You can start doing that now so that you'll be ready when you buy whatever you choose. If you're going to do it yourself be prepared to spend many evenings slotting in CD after CD! Still, it'll make the upcoming holiday season fly by! - enjoy😂

Please note there should have said "bump the Beosound 9000 into aux, not BS5, as I first had.

Puncher wrote:

Have you ripped all of your CD's in a lossless format? You can start doing that now so that you'll be ready when you buy whatever you choose. If you're going to do it yourself be prepared to spend many evenings slotting in CD after CD! Still, it'll make the upcoming holiday season fly by! - enjoy😂

Haha! I know it's a pain in the a$$, but what option is there...

My last option the one with the Mini, would make for a system where I could have most of my CD's hidden away in a closet. Using the Mac Mini for my primary music source. 

Hi,

Just my two cents.

ad 1) Apple TV 2nd generation is not able to connect to a NAS but needs a streaming server like a running Itunes installation

ad 2) Apple TV 1st generation only has up to 160GB which is not very much, right now I am running out of space because of all the pictures, music and movies synced on it.

Personally I would go for a mac mini were you can easily upgrade the HDD but unfortunately you ll not have the beautiful BEO "remote" :-)

Larskoelle wrote:

Hi,

Just my two cents.

ad 1) Apple TV 2nd generation is not able to connect to a NAS but needs a streaming server like a running Itunes installation

ad 2) Apple TV 1st generation only has up to 160GB which is not very much, right now I am running out of space because of all the pictures, music and movies synced on it.

Personally I would go for a mac mini were you can easily upgrade the HDD but unfortunately you ll not have the beautiful BEO "remote" :-)

Yes I too think the Mac Mini is the best route... Been down this route once before. :)

Anyway, the Y piece for the spdif might or might not work, since it relies on a 75ohm resistance in the cable, wouldn't a Y piece change this?