Style wise no, sound wise yes.

So yes I would probably do it, if I had bought the BL 8000 purely for the looks (best looking B&O speaker if you ask me) I wouldn't change them, but soundwise the BL9 are much better.

I like the design of the BL9 too.

No. I would hang on and get a pair of BL5s. A second hand pair would be fine. That way you will have the best of both worlds - bass that you clearly value and much better sound. The BL5 is one of the few speakers which really are a step above most others. The BL9 is good, and better than what you have - but not that much better. I think what you plan will still be a compromise - the BL5 is never a compromise.

Doctor,

the BL5 is miles above my limit. Even a second life pair always sells for €11-12k. They are of cause every penny worth.

And my room size is only 22 m2.

Soundwise the Beolab 9 is an improvement over the Beolab 8002 Beolab 2 combo. But like Doctor I would go for a second hand pair of Beolab 5's as well. I've seen them for less then € 11k.

Agree with above. Hold out, save your money and get the lab 5s. I have them and will never look back. I don't necessarily think your room is too small and the 5s adjust and adapt their output anyway.

IMO, musically you won't miss any low-end. I've heard BeoLab 9s go extremely deep, and I have been quite vocal about my opinion on the BeoLab 2 as a musical subwoofer in the past! BeoLab 9s would IMO be quite a significant step up, but agree with others that if you can, save up for BeoLab 5s - they're really quite extraordinary even when compared to the BeoLab 9!

I do think the BeoLab 9s have their flaws - the mid/bass driver is IMO underpowered and doesn't seem to quite project properly, the soundstage lacks height for obvious reasons, they do start to shriek fairly quickly when you turn them up, and the bass can get a little bloated when listening at elevated volumes too. Not really major issues, but that's one of the reasons you pay double the amount for a pair of BeoLab 5s!

Nonetheless, the BeoLab 9 is an absolutely excellent speaker, and would easily outperform your current setup IMHO!

Maybe you should have gone for the beolab 11 sub instead of the beolab 2?

Expoman,

no the BL11 was/is to weak for me. PV1 from B&W instead of BL2 yes, but BL11 instead of BL2 in combination with BL8002 no way.

Where do you have the BL2 positioned in your room? Can you play with the placement? If it's in a corner, it will be effectively radiating into 1/2 Pi space, which means alot of boundary reinforcement and lumpy frequency response higher up in the potential passband of the subwoofer.

I find most people crossover their sub at way too high of a frequency, and/or have the volume up too much relative to the mains.

I personally like corner loading a sub, but it's trickier to get right. If you don't have measuring equipment, which most of us don't, start by verifying your sub is in absolute phase with your mains, and lowering the crossover point to 40 or 50Hz - ish. Play some low frequency test tones (20Hz - 100Hz, for instance). Your goal is to get as seemless a response as you possibly can across this frequency range. You may have to play with the phase control of the sub (assuming BL2 has one) to get decent integration.

A subwoofer is not a plug-it-in-and-forget-it affair. It takes much time and fine-tuning to set-up properly. Most people don't, or just don't know how.

I vote to keep the set-up you have. Much cooler looking and probably better suited to your taste in sound quality, if the time is taken to set it up right.

Jon