Another video - if you haven’t already gotten enough - with lots of close up pictures:

https://youtu.be/FL4wMth9S-w

MM

The Beosound Theater checks off all of the boxes of what I was looking for in a replacement to the Beosystem 4 with the exception of how the Beoremote One control is implemented. It makes sense for the Beoremote One control to work via pairing with the LG screen IF control of smart tv apps are needed. However, if all of the control of the screen that the user needs is just to turn the screen on/off, it seems that the HDMI-CEC could control that and have all other control of the Beosound Theater be made through pairing the Theater directly with the Beoremote One. I'm finding B&O's approach at having Beoremote One control reliant on an LG screen to be frustrating. As it stands now, if I want to use a Beoremote One with my Theater, I would need to replace my Samsung screen with one of the supported LG screens.

I believe, reading between the lines, that B&O are trying to get some (perhaps the same?) level of integration with other brands (Sony and Samsung would achieve a lot). But that is not a very near term likelihood. Not sure the impact of the LG/B&O partnership on that project / aim, but regardless, I do believe that other brand integration is something they are aiming at.

OK, I've just come back from spending 40 minutes listening to the Theatre.

The B&O area in Selfridges, London has had a Theatre installed in their small listening room, with BL18s as front l/r, and BL28s as rears.

I posted the below on Discord:

Their set up is Theatre, BL 18s left / right front, and BL28s rears, all in the relatively small room that was shown in the photos yesterday......
We've all seen enough photos of the Theatre now, so in real life, nothing will change vis a vis your visual appreciation......if you liked it from the pictures, you'll like it in real.....if you dont, then you probably wont.......they had the 65 Theatre on the floor stand...

Sound wise - i listened to the Theatre on its own (speaker group 1 in their setup), the Theatre in a group called TrueImage (Theatre, 18s fronts, 28s rears), and a 3rd speaker group Theatre + rear 28s (i.e no front left / right 18s)......

I wanted to gauge how good the Theatre was on its own - speak group 1 above....And its a pretty big sound, certainly more voluminous (width / depth / height) than the Eclipse. Was it mnd blowing on its own? Not to me, no. In simple terms, if i had a Harmony, its broadly similar, and i wouldnt feel compelled to change (on sound considerations)

I also wanted to gauge whether i (and this is just me) the Theatre alone would remove the need for front speakers (L/R) - and to me, no...i'd definitely still retain a dedicated set of front l/r speakers.....for context i like a massive wide soundstage, and my lounge is 3-4 times the size of the listening room.

Flicking between their group 1 (Theatre on its own) to group 2 (adding BL18s fronts) was reasonably different to me - there's just quite a bit of extra width with dedicated fronts.....

Speaker group 3 - the B&O triangle lets call it - Theatre + 28s rears, was extremely good....oddly enough, i can see why they recommend this.....in this configuration, i didnt really miss the BL18s front l/r........for a decent but not large livign room, i can see why that will be a very good setup.....

Hi Sandyb,

Interesting comments. The thing that's missing is the details of the configuration of the Theatre, which could have a noticeable impact on your experience.

I won't get into the details of what, exactly, this means, since I'm working on a blog posting about it at the moment. I should be releasing it sometime this week, I hope... :-)

Cheers
-g

Hi Geoff, I am looking forward to read your post. I sometimes refer my students to your articles on your blog, you really have some excellent material there!

I have two questions about the Theatre which are not obvious from the currently available information. Under the assumption that there is a ceiling that allows to bounce back the sound, can the Theatre use the upfiring speakers to emulate the effect of ceiling speakers? And similarly, if the rooms allow it, can it use the side firing speakers to widen the sound stage?

Hi there Geoff, yes in some respects the setup (having literally just been done on Thursday night at Selfridges) wasn't ideal. In the sense that it was hard to find out to what extent the installers had set it up properly. Were all the various calibrations done, and done properly? One can only assume.

So my thoughts, caveated more fully on my Discord post, were initial impressions only. My usual dealer in London has a much more conducive listening environment, so I will revisit.

Initial impressions were pretty damn good though, and this is the product I've been waiting for. While I will certainly retain my BL50s as left / right fronts, and hence the following comment is less applicable to my setup, I did think the Theatre front / BL28s rears was indeed a very very good overall experience, and not one where the absence of dedicated front l/r's was felt.

Anyway, my finger is poised to buy 2 Theatres - but I need Matrix integration to e implemented, as I (as some others still do) have a separate room / space with sources / HDMI matrix and cabling infrastructure to serve multiple BV's in different rooms. (not your domain I strongly suspect, but mention it I must!)

Thanks, and look forward to the blog post.

Hopefully either here or in your blog @geoffmartin, or from your experience @Sandyb, one of you might say why the 28 were used for rear and the 18 for front?  Based on the "typical" towers front (w/sub) & satellite surrounds in a home theater, it seems backwards.  Is there some secret sauce in TrueImage combining the 18s as fronts with the Beosound Theatre as their woofer, and/or using 28's woofers as multi-point room-modes-elimination method?  I don't see the reason, especially since the Theatre's frequency response has been said (by whom?) to be "much like" a 28 -- simple L/C/R timbre-matching would forestall a lot of DSP foofaraw.

I dont know why, but it may have been more store specific in this case. In their small listening room I think they possibly already had the 18s wired in (their other 18s are not connected), so I wouldn't read too much into that (I think).

Moreover one point of marketing emphasis is, as you infer, on the capability of a Theatre alone with 28s as rears ( I call it the triangle, for brevity!).   It did sound pretty persuasive to me, especially for a modest living space. Personal preferences often override these considerations of course.

That said, for some perhaps like myself, who are. sticklers for a massive wide soundstage, my impression (from listening to the Theatre alone) was that (again for fusspots like myself), I would still want / need dedicated front left / rights.

I cant account for whether the Theatre and other speakers were perfectly setup / calibrated, as the sales team didnt do it - a team of installers (assuming from B&O?) came in and did it overnight last Thursday, so none of the salesman were around.