Still very content with the theatre even with left and front firing disabled on the bar. Its a awesome center channel in a multiple speaker setup. for music i do have to prefer the beolabs 9 in direct mode. To bad the Theatre is a very expensive core in this regard. The Theatre doesn’t beat the 9’s Music wise. That has to do all with stereo Imaging. How good the Theatre is it won’t be as good as 2 separate stereo speakers, it makes up for that being very spacious. i’m considering buying 28’s for front and putting the 9’s in the back. Demo’d the 28’s last week but i’m kinda disappointed. They lack the punch of the 9’s in my opinion. Might need a Beolab 19 for that punch. Maybe I need to give them another change. Or maybe a second hand beolab 20’s?
I had the 9s, sold them for the 20s- that was a big mistake- to my ears anyway.
The 20s lack presence and although in theory have more bass, in fact its far less than the 9s apart from the more accentuated bass lines -it must be the DSP making them sound clinical – one thing they share with the 9s though is a lack of midrange.
The 28s are a sigificant setp forward for normal listening, its a different experience , warm and precise- however for a party at full volume they wont meet the requirements as a lab20 if thats what rocks your boat!