Beosound 1 vs Level

[eswa86]

I am looking to expand my homenetwork which consists now of a Core and 2 M3’s with one larger speaker for a larger kitchen, which has the ability to be wireless so I can take it out to the garden (so I can stream LP’s to the garden from my Core). Budgetwise the Beosound 1 and Level fill those requirements, since I can get both for roughly the same price used. So now the question is how to choose which one, since I can’t really go out and listen to both of them next to eachother. The difference in batterylife is not a big deal for me btw.

So technically, are there many differences between them if we talk about the multiroom and chromecast-group functions, both will integrate well in my Beolink/Chromecast house? The Level is newer, does that mean anything when integrating it into my (older) Core/M3’s environment? Can the Level do things that the Beosound can’t because of its age?

Then the sound, it seems that the Level is better in stereo and maybe midrange/highs (brighter?), but the Beosound 1 seems a bit punchier in the bass region. Is that so? The only thing I can find is a youtubeclip where somebody compares the Level with the Beosound 2, but that one is a different  ballpark and obviously wins.

If the features are roughly the same, both designs are cool, and they sound similar, the interface of the Beosound 1 with the rotating dial might convince me 🙂 But would like to get some advice here! Thanks!

 

[Hiort]

eswa86 wrote:

So technically, are there many differences between them if we talk about the multiroom and chromecast-group functions, both will integrate well in my Beolink/Chromecast house?

I would say no difference there

eswa86 wrote:

The Level is newer, does that mean anything when integrating it into my (older) Core/M3’s environment?

I would say that also here there is no real difference between Beosound 1 and Level

eswa86 wrote:

Can the Level do things that the Beosound can’t because of its age?

Level is based on the new Mozart platform and as you may know is built in a way that it is supposed to be easily upgraded when new technology comes along. With Level you can integrate into your home automation, if you are into things like that.

eswa86 wrote:

If the features are roughly the same, both designs are cool, and they sound similar, the interface of the Beosound 1 with the rotating dial might convince me

I cannot comment on the sound because I have only the Beosound 1 GVA as my kitchen speaker and had it for a number of years. I have it on the “charging stand” so I can easily bring it out in the garden. For me the BS1 have a more interesting design and goes well into our interior design.

[Stan]

I did an extensive comparison between the Level and BS1 for my kitchen when the Level first came out.

To my ears, in my kitchen, the Level sounded slight better when I was sitting/standing directly in front of it.  Otherwise, the BS1 sounded better as its sound is less directional.  Most of the time, I really could not tell the difference without focused concentration.  Therefore, I’d rank sound quality as a tie (unless you plan to do most of your listening in the Level’s “sweet spot”).

I prefer the BS1 packaging.  Again, for my kitchen, it took less counter space and was better able to sonically handle countertop clutter with the raised mid-range speaker driven though the acoustic lens.

My BS1 is stationary 95% of the time.  Sometimes, I move it to my dining room when entertaining.  I think the Level might win on portability as it’s built more like a boom box from days gone by.

In terms of functionality/sources, they’re pretty similar.  At the time I compared, Mozart was fairly new so it was missing a couple things.  However, I have since bought a Balance so I will compare the sources of my BS1 (GVA) with my Balance (non-GVA).  They both support multi-room, Spotify, Deezer, B&O Radio, Bluetooth, Chromecast and Airplay.

I’m not sure if Mozart supports DLNA playback.  With my Balance, if I select an Album from my DLNA server, it will play one song and stop.  Last time I looked at the B&O website, it says nothing about DLNA playback for the Balance so I’m wondering if it might be working by accident (never bothered to log an error with B&O since the website doesn’t explicitly say it is supported).  My workaround is to start the DNLA playback on another device (BS2, BS1 or Essence – you could do this with a M3), and then join the Balance to the source, and it works fine.

One thing with a GVA device, you can listen to Tune-In and Audacy streaming sources as Google will play them for you if you ask.  However, I haven’t found any station that I care about that isn’t included in B&O Radio.  Google will also often play an advertisement before playing the source :(.

The Level may have the BS1 beat in terms of longevity, given Mozart is the latest and greatest platform, and it seems like the BS1 has been discontinued.  The Level supposedly can easily upgrade the hardware (although, I’ve seen other vendors promise easy upgrades in the future and not deliver on this promise).  You can definitely change the battery easier with the Level.

Which to buy?  For me, it came down the packaging.  The BS1 worked much better in my kitchen (and was cheaper at the time, sounded similarly good, supported similar sources and I didn’t care much about portability) so that I what I bought.

[eswa86]

Thanks so much for your extensive replies! Also listened to the new A5 which seems like a contender. Did manage to listen to the Level next to the A5 and the A5 went deeper in the bass regions, but then the level was a bit clearer. So it seems to be coming down to a design preference, and then also what is available with a good deal closely. They are all a bit too close to call. My preference design wise also lies at the BS1, and the physical volume dial in a kitchen is also a pre for the BS1. We’ll see. But if anyone has more experiences, please share! 🙂

[trackbeo]

Yes, the BS1’s rotary volume knob is easier to use than the Level’s touch control, where you can miss and “set-to-here” the volume rather than increment or decrement the volume at the edges.  (Particularly annoying when you get max-volume instead of +1!) Likewise picking up the unit to move it outside doesn’t upset a BS1 but the Level ‘s controls are close to the handle so sometimes it Play/Pauses.  On the other hand, children might ruin the tweeter of a BS1 while transporting it (mostly but not guaranteed by the neck, because it’s so heavy) — which will not happen with a Level.

But the Play/Pause button on the BS1 is the most finicky I have *ever* used: Press it just long enough, and just hard enough, or sometimes it does nothing.  It’s so finicky, I still don’t really know for sure if it’s a capacitance detector switch, because of course the track-forward and track-back *must* be.  But “hard enough” seems to indicate a physical switch in place of, or in addition to, a detector circuit.  Licking your finger or switching to a thumb in place of forefinger don’t seem to differ, thus my decision that there’s a button buried in there somewhere.  Or maybe not, rather some deformation of the plastic top is necessary to approach the antenna of the detector?  Or is it some battery thing because Pause works more often than Play?  I dunno, but it’s an annoyance and not as surefire as a BeoCenter 9500.  (In the old forums someone else agreed, so it’s not my one-off.)

Both of them have acceptable sound but neither is amazing.  Obviously there’s a bit of stereo in the Level, but if you’re always going to put it in the unused rear corner of a kitchen counter, even if it’s flat against one of the walls and not spanning the corner diagonally, you aren’t really getting much.  I think your use case should depend on the room.  If you hate the thought of the BS1 getting splashed with foodstuffs, get the Level and a wall hanger, and you can unhook it, flat, to party.  Of course that loses the stereo effect entirely (not documented but it’s what I hear) because on-wall doesn’t have left/right and out flat is trying to broadcast a uniform sound field.  Personal opinion: Use the Level against a side wall on a bathroom counter where the location of the user is constrained (by the sink & the mirror), and use a BS1 in the kitchen counter corner.

If you plan to move either one around, even rarely, buy the charging stand for the BS1, or the wall hanger for the Level.  Particularly the BS1 because that AC cord is a bear to plug and unplug.  The Level’s of course is easy.  If you plan to do anything but AirPlay and Bluetooth, well, get the Level because it has line-in and Mozart platform support.  Not playing from a DLNA server, which the BS1 still does, matters less to most folks.

Though they do sound different, since neither of them sounds dramatically better, don’t feel bad about letting looks dictate your choice!  Personally I prefer the BS1 conic solid, with mysteriously hidden drivers.  Versus the Level looks like an original 2001 BS1: a basic slab boombox.  Everybody raves about its wood front, but who wants to see the drivers thru the slots, and veneer on plastic is just so declassé, prefer the cloth to hide the works.  But my Final Answer: listen for yourself, no better advice than that.  Sorry to be so long-winded, but you asked…

[matteventu]

I personally love the design of Beosound 1 and 2, I think they’re two of the most iconic and timeless pieces of the B&O collection.

 

However, rationally, if I had now to choose between Beosound 1 and Level (or A5), I’d definitely choose Level/A5.

Currently, the ASE platform BS1 runs on is still fairly well supported, however it runs on extremely weak hardware.

 

If you have any interest in using Chromecast specifically, absolutely don’t buy BS1. ASE products have been updated at the beginning of 2022 to Cast firmware 1.52, and that’s likely the last version of Case they’ll see. Then, in 2-3 years, Google will raise the minimum Cast firmware version needed for most Chromecast features, and you’ll find yourself no longer able to use Chromecast (just like it happened with many devices B&O has left with Cast firmware 1.28 confirming they’ll no longer be updated to more recent versions, hence basically ending their Cast functionality).

In addition to that, Mozart as others have mentioned make the Level (and A5) much more serviceable, so in case you’ll have issues in the future (out of warranty) it should be easier and cheaper to find parts to get them fixed.

 

Mozart devices, in addition to the sources that older ASE devices support (including BS1), now also supports Tidal Connect.

Again, in terms of look I am ALL for the Beosound 1, and I’m sure I’d enjoy listening to it and staring at it with these eyes -> ????

But I am quite sure in a few years, it will become a pain to actually use (unless you use it just as a Beolink endpoint, extending to it sources that are originally played by other, more recent, devices).

 

TL;DR: unless I’d find BS1 at an incredible price (i.e. 50% the price of a Level in the same condition), then despite the love for its design I’d definitely go for Level/A5 (A5 likely being even cheaper brand-new).

This is my point of view, from a purely technical/platform perspective (not sound).

[tph]

trackbeo wrote:

Yes, the BS1’s rotary volume knob is easier to use than the Level’s touch control, where you can miss and “set-to-here” the volume rather than increment or decrement the volume at the edges. (Particularly annoying when you get max-volume instead of +1!)

For the record, that is not how the Level volume control works. You can’t instantly “jump” to maximum volume (or any volume step really) by missing the plus symbol – touching anywhere on the scale will gradually increment or decrement volume up until you reach the step that you’re touching or let go, whichever is sooner. Effectively this means that anything to the left of current volume step is part of the minus button and anything to the right of current volume step is part the plus button.

[trackbeo]

tph wrote:

For the record, that is not how the Level volume control works

Thanks! I’ll play with mine again next week. So just “for the record”, could you *please* comment on how the Beosound 1’s top button really works? (2.gen, no GVA so just the single center) You can see/read all the speculation I went through…

[tph]

The top panel of Beosound 1 is entirely based on capacitive touch, there is no physical button. What might explain the behaviour you’re seeing is that the measured capacitance value is affected by how much surface area of your finger makes contact with the touch sensor – when you press harder, a larger part of your finger is squished against it. That said, activating the centre button should not require force if it’s working properly, at least based on the Beosound 1 Mk2 that I tested here.

[Stan]

I struggled with my BS1 (and BS2) top buttons as well.  After a few years, I have finally perfected my technique to give a short tap.  My rules:  Your hand must be dry.  You must have good aim to cover the complete dot with your finger.  No partial coverage allowed.  No slight touching of any other buttons.  Don’t linger too long.  Tap and release (unless you’re doing a long press, but I’ve less problems with those).  Then, it takes a bit for the device to respond so you need to be patient.  If you think it didn’t work, and press again too quickly, you might turn it off before it fully awakes.  My Gen1 BS2 brightens the LED on the tip of the acoustic lens to indicate a correct press before it starts playing, but this is only visible to me in a dark room.  I haven’t noticed if my gen2 BS1 does this because I rarely use it in a dark room.

[eswa86]

I see, I do get that the BS1 doesn’t run this Mozart platform, but on the other hand, neither of my other M3’s or Core do (and will ever do?), so I’m f’ckd anyway when Google decides to upgrade their standards to a higher version, or? I am a frequent Chromecast user so that feature is quite important to me (it was actually one of the features that made me buy into the B&O system).

But good to hear that sound-wise the differences are negligible between the two (and the A5).

[tph]

There’s a huge leap in sound from Beosound 1 to the A5 – it’s much more capable in terms of bass and creating space around it (especially when placed closed to a wall and set to “front” directivity).

[Author]

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