Beosound 5 Encore – a relic or a marvel?

[colm nugent]

I have a Brennan JB7 (CD ripper/harddrive) connected to my BL 7.2 and I was considering replacing it with an BS 5 Encore.  But its 10+ years since this was introduced and i was wondering if it still is supported with updates (for example, new radio stations) and how well it works with modern music streamers like Spotify, Apple Play etc.

[Capt’nGerard, formerly known as Gaea]

Mine had its last sw update in 2011, so I think it never had an update besides its initial sw.

But radiostations do get updates I reckon, at least you can request a radio station to be added to the Beoradio list if you ask the helpdesk.

Location: Netherlands

[colm nugent]

Thank you for your helpful response – would you recommend the Encore as a way of me playing my CD collection (currently loaded onto a  hard-drive)?

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

I think it is an extremely bad idea from what I have heard.  The reason being the BS5 is running a very old version of windows and it is incredibly insecure with lots of security issues that can easily exploited to get on your network and god knows what.

Perhaps try getting a Beosound 2 or BS9000 for your CD’s.

• This reply was modified 21 hours, 4 minutes ago by Severed_hand_of_skywalker.

Location: Toronto, Canada

[Mbee]

@Severed hand of skywalker: we’re speaking of Beosound 5 Encore here, a device where Windows has never been…

On my side, I sold mine because I was moving home were it didn’t had a place to be manipulated from the couch anymore, and because it’s not compatible with streaming services, but I think that it’s still a great way to browse digital music « physically » with the big wheel and MOTS system. If you search something to have a physical interface with your flax library on your NAS, it could still be interesting, but be prepared to clean your library (cover images are limited in size and must be names folder.jpg for instance).

On the other side, I’m not sure B&O radio will continue to work on it for a long time, and if you use streaming services or want to mainly control your playback via remote (app is not available for it), it will just be painful.

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

Mbee wrote:

“@Severed hand of skywalker: we\u2019re speaking of Beosound 5 Encore here, a device where Windows has never been”

Does it not have to be connected to a BeoMaster 5 though?

Location: Toronto, Canada

[Capt’nGerard, formerly known as Gaea]

No, the Beosound5 & Beomaster5 combo (is still running on Windows95) is different from the Encore version

The Beosound5 Encore is standalone. And running on a Linux flavour.

Although The BS5Encore was able to cooperate with the BS5&BM5 combo, as in the latter in the main room and every other room a BS5 Encore.

 

It has 2 usecases; playing Beoradio and playing local music files from a NAS or USB.

I always liked the operation by hand, like you do with a record player.

Had it for about 10 years without a remote control.

• This reply was modified 5 minutes ago by Capt’nGerard, formerly known as Gaea.

Location: Netherlands

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