Beosound theatre for listening stereo music

[Lavie]

Hi all,

I’m currently using my BS Theatre to listen to movies and music. If I listen to music, all drivers are enabled by default. For optimal stereo experience – what would be the optimal setting that comes close to the way the artist meant the music to be? Only enabling the front-left and front-right speaker, disabling the center/height/surround channels?

Thanks

Ed

[Sandyb]

not sure what speaker group / listening position you are using for music? And what sound mode?

If you using sound mode = Music, then if your input signal is stereo (2.0), then the Music sound mode already is set to Direct – i.e it will just play from 2 of the Theatre drivers.

If you have been doing the above, all that is left to do then is to listen to music with True Image on, and then play around with the various front / back, left /right, height settings until you find something you perhaps prefer.

personally, I wouldn’t bother – there’s only so much you can really do if you want to not twist the image too much, and stay somewhat true to the recording.

 

[Lavie]

Hi Sandyb,

So I’ve set up several listening positions by means of the measurement mic. All listening positions by default enable all channels/drivers of the Theatre. I have several sound modes including the default ‘music’ mode, that enables true image by default. For playing music, I use airplay2 as from my iPhone or Mac, using the ‘music’ sound mode and the appropriate listening position (“couch”). I am to conclude that all drivers/channels from the Theatre are enabled, so including the side firing and upward firing speakers, since the sound is completely different when I disable all channels except the FL and FR speaker. Mainly because of disabling the ‘center’ speaker, I wonder if I’m missing anything anything. Should the center by enabled by default when listening to music? If I disable it, the sound is truly different.

 

 

[Sandyb]

The easiest way to judge (the q you are essentially asking) is by listening to music  (2.0) with sound mode Music (set to Direct) – that will only use 2 drivers of the Theatre (thats what Direct does).

I do that for my standalone bedroom Theatre – and it’s fine for my purpose, and in only a 4.5m by 4m bedroom.   A bigger space, and 2.o music in Music/Direct (only 2 front Theatre drivers) and I might feel differently.

An easier way to judge how it sounds than by defining a 2.0 speaker group / listening position.  The above will do it for you more quickly.

[Lavie]

Ha, definitely easier. Thanks again. Save a lot of time!

[cklit]

Hi,

I will probably be repeating Sandyb’s answer a bit, but here’s what I would do:
I have a 5.0.2 setup (Theatre+Fronts+Surrounds+Front heights).
If this was a Beovision Eclipse or 11 or similar and I wanted a listening position for music listening, I would probably create a dedicated 2.0 speaker group, where only the Front speakers were added.

However, because bass management in Theatre works differently (all speakers play their part in the low frequencies based on their capability), I do it differently here.

I start by setting up and adjusting a Listening Position with all speakers, optimized for the sweetspot.

I’m lucky enough to have a room that allows for “the triangle”, so that I can sit perfectly in the middle of the 2 fronts at the same distance from each speaker, as the distance that the fronts are apart. Therefore, after the microphone measurement, I check that the distance to each front is set to the same (because I don’t want to mess with the timing between the 2 fronts, when I know I’m seated in the optimal position). While I’m at it, I check all the other distances too 🙂

Once the Listening Position with all speakers is perfectly tweaked, go to your desired Sound mode and ensure that the processing is set to ‘Direct’. Leave ‘Bass management’ ON. This way ALL your speakers are helping with the low end, even though it’s only the fronts that are playing everything above 120Hz.

Now you won’t hear large differences in bass performance, e.g. when switching from a movie in surround to music in stereo – AND you’re utilising the full performance of your carefully collected entertainment system 🙂

 

Just to recap: If I only have one seating position, I can limit myself to 1 Listening Position with all speakers included, and 2 sound modes; one in Direct mode for music, and one in True Image for movies (my own preference, use something different if you like).

Obviously, you may need a listening position optimised for more people, but that is kind of out of the scope of this question.

Remember that you can assign a specific sound mode and listening position to each individual source via the app, so that you don’t have to change manually each time.

Enjoy the music.

[Millemissen]

Great post Christian ?

This imo belongs to the sticked thread Beosound Theatre – Knowledge Base in order not to get hidden as time (and posts) goes by.

MM

[cklit]

Millemissen wrote:

Great post Christian ? This imo belongs to the sticked thread Beosound Theatre – Knowledge Base in order not to get hidden as time (and posts) goes by. MM

Appreciate it, thanks. Is that something I do, or…? Not very familiar with the forums here 🙂

[Author]

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