BM 5500 and Penta’s

[lostagain]

Hi all,

First post so be gentle! i moved the bm5500 to have a good dust removal and am now not sure if i ever had the speakers connected correctly although the manual is a little confusing regarding the sockets.

At the moment i have a 3pin plug into the bottom pair of sockets (speakers 2) on the amp/receiver connected to the speaker link socket on the Penta’s but reading the book it states that for speakers in the same room use the speaker one sockets which use a 4 pin plug, everything works ok and i have the input level set to the middle position (2 Bars) and mode set to auto and this is all controlled via the beoline 1000 remote.

Am ok with this as it is or will i need to get a new pair of speaker cables, also are the speakers being driven by the amp or the internal amp in the base, sorry it’sa bit long winded.

Michael.

 

[Glitch]

The extra wires are most likely used for signaling (turning on the Penta amps) and data for the displays. My best guess is that you currently have either one or the other working. A four pin cable may enable full Speakerlink capability. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what that entails and if the version of the Pentas (1, 2, or 3) makes a difference.

Hopefully my answer will hold you over until someone more knowledgeable replies. It may be helpful for others if you provide the “type numbers” of your particular equipment.

In general, if you are happy with how your system is working, you don’t “need” new cables. You might get some added functionality if you do upgrade cables.

Glitch

 

[lostagain]

Just looked and the speakers are Beolab’s 6632 which are 3’s from what i can make out and fwiw the displays are green and working apart from a couple of pixels in one.

[Homersaurus]

The BM5500 can drive two sets of speakers (actually more) from the two pairs of speaker outlets.  Both outlets (pairs) will take the 2 pin DIN plugs to drive two pairs of passive speakers or two pairs of Beolab Penta or both active and passive (pairs of) speakers.

If you connect a 4 pin DIN type plug to speaker 1 outlet Speakerlink you can drive Beolab Penta 1,2,3 and get the display data on the Beolabs.  If you connect a passive speaker, e.g. Beovox Penta to speaker 2 then both pairs of speakers will be driven as well.  Mute will only work on the main speaker 1 pair.

If you connect a 3 pin DIN type plug to speaker 2 outlet you can connect via an XTra speaker box a remote pair of passive speakers (or even a chain of XTra boxes). The datalink information goes down the 3rd wire so you can connect Beolab Pentas to the XTra box and get data display on the main Beolab Pentas and the remote ones.

For you, I would suggest making up the 4 pin DIN cable (difficult to buy and you will have to source or “manufacture” the four 4 pin DIN plugs).  Beolab Pentas will be driven by the amp in the speaker – very little output comes from the BM5500.   If passive speakers are connected, they are driven by the BM5500 and will need higher current cable.

Have a good read of “Beolink  Master Control Handbook”.  Try not to get too excited about the capability of running 2 sets of speaker in different rooms.  I have a BM5500 with Beolab Penta 2 out of speaker 1 and an Xtra box driving Beovox Pentas out of speaker 2.

For cables, you can always try Steve at Sounds Heavenly but the 4 pin and 3 pin DIN plugs (made for B&O) are almost impossible to obtain (although I have been lucky on ebay once in a while).

 

 

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