Different sound levels from two BL5’s?

[KHX]

Hi,

I bought a pair of BL5’s which turned out to be faulty; one speaker did not work at all. Got it fixed by an expensive chassis replacement. But now, when both speaker are ”working”, I experience that the other speaker (the one that worked from the beginning), produces much lower sound levels than the one with replaced chassis. It’s like there is not the same amount of power, especially in the treble and midrange area. All drivers seem to work, but just to a lower level. I have performed room adapation on both speakers, but no improvement in terms of equal sound levels.

The strange thing is; as I have a Lyngdorf tdai with integrated RoomPerfect correction, and after performing and activation of that, both speakers play at the same sound levels (sounds good!). I guess the Lyngdorf somehow compensate the lack of power in the potentially faulty speaker. When deactivating RoomPerfect the issue remains. I’ve switched the cables between the speakers to ensure that it’s not the Lyngdorf that causes the problem, but the same issue occurs, i.e. the same speaker plays at a lower volume, so it should not be caused by the Lyngdorf.

Anyone experienced this? What can be wrong? How to fix?

Thank you!

[Tignum]

Hello KHX, could the problem/solution be with the ‘sync cable’?

https://soundsheavenly.com/beolab-5-beolab-50-and-beolab-90/41-beolab-5-sync-cable-required-for-connecting-beolab-5-to-non-bo-source.html

From the Beolab 5 manual:

I hope to own a pair one day, but for now this helps in resolving,

Regards, Johan

[oli]

Is the volume control done with the Beo4 or at the Lyngdorf level ?
I think the difference is coming from the chassis indeed, maybe different software release? The sync cable is only for volume sync when used in a specific use case: using a Beo4 only and no other B&O hardware.
I experienced the same difference between R and L when I was owning BL5 in a full B&O environment (volume control via a beovision) . After some time I also improved them connecting (in digital) to a Lyngdorf, day and night in term of sound quality, and the difference is gone with it like you are experiencing. Just enjoy them with the Lyngdorf correcting the issue, or ask your dealer to replace the other chassis with the same than the other speaker

[KHX]

Thank you for the tip, however, I bought the sync cable from the official B&O retailer in Stockholm, so I assume it is original and not causing any issue 🙂

[KHX]

I only use the Beo4 to activate/deactivate the speakers. The speakers default volume is set so I only use the Lyngdorf to control the volume. I used the analog out on the Lyngdorf to the line in on the speakers as I believe the DAC in the Lyngdorf is/should be better in terms of performance than BL5’s internal DAC’s (differs 16 years of technological age!).

I guess I could/should continue to use the Lyngdorf and just be satisfied with the performance as is, however, it still bothers me to know that the speakers performance differ irl (without RoomPerfect). If it is SW related, how could I figure it out and solve it? Is the only solution to replace the whole chassis?

[Author]

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