Digital Powerlink

[oli]

Do you know where this setting is available ? Can’t find it anymore with the new app interface. It was available, at least when pairing some BL28 in a stereo setup (LC3 by default), but impossible to find it for a Theatre and two BL28 connected on it

[TinusAMS]

Select your 28’s pair in the app and go to Settings > Audio Quality. Theatre doesn’t have this option.

[oli]

But Theatre has DPL available, so it comes back to my initial question.

[TinusAMS]

Yep sorry, misunderstood the question. As far as I know this is not possible to change when the 28’s are being used via DPL.

[rossr]

I got a promotional email from B&O here in Vienna this morning telling me about Beolink Surround. It sounds like the big update is being able to use any mozart speaker as L+R or Rear surrounds when you have a beovision tv or a beosound theatre. Am I the only potential B&O customer who finds it quite crazy that to achieve surround sound with b&o you need to spend 10,000 euros on a quite brutal and enormous centre speaker? Yes, I know it “brings out the best” in your b&o speakers and acts an av receiver but this is insanity. That is surely quite basic tech. The centre speaker is the last place i’d start with a surround system. If I just paid 15,000 for beolab 28s i am not using them as rears and what does a theatre really bring extra to that party? You need to spend 10,000 for the theatre and 6,000 extra for beolab 8s or a pair of balances etc to go from 2 channel to surround.

[kuyttendaele]

You don’t need to spend additional 10K in order to have surround! You can if you want to…
But the crazy thing about BeoLink Surround is that you can now add (your) A5/Level/Emerge/(Balance.. but pricy..) as surrounds.

This opens a whole new market for B&O dealers. Bottom ticket for surround was the BL8. Now you can add entry level speakers for your surround experience; speakers that don’t have to be that powerful in order to have descent surround.

Karel.

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

I think it’s a great idea and very welcome. For me its just strange to have portable speakers with batteries acting as a permanent surround speakers like the Level.

[Stan]

kuyttendaele wrote:

You don’t need to spend additional 10K in order to have surround! You can if you want to… But the crazy thing about BeoLink Surround is that you can now add (your) A5/Level/Emerge/(Balance.. but pricy..) as surrounds. This opens a whole new market for B&O dealers. Bottom ticket for surround was the BL8. Now you can add entry level speakers for your surround experience; speakers that don’t have to be that powerful in order to have descent surround. Karel.

But you still need the +10K theater. I hope it is well received, but that’s a big first step for a “budget” system :D.

[SimonWeir]

My question is why have Bang & Olufsen effectively lost confidence in the Theatre’s surround performance.  With the use of the virtual speakers you can obtain a 7.0.4 system from the sound bar without the need to add any extra physical speakers.  The sound is impressive and shouldn’t need the support of extra speakers turning it into a very expensive centre speaker.

I get if DPL could be used with a Stage as that is a 3.0 system to give it the ability to become a larger system and use its capability to receive Atmos (and then downmix using TrueImage).

I for one am very happy with WiSA, and if I wanted to add non WiSA speakers could with a BeoLab Receiver 1.  As it is I have added 4 sets of BeoLab 17s and a BeoLab 19 to my Theatre but only because I do promote the Theatre is even more of a powerhouse with more speakers but I still use the FL, FC, and FR from the bar and use the 17s for Surrounds, Rears and all 4 height channels.

[SimonWeir]

Reply to @Martin01

Within the Emerge Connectivity Tech Specs… “Digital Power Link (up to 24 bit / 48 kHz)”

[NQVHNWI]

I don’t think they have lost confidence – on the contrary…..I think they are starting to get more confident that the Theatres issues are reducing ‘ ( or rather the control app is now starting to perform off from the nadir of its being)

B&o I think realise that they cannot sell a bunch of evolutionary-dead-end mono speakers(that give Psuedo stereo sound ) and at the opposite end of the spectrum sell a soundbar that can accommodate 11-12 speakers but the price of entry is another +£15k add-on for 5.04. Rather, I think the strategy is to use DPL/BLS as a gateway drug and get people to constantly update their surrounds to progressively better kit.

[kuyttendaele]

Stan wrote:

 

But you still need the +10K theater. I hope it is well received, but that’s a big first step for a “budget” system :D.

Correct… But that has always been the case for B&O in order to have surround. 8y ago I paid 6K for a 40″ BeoVision 14 just to have surround.

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

SimonWeir wrote:

My question is why have Bang & Olufsen effectively lost confidence in the Theatre’s surround performance. With the use of the virtual speakers you can obtain a 7.0.4 system from the sound bar without the need to add any extra physical speakers.

I am uncertain about your reference. B&O consistently promotes the Theatre with at least two rear speakers (28’s) in all their marketing materials, emphasizing the concept of “building your system.” While the Theatre on its own provides adequate sound, its virtual speakers lack the external speaker capability to enhance its performance. I experimented with using the soundbar alone for a day and noticed a noticeable lack of width, which was significantly improved when I added 18’s to the front and Beolab 3 rears.

Even with this setup, the Theatre transcends the limitations of a “center channel” speaker. It effectively creates a wide soundstage, and I repurposed the front wide speakers as subwoofers. The remaining speakers can also contribute to filling any wide voids in the sound.

Honestly, if the Theatre were solely a soundbar, I would not have been interested in it. The primary purpose of a soundbar is to provide a central audio experience, and the Theatre is more about the heart of your system. If you want just a soundbar get the Stage.

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

On another note I’ve been absolutely dying for someone to use two A9’s as front speakers for 10 years. With DPL that seems possible.

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

Double post.

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