Finally got beolab 8s set up .

[Ianc2]

These speakers where bought to replace BL6000/BL3 as rear surround speakers linked to an eclipse set up , and the Bluetooth streaming was a big plus as we have streaming speakers through the house (b&o and naim) but nothing in the living room other than grabbing the remote and turning the tv on .

i have had 4 boxes waiting patiently for the stands to come available , and yesterday the remaining 2 boxes arrived . 🙂

It is a mini ikea experience to get them built up , and kind of odd that part of the stand comes with the speaker when you cannot actually use the speaker without a stand due to the shape of the bottom .

however , assembly is very easy and the cardboard packaging has a handy “work bench” built in for assembling the floor stands .

the hardest part was keeping the cats out of the boxes as I was working , and threading the cable through the stand . (Luckily , Power only in my case)

After frantically searching through my supplies in the garage , I  managed to find a longer non-polarized “8” cable , as the ones supplied with speakers would not be long enough for where one would be positioned .

if you are waiting on floor stands to arrive , I suggest measuring to nearest outlet and buying a cable beforehand rather than frantically trying to find one once you realize the older “squared 8” b&o cables you have on hand will not work .

once I had one assembled I asked the designer for guidance on placement …

no major furniture moving , but I did lose one of my rear bl2 subs in the name of aesthetics .

whilst she was there I set up the speaker on the app ( couple of minutes basic setup) and we used her phone to listen on a single speaker .

first it was b&o radio smooth jazz channel and was surprisingly good , then I think she tried the smiths , and after a minute of one by u2 she said it didn’t sound right .

off she went leaving me to assemble the 2nd speaker .

i got this one into position all by myself as there was only one option where it would be placed , and added it as a pair in the app .

i called her back in and she again streamed her phone using Bluetooth .

this time it was massive attack , followed by others that I don’t remember , at various volumes and positions within the room .

sound very good for what will be used as background music whilst vacuuming , cleaning etc. .

i was expecting a BBC monitor type experience from speakers the size of a human head , and initial listening tells me these could be used very successfully as a dedicated stereo pair with the correct positioning , source other than Bluetooth etc.

the treble did seem a little harsh on one track and one speaker is opposite a large mirror , and Allthough toed in slightly it was reflecting .

i changed the sound to the narrow setting and it improved dramatically .

after this it was blue Monday by new order , and nice and tight but I was feeling it would be better with the BL19 added for punch .

she squatted slightly and said the stereo was much better on axis (as expected) but these are primarily rears at the side of the sofa , so we will not be using the rather handy 2-position bracket built into the speaker to tilt them up for listening while standing (or in her case dancing) though this is a simple no tools needed 2 second adjustment should you want to tilt them up for a party etc.

i was told “no calibrating” as she was tired , so surround set up was delayed until this morning .  I guess she remembered my excuse for watching movies very loud was that I was calibrating the surround sound 🙂

‘onto this morning , it was a little bit of time with the tv remote in one hand and my phone in the other as I added the speakers to WISA and set them up on the eclipse .

then onto my go-to : the opening few minutes of “saving private Ryan” ..

absolutely superb !!!

with the initial toe-in set as a compromise for sound and aesthetics , and the new dual purpose of filling the room with sound when streaming , the surround sound worked perfect straight out of the box .

i was expecting to have to change the speakers back to wide mode , but narrow works perfect in my situation and also works better for her streaming .

i think the fact they are much higher than the 6000s helps tremendously , and my plan now is to sell the 6k and place bl3 on the floor behind the sofa firing upwards to experiment with surround back / rear atmos using wall reflections and tweeter masking . I’ll follow up on that experiment once completed .

its not been 24 hours yet , and with no real listening position and no desire to move things around I doubt I will notice a difference as the speakers get worn in , but I am more than happy with the new (rather expensive) purchase .

in regards the BL19 , I asked on here this morning and got a reply that it could not be done . Well it could but it would mean grabbing the remote and turning the tv on and that goes against the “quick and easy Bluetooth stream” idea . Note: I have/had 2 BL2s at each side of the sofa for movies , and a BL19 out front for stereo music from tv . The shape of these speakers is reminiscent of a BL11 I have in another room , and adding one to a stereo pair of 8s might be possible using powerlink but that is an endeavor for somebody else …

i am still undecided on the cloth grills , they look great but I think the light oak covers look slightly better and as I have only seen them in pictures online etc it would be an expensive experiment to change them when the designer has allready said “black and silver” .

maybe in the future if grills become available cheap I can experiment with a different cloth colour , or preferably wood covers in light oak or refinished with a black stain , or maybe replace the wood with aluminum or titanium etc as I like that they are flush with the aluminium enclosure rather than set in with the cloth covers .

 

i hope you liked the review , I’ll add more if I find anything interesting to add as I get used to the speakers and adjust settings etc.

 

 

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[solidkd]

The fabric cove is more classic BO style than wood imo

[Ianc2]

I agree completely , and they tie in with the front set-up which contains some classics that she likes 🙂

‘but I have an itch to try wood covers . The gold and light oak on floor-stands are a statement , but not for our current decor .

She actually added a lot of touches of gold after I bought a gold remote by mistake and she liked it better than the blocks of aluminum she was used to .

 

[solidkd]

Maybe 8s as front and 8000 as rear will perform better  in the surround system , 80% sound come from L C R，and 8s is technically better than 8000

[Millemissen]

solidkd wrote:

Maybe 8s as front and 8000 as rear will perform better in the surround system , 80% sound come from L C R，and 8s is technically better than 8000

I’d second that…..didn’t you think of that?
I guess that would also be a better solution optically, since the setup is pretty squeezed in the front due to the placement.

Only reason not to do so, could be that you’d have to have a PL cable running to the back.
That might be doable, though (?)
Otherweise you could use a Receiver 1 for WiSA connection to the BL8000 in the back.

MM

[Ianc2]

I allready have cables to behind sofa and WISA receivers there ready for the day I got WISA rears , so subs and backs will be WISA too .

There’s not much room on the wall were the tv is , the gap between the tv and right speaker is  a little too narrow .

plus …. The 8s would look terrible there !!!  Her words before I’d even moved the right 8k and sneaked one in to see , though this could have been that she had decided straight away that she prefers 8 over 6k on that rear wall .

ill mention another pair of 8s for the front , and get an opinion on that , though she has said allready that the 8k blend in better .

I’ve had her look at 18s & 28s , and she prefers the iconic pencil stuck in the eraser .

ive even offered to get rid of the door and make it all wall in the past 🙂

there has been a discussion in the past to put another pair of 8000 I had in the rear that was a no (she prefered 6000) , (and 6000s where prefered over BL3s ) and another more recent one to get rid of front speakers altogether . That was another no .

i kinda like the mixture of old and new , and aesthetics are more important than ultimate sound quality in this situation . Btw , replacing the eclipse with the theater has been brought up twice now .

i thought going down to a 55 would give more space and speaker options , or going up from 65 and no front speakers would be better due to viewing distance involved .

its all a compromise due to oddly sized room .

[Millemissen]

Please send my regards to the ‘she’….getting rid of the door is an excellent idea.
The setup needs more room to ‘breathe’.
You (and ‘she’) won’t regret it!

MM

[Ianc2]

Even then I won’t get a decent “dedicated listening “ position .

the room just isn’t shaped right , and too much glass .

i had a living room designed around stereo in the distant past , and even then it was a compromise , and quite a large downgrade when I changed to b&o to integrate surround sound , but there’s no way I can go back to big wooden boxes …..

 

[Ianc2]

A quick update :
They still look good & they still sound good .
However , I messed them up !!!
As mentioned earlier the rear surround sound will get part upgrade / part downgrade now the 8s are in place , and I temporarily placed the BL3s on the floor behind the sofa pointing up at an angle to bounce off the rear wall .
They are sat on a roll of masking tape as the backs are round .
I then went into the eclipse menu to add them ….

After FINALLY figuring a way to get the 3s to output sound , then playing with levels I was happy with the way the experiment was going and then went back to private ryan .
A bullet that was supposed to enter the water from the right traveling left seemed odd , but I carried on for a few more minutes then rewinded .

The right BL8 had no sound !!!

I was done for the night , so made sure Bluetooth streaming was working on both and planned to revisit the following night .

I spent a night reading instructions , trying to figure out what the eclipse menu meant by speaker presets etc and tried again .
Still no sound from that one 8 .
This time I did not try Bluetooth at the end .

Next night I got in from work and she told me she tried to stream but it didn’t work .
She paired her iPad , and it made the conformation sound but no music :/

I’ve not had time to revisit this , but I plan to do a factory reset tonight to get at least Bluetooth streaming working ….

[mcatterall10@hotmail.com]

Loss of sound from one of your Beolab 8s is same issue I’ve been having with 28s, coinciding with latest software update (cause or coincidence I don’t know). Has happened a few times over the last few days, sometimes sorted by unplugging the dud speaker, sometimes needs more. Doesn’t seem to need a factory reset thankfully, but I’d rather it doesn’t happen at all. One theory someone had was it could be triggered by regular searching for better wifi, but I’m not sure.

 

[mcatterall10@hotmail.com]

Loss of sound from one of your Beolab 8s is same issue I’ve been having with 28s, coinciding with latest software update (cause or coincidence I don’t know). Has happened a few times over the last few days, sometimes sorted by unplugging the dud speaker, sometimes needs more. Doesn’t seem to need a factory reset thankfully, but I’d rather it doesn’t happen at all. One theory someone had was it could be triggered by regular searching for better wifi, but I’m not sure.

 

[Ianc2]

The streaming thing is now fixed !!
Thankfully , these are not used as hieght speakers as it would be a pain to get ladders to see what is happening on the top and lights etc ……

Just now I did one more check , by going to speaker and hitting one of the preset station buttons on top .
Music played from both !!!
I asked her to grab her phone and try streaming and still no go so I decided to reset Bluetooth using the button on top and the Bluetooth button wasn’t there .
It is only on the primary speaker in a pair , so I had to squeeze in to get to what should be secondary as it’s hard to get to , and that one is now the primary !!
A quick press of the Bluetooth button made them appear on her Bluetooth under a different name , and now all good to stream .

I don’t know if this was the fault of an update , but I suspect operator error rather than software error as I was fumbling through setting them up as surrounds when it happened .

As the speakers are on a rear wall they are left/right in music mode , but right/left in tv mode , so slightly confusing especially when you can swap them in the app .

I’m still to look at surround settings , but hopefully this weekend .

[Author]

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