Make use of CD’s with B&O

[Oisans]

Good morning everybody,

My father has a lot of CD’s and one B&O Emerge. We were discussing recently and i thought i might ask for advice on this forum.

The general question is : what should we buy so that we can listen to CD’s (musical classic and jazz mainly) from the sound of B&O.

More specifically : if one were willing to put at most 3000€ for 1 or 2 B&O products, what CD player could be used, what B&O product would play it and what wires would be necessary to connect the 2 products ?

Of course, if buying a second Emerge and get stereo a way or another is possible, that would be financially efficient 🙂

 

Thank you for any input you would like to give 🙂

[cklit]

Hi Oisans,

What I would do, was to buy a decent used 3rd party CD player with an optical output (to connect to the optical input on Emerge) and then spend the rest of the money on a second Emerge.

It doesn’t get you that nice B&O control, but I bet you’ll enjoy the music even more in stereo.

[OlivierC]

Oisans wrote:

The general question is : what should we buy so that we can listen to CD’s (musical classic and jazz mainly) from the sound of B&O.

Hello,

here’s my take on this request.

If you want to hear the “sound of B&O”, you’d better benefit of the Emerge internal DAC.

This means that you would need to connect a CD player to the Emerge through its optical input.

Hereunder a (hopefully accurate and complete!) list of B&O CD systems / players equipped with digital out and few personal comments.

Disclaimer: B&O CD players have been discontinued many years ago, therefore the following options are 10+ years old as a minimum.

• Beosound 9000: a true classic, expensive if required to be serviced.
• Beocenter 2: nice but it is not an all-in-one solution, it is made of a main unit and a socket unit where all the connections are made. Personally I would prefer a single-box solution.
• Beogram CD7000: more traditional boxy design but still beautiful; a bit unpractical due to the very limited controls, unless the matching Beomaster is added to the set.
• Beogram CD6500: same as CD7000.
• Beogram CD5500: same as CD7000. This one is said to be one of the best sounding CD players ever made by B&O.
• Beogram CD4500: same as CD7000.
• Beogram CD3500: same as CD7000.
• Beogram CDX2: nice and not requiring extra parts but it is said to be not the most reliable player.

Another take and less risky solution might be to follow cklit’s suggestion, getting a new 3rd party CD player with optical out.

Olivier

[Rolf2]

Hello Oisans,

nice to hear that the B&O virus is spreading in your family 😀. I ´d like to add the BeoSound 3000 and 3200 to Olivier´ s list (and their predecessors like Overture, etc.). Together with the already mentioned BC 2 and 9000 they have the joint advantage that they can be remote controlled directly, being all-in-one music systems. Whereas for the solitary CD player your father would need an additional connecting Beomaster to do so. And in addition to the „B&O sound“ they offer a lot of „B&O magic“!

If you prefer to use a new up to date speaker or set of speakers, going along with the Emerge is a good way. I absolutely love my Emerge. Steve of Sounds Heavenly did a review of a pair of Emerges, concluding that they sound paired a good deal better than the single solution. I cannot contribute to that, listening to a single one only.

However, here’s my personal opinion, if you want to put a little emphasis on the „B&O sound“. I don ´t know through what music system and speakers your father listens to his CD collection. In case of classic and Jazz music I find the Emerge too limited regarding it´s sound capabilities. I would stress your given budget and propose you take the path to an iconic music system in combination with a pair of B&O speakers. E. g. like my set up of a BeoSystem 4500 (in case of your father Beomaster and BeoGram CD are sufficient) in combination with a pair of Beolab 3 speakers and a Beolab 11. Same speaker combination works very well with a BeoSound 9000. Then add a Beolink Converter NL / ML (BS 4500 requires a Beolink Converter 1611 additionally) and you can place the Emerge in another room and join the BeoSystem / -Sound and listen to CD via the Emerge. Put a little money in and buy a BeoRemote One Bluetooth, so you can access both systems with a handheld remote directly. Or, steer both, the BS 9000 and the Emerge, via the B&O App.

In your case, personally, I would opt for one of the Beosound music systems. Sliding glass doors, Aluminium wings, or six CD´ s on visible display, stopping always in the exact same position as they did start, that´ s beautiful and for me is part of the pleasure listening to music on a B&O music system. The modules of the Beosystems offer this magic as well, but – imo – then it has to be as part of a complete system.

Now I stop, but be aware that there are other systems / players which could be considered as well. BeoSound Moment with CD player module, BeoSound 5 with CD ripping device, BeoCenter 9500, ….

There are lots of possibilities, enjoy the journey!

Kind regards,

Rolf

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