My journey through a B&O youngtimer (Beosound 1 Cone).

[matador]

Hi alls,

I’ve recently acquired a Beosound 1 Cone, kind of a dream, and though that my experience may be of any interest for somebody.

First thing first: I like the sound of it! I’ve read here and there than the sound is average. Maybe.
To my ears it has the B&O sound I know throught BL4000, Beoplay A1, in a different way, some Beovox.
Deep striking bass, brilliant highs… It is exactly how I expected it.

Second: My BS1 is a faulty one. The top panel is ruined from the inside and there is no light.
Difficult to control but as of today, I can join it with BT and it is (sort of) connected to my Airplay network.
Sellers told me the top control replacement would be around 150€. I doubt it but may investigate this later.
If ever the spare part could be bought alone, I would like to replace it by myself.
The “head” of the BS1 was wobbly and I’ve already dismantled all the top just to tighten it again (thanks to BW, BTW).
The battery is dead. I’d like to know what cells are in it to replace them but, as I don’t need it “unplugged” right now, that will be for later.

It is often stated that the wifi of B&O items is weak. I’ve never experienced it enough (PM, BL12…) to say it’s true.
2.4 vs 5 Ghz wifi, multiple conflicting repetitors, I don’t know what else, are reason enough to not blame just B&O.
In the case of the BS1, it has connection issues but they’re the same wired or not. Namely, the B&O App on my iPhone SE/iOS 15 regularly drops connection and make any adjustment impossible (Loudness, Bass, Treble,…). The App just detects the BS1 is gold and then show it as offline.
Fun thing is that I’ve the old BeoSetup app installed and it steadely sees the BS1. But that app does not provide loudness or sound adjustment.
Both App suggest firmware upgrade but with the network being inconsistent, even wired, I’m reluctant to try.
By the way, B&O App see the cone as offline even when it is still Airplay streaming music with no drops (making me think it’s a software issue.) Nevertheless, I’m not confident enough, even with the steady connection from the BeoSetup App, to start a firmware update.

Enters the new-to-me Beolink World!
Of course with just one product it will not go far away, but…
My whole setup rely on Airplay and the iTunes Remote App to control sources, music, etc…
Sometimes I would like to stop/Resume playback from my computer but it is not possible (the iTunes server is on a different machine).
I gain some sort of additional control with the Playmaker as stop/play /skip controls works from the remote and are passed to the Mac. But for whatever reason (me liking the design of the BL5000 over the Beo4) it’s good but not enough.
Now, thanks to the BeoplayRemote App (https://github.com/tlk/beoplay-macos-remote-gui/tree/master),
I can stop/resume/skip/and maybe more, music through the BS1: a very nice addition.

I was dissapointed (by myself) because I believe the BS1 had an aux-in input.
Not a big deal, but I would have like to pair it with any Beogram just for the look of it.

Presence on the network as an Airplay speaker was intermittent yesterday.
The speaker used to disappear when music was off for a certain period of time, forcing to restard manually the unit.
Today, it seems it stays online even after hours of standby. But this need to be confirmed in the long time.

Then, first post conclusion: the lack of direct controls on the unit, doesn’t prevent to use it. Of course if the B&O App did work, it would be close to perfection in my setup (since i don’t need to “join” or start sources from the unit).
My main concern is firmware upgrade.
My second concern is the behavior of the speaker when it goes in deep standby and is not “awaken” by an airplay source. I need to perform more testing and will report.

Any insight or advice is very welcome.

Location: Paris France

[matador]

Realtime update…

Ths unit was on test in my office. few minuts ago I wanted to move it and had to unplug it. Guess what? It continued to play for like 40 secondes until I pkugged it again.
The BeoSetup App* shows battery level at 100% and Batteru health as “Good”. This need to be investigate in the days to come.

B&O App still can’t maintain connection.

Location: Paris France

[Madskp]

Congrats on your new NL era Beosound 1 🙂

matador wrote:

I was dissapointed (by myself) because I believe the BS1 had an aux-in input.
Not a big deal, but I would have like to pair it with any Beogram just for the look of it.

You know you could just connect the Beogram through a Beolink Converter NL/ML, a Beolink Converter 1611 and an MCL2AV, nice and clean setup……

Ill just show myself out…. 😉

 

Location: Denmark

[Madskp]

Just a few thought regarding network without knowing much about the Beosound 1 or NL setup:

1. Where are the antennas placed in this metal cone I suspect at least one of them could be in the top part, and might be affected by the top plate that you mentioned was loose in the other thread.
2. Can you be sure the app is connecting to it via ethernet when you plug a cable to it. The App might prefer the WIFI connection, which could be why you experience a flaky connection with the app where as the airplay transmission might go through the wired connection (not sure if you had the cable plugged in when trying airplay?)
3.  Is it possible to turn of wifi on the BS1 to ensure that it is using ethernet to try if the app is more stable that way?
4. Does the BS1 have a built in webserver? If so it might be a more stable way to perform an update from that than the B&O app. A post by Trackbeo in this old thread might suggest that i has a built in webserver https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/49477.aspx

Hope some of these thoughts might bring you closer to a more stable BS1

Location: Denmark

[matador]

Hi Madskp,

1- I believe the antennas are the two side strips on the lower body of the unit. In the top part all I’ve seen looks like controls parts (rotating volume and touch panel. Nevertheless, Wifi does’nt seems to be the issue. More likely the link between the app and the device.

2- Yes I’ve tried to reset the unit (thus erasing the wifi credentials) and use ethernet only: same behavior, the app sees the unit because it sets the gold color in the app and after that cant establish connection. Then again, even in wireless mode, the airplay connection is steady and strong.

3- No, but see above.

4- Yes it has and it was quite a surprise. The web server is the same as the one in the playmaker or the Beolit 12, same look and features that the Beosetup App.
Then, yes, it could be a good place to try the update. But I’m still reluctant to do it (Years of Apple Update Anxiety…).

Thank you for your help.

Location: Paris France

[Madskp]

matador wrote:

4- Yes it has and it was quite a surprise. The web server is the same as the one in the playmaker or the Beolit 12, same look and features that the Beosetup App.
Then, yes, it could be a good place to try the update. But I’m still reluctant to do it (Years of Apple Update Anxiety…).

I fully understand your reluctans. Ending up with a bricked speaker is no fun. Hope someone can answer if it is possible to try again if an update fails.

I don’t know if it is possible to see if the connection to the web server is more stable. I just tried to go into i on an M3 I recently aquired, and my thoughts on this is that you might not be able to see anything about the stability once a page on the webserver is loaded, it will just show it. Maybe it will time out at one point. Off course if it does time out quickly it might be a sign of stability issues on the setup/administration part of it.

Btw this thread might indicate more luck updating from the webs server than the B&O app

https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/bo-app-failure-to-update-bo-device-firmware/

Although an older thread this might also have some indications on what could happen if an update fails

https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/41871.aspx

Location: Denmark

[matador]

Interesting reading.

Both seems to point out that a failed update doesn’t ‘brick’ the device (Apple Anxiety again…).

In the end I believe it’s just a psychological issue like “if don’t update I will miss new features making my BS1 sounds like a BL90 and many other fancy stuff.

It works, don’t touch anything (because ‘loudness’ is not really a thing I miss – more on my Beolit 12…).

Thanks Mads.

Location: Paris France

[Madskp]

matador wrote:

Interesting reading.

Both seems to point out that a failed update doesn’t ‘brick’ the device (Apple Anxiety again…).

In the end I believe it’s just a psychological issue like “if don’t update I will miss new features making my BS1 sounds like a BL90 and many other fancy stuff.

It works, don’t touch anything (because ‘loudness’ is not really a thing I miss – more on my Beolit 12…).

Thanks Mads.

One could argue that as long as it has the features you need like airplay, there should be no reason to update it. I guess it might be more needed for comptability with streaming services like Deezer and Tidal without knowing it.

On a related note it will be interesting to see when these networked B&O devices becomes useless beacuse of comptability issues with streaming services, airplay, chromecast etc. where the last two might be longer lived as long as the device sending the music is compatible.

 

 

Location: Denmark

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