Problem with BL50 at 24 bits/192 kHz bitrate on coaxial input

[YannChris]

Hello Beoworlders,

The Beolab 50 technical guide states that the Toslink optical input is limited to 24 bits/96 kHz and that the SP/DIF Coaxial one supports 24 bits / 192 kHz signal.

My BL50s are connected to a Wiim Ultra streamer with the 5 meters SP/DIF coaxial cable previously used for BL5s.

They work perfectly at 96 kHz but there is no sound at 192 kHz.

I tried several cables and several streamers with the same result, which make me think that the culprits are the speakers.

BL50s owners, is it the same for you?

Kind regards,

Yann.

 

 

Location: Brittany, France

My B&O Icons:

[NQVHNWI]

My guess is that the problem lies in the WiiM digital clock (quality of the clock)

Quick back-ground reading on the Wiim suggests to use the Optical instead of its own USB (may be a tell).

The likely Wiim worked Ok with the BL5 because I think the BL5 was limited to 88kz on coax input

 

Three possible workarounds.

1. Buy a high accuracy “Digital Clock” this will clean up the signal from the Wiim. Most likely to work with the BL50s. will give the best quality sound
2. Throttle the Wiim Digital output to 96kh or less. You may notice more digital “noise”
3. Feed the RCA Analogue outputs from the Wiim to the BL50. I feed my Auralic DAC into my BL90s via XLR. I prefer the sound but it may be dependant on the quality of the DAC in the Wiim.

 

 

 

 

[Beofile7]

I have my beogram CD7000 connected to BL50 via powerlink and SP/DIF. Whilst the powerlink still works the SP/DIF just stopped working.

I haven’t researched any causes yet but reading  your post makes me think perhaps an update to the BL50’s has caused this and your issue?

[YannChris]

Hello,

@ Beofile: I doubt that our problems are linked, since yours seems to be recent while mine is present since a long time.

@ Mr 10%:

I bought a Wiim Pro+ 2 years ago together with the 50s. The problem was there from the beginning and I limited the bitrate to 96 kHz as per your 2nd suggestion.

Since I was not satified by the situation I recently changed the Wiim to a Wiim Ultra, expecting things would be better with this new model. Unfortunately not.

But fortunately the Ultra has an USB Audio output which works well a 192 kHz/24 bits.

So with this solution the problem is solved, but I was still wondering if my 50s were defective.

BTW, what is your opinion on USB Audio and why do you prefer to feed your BL90 with an analogue connexion ?

I suspect your DAC’s performances are higher than the 90s one (and in this case what are the key criteria to compare) , but are there other reasons?

Have a nice sunday,

Yann.

 

Location: Brittany, France

My B&O Icons:

[NQVHNWI]

At the time of purchase (giving the money…not receiving the BL90s), there was no credible Streamer in the B&O Stable. (Even now…the BC-Core “barely passes”). I looked at a lot but on delivery of the BL90, the USB functionality was not coded, nor was Omni or Narrow Mode. Updating the BL90s was via a USB stick or a special laptop. Really, you had Powerlink and XLR

There was also a story from Geoff Martin who had a lot of praise for Auralic Aries streamer (mk1)….but they changed something on the USB output which meant it was not compatible with the BL90 (im guessing again but think it was an incompatible clock setting and the programming was not complete) so the risk was buying a reasonably high-end streamer and it not working was not acceptable. However, Auralic (now an insolvent Hifi Group as of last month) had their Vega G2 DAC which had a good streamer on-board. This pumped out via XLR.

You could also build-up the system with a proper streamer (Aries G2 – which shares the computational power with the DAC), a ultra-high-end Clock the Leo GX and the most importantly but later, the Sirius G2.1 Upsampler (which is btw totally utterly phenomenal piece of kit). About GBP25k at the time for the full stack.  However, the results are very very pleasing. I think the Leo GX clock was the least noticeable addition but everything else worked together to make a very sublime and believable sound with no noise recognisable at all.

I am aware of individuals on Discord who do the same (Linn/BL50s) and they get a favourable sound over keeping everything digital. Its more about sound preference rather than sound quality.

[Beofile7]

Meanwhile, I am complaining because the drawer drive belt on my Beocord 7000 has just failed!

Oh how times have changed?

But you know what?… I’ll fix that with a new belt and an hour of my life. No more!

 

[NQVHNWI]

Yes. First-world problems and tribulations.

[Beofile7]

Well to be fair my issue is also a first world problem, just a different century!

[YannChris]

CD 7000?

Hum…  it’s even a millenium matter 🙂

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 2 days ago by YannChris.

Location: Brittany, France

My B&O Icons:

[politician]

The length of the S/PDIF cable may be the issue here. Some streamers will not output at 192/24 over a long S/PDIF cable as I discovered when trying out different models with my BeoLab 90s. I started out with an Auralic Aries Femto and now have a much more specialist artisan streamer – a Lucas Domansky LDMS – outputting via USB.

[YannChris]

Hi Politician,

As you, I swapped to an USB connexion, which works fine at 192/24.

Kind regards,

Yann..

Location: Brittany, France

My B&O Icons:

[Author]

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