So how’s the Beosound Theatre working out for B&O so far?

[etype76]

Of course, very early days but I was wondering how new customers are reacting to this product. There aren’t many in-depth reviews around (if any) yet except the initial launch articles which basically detail the specs. I’d be curious here in Japan how they are selling. I have a feeling that my Theatre was probably one of the first they installed as they forgot to install the 55″ wings and had to come back! Home theatre is big in the States and Europe but I would guess much less so here due to space constraints and proximity to neighbours. One interesting thing, on the B&O site, the Theatre was a product you could order online initially but now it only says “experience in store”. There’s no way a customer here could mount a Theatre to a TV unless they had specific knowledge or were engineers themselves and I guess that is why it can no longer be ordered directly online.

Just wondering what news other members have heard about reactions to the Theatre now it’s been available a few months…

[NQVHNWI]

Everything I hear from my Dealer is they cannot build them fast enough. Back orders from December are now being delivered.

I think they will sell plenty and be very happy about it.

B&O need to capitalise on sales by introducing a small compact, powerful and flexible loudspeaker for Theatre surrounds. The Celestial is to much of a major install in my opinion.

[etype76]

Mr10Percent wrote:

B&O need to capitalise on sales by introducing a small compact, powerful and flexible loudspeaker for Theatre surrounds. The Celestial is to much of a major install in my opinion.

I would agree. If there had been something in their current line I would have gone for it but instead I am taking delivery of a pair of Beolab 3s for that purpose. Even if they get Mozart working with the Theatre for surrounds, I don’t particularly want a pair of levels as rears. I would bet they are working on something.

I know my dealer has been very busy and I hope it is with the Theatre.

[BeoTool]

In the current line-up, a pair of Mozart-enabled Balance could be a very nice surround.

Beam forming.

[Mark]

I am very glad I ordered my Theatre early.  My dealer told me that the gold Theatres would probably arrive in late November but I got mine shortly after the release. My theatre has 18’s up front and 17’s in the rear along with a 19.  I couldn’t be more happy with the sound of the entire system.  I have a Beogram 8002 connected and it has been a joy to listen to vinyl with it.  I haven’t experienced any real problems with it, it seems to switch sources seamlessly.  When I watch tv it is only with the Theatre, so when I want to listen to music via AppleTV or watch a 4k blu-ray movie, both of which are connected to the tv, I have to switch the listening position to the full system. Every other source uses the entire system. That’s typically my only interaction with the Theatre not counting volume control.  I am not a complicated user so for me it’s been perfect.

[Hiort]

Mark wrote:

I am very glad I ordered my Theatre early. My dealer told me that the gold Theatres would probably arrive in late November but I got mine shortly after the release. My theatre has 18’s up front and 17’s in the rear along with a 19. I couldn’t be more happy with the sound of the entire system. I have a Beogram 8002 connected and it has been a joy to listen to vinyl with it. I haven’t experienced any real problems with it, it seems to switch sources seamlessly. When I watch tv it is only with the Theatre, so when I want to listen to music via AppleTV or watch a 4k blu-ray movie, both of which are connected to the tv, I have to switch the listening position to the full system. Every other source uses the entire system. That’s typically my only interaction with the Theatre not counting volume control. I am not a complicated user so for me it’s been perfect.

I would love to see your gold Theatre! Can you please post pictures?

[Millemissen]

@Mark
I do not know, if or how you use the MyButtons?
However, you could use one of these to start tv watching with just the Theatre.
Anything else stays as is.
That would simplify things even more.

MM

[Severed_hand_of_skywalker]

I was one of the first people to get it in Canada at oct 30th.  I have plenty of B&O speakers but none of the music centres. I was REALY worried that with B&O’s really bad software track record (Halo, moment, etc) it would be a bleeding edge disaster at launch. I was coming from a Marantz and Harmony setup which worked rather smoothy and 99% reliably with minimum interaction.  Since I was selling all my old equipment when the theatre arrived I thought things might be bad enough that I would be left with a buggy mess of a setup.

However I was very pleasantly surprised from the first setup.  Basically besides some hidden settings everything was smooth.  The only hardware bug I had was it wouldn’t see my 3rd party sub, lucky turns out I didn’t need a sub.

Im really impressed with the auto detection on the Theatre. It senses the input and material (movie vs game) and automatically applies the correct sound presets.

The audio up-conversion is also much better than I expected and better than my Marantz.

Right now my only pain points are some software bugs and interface problems.  My theatre seems to crash every couple days needing a power cycle. The software is still messier than it should be.

My ONLY real disappointment with it is the music performance.  Movies sound really full and amazing with great clean bass.  But when I listen to any music no matter the source it sounds really bla and flat. Only if I crank the bass equalizer to +8 does it sound good but that setting is much too high for movies. Im hoping this is a bug but im not optimistic.

Overall I highly recommend the theatre even in its current state.

[Author]

Posts