[brian.lillo]

Over the past few months I’ve added 10 additional speakers and a subwoofer to my Theatre setup (now 7.1.4).  I’ve been playing around with speaker placement and testing different assigned speaker roles and I have some thoughts to share on the original question posted here:

• Now that I’ve added the two Beolab 8s as front speakers, should I disable the left and right channels of the Beosound Theatre? Or should I assign them to take on the role of the center channel?  My main concern is whether disabling them would be a bit of a waste. And if I don’t disable them—whether keeping them as left/right or assigning them to the center channel—would that cause any conflict with the Beolab 8s, possibly affecting the overall sound quality and performance?

Adding external front speakers has definitely “widened” the front sound stage.  Not wanting 10 of the 12 Theatre speakers to go to waste, I initially tried doubling up the front left/right speakers by assigning those roles both to the Theatre and external front speakers.  For moving watching, this setup doesn’t seem to change the sound much to me (it’s neither a negative or a positive change), but for listening to music I found that this configuration actually made music sound slightly worse.  I’m not sure if that configuration was causing some type of sound cancelation or not, but I quickly stopped assigning multiple front left/right speaker roles.

I do find that assigning the Centre speaker role to the Theatre’s Left Front-firing, Centre Front-firing and Right Front-Firing speakers provides a better center channel experience in my room.  With those 8 speakers assigned to the Centre role, I find the sound to be more impactful and voices are clearer when watching movies.

I ended up assigning the Theatre’s Left Side-firing and Right Side-Firing to the L and R front speaker roles to help widen my front soundstage even more.  For my room, adding these additional speakers to the L and R front speaker roles has improved the sound and widened it even more, but that may be because of my room setup.  I have my Theatre setup in a corner of my family room.  That corner is not a standard 90 degree corner, it is a bit wider at 124 degrees, so there isn’t as direct of a reflection as there would be in a more standard room.

Even though I have 4 ceiling mounted height speakers I ended up assigning the Theatre’s Left and Right Up-firing speakers to the L & R Front Height speaker roles, doubling up those assignments with 2 of my external height speakers.  In the two primary seating positions that I measured from, these additional assignments don’t make any noticeable difference to the sound, but in the farthest left/right seating positions they do help deliver the front heigh audio.  I think this only helps my room setup because my seating positions span just over 20 feet in width.  The two primary seating positions are in the center of that 20 foot span and I have the four LCR ceiling mounted speakers aligned to direct sound right in the middle of those two primary seating positions.

So far I’m very happy with this 7.1.4 setup.  Watching movies with good ATMOS tracks is an incredibly immersive experience.  I’ve also found this setup is exceptional for music listening, especially with all the ATMOS enabled audio tracks available on Tidal.

[brian.lillo]

I’m happy to contribute at least a small amount to this forum.  Living in Wisconsin, since there are no B&O dealers anywhere near me, I’ve been making my purchases from a reseller in Arizona and from Sound-Affair in the UK.  I do have two B&O integrators that are within 100 miles of me, and I’ve reached out to both of them and offered to pay directly for their services.  Neither of them have ever responded so I’ve had to figure things out on my own.  This forum has been my best source for finding answers and I’m very appreciative that it exists!

On another note I did end up purchasing a BeoLab 19 last Friday.  James from Sound-Affair found me a reasonably priced unit in the color I was looking for and it arrived a few days ago.  I’ve spent the last 2 days with both the BeoLab 19 and my own 12″ sub connected to the theatre, running just one at a time to test the differences.

For movie watching, the 8″ BeoLab 19’s performs very well and I can’t say that I hear a real difference between that and my 12″ sub.  I am impressed with how hard this little sub hits when watching movies.  It more than meets my needs.

While listening to music, the BeoLab 19 does get low, but it’s just slightly less impactful than my 12″ sub.  In the Listening Position / Bass management / Redirection level I have my 12″ sub set to -15db.  At that level the bass hits nicely, without being overpowering and without ever rattling anything in my room at a relatively high listening level.  I left the BeoLab 19 at +3db, which is where the automated room calibration placed it.  At those settings both subs get down low enough for me, but the impact just isn’t quite the same with the 19.  If I boost the 19 to +6db it gets very close to my 12″ sub, but it also starts rattling some items in a nearby cabinet.

For now I’ve moved the BeoLab 19 back to the default +3db setting, I moved my 12″ sub back into my wood shop, and I am very pleased with my Theatre’s overall performance.  Although I hate to admit it as a somewhat competent woodworker, but I have no chance whatsoever to make a sub enclosure that is anywhere near as beautiful as the BeoLab 19 is.

[brian.lillo]

Just a quick update.  The B&O powerlink RJ 45 to Din (male) connected to the Atlantic Computer Tech female Din to RCA cable did work to power my subwoofer.

I installed four in-ceiling height speakers this weekend.  The bass coming from those new speakers, along with my side speakers and the Theatre, is pretty solid even without the sub.  After I add a pair of front speakers and a pair of rear speakers, it will be interesting to see if a sub is even needed.

[brian.lillo]

I haven’t heard the BeoLab 8’s in person.  Do the 8’s used as front speakers provide significantly better sound quality than the Theatre on it’s own?  On paper, the left/right front speakers in the Theatre seem pretty comparable to the 8’s.  I’ve been assuming that I would need to jump up to the 28’s to significantly improve the sound quality for my front channels.

I love the looks of the BeoLab 8’s, but I’m having a hard time justifying $9K for side speakers.  B&O is running a surround sound sale right now that would knock about 15% off of a pair of 8’s which makes it a little more palatable.  Not having heard the 8’s, I just can’t pull the trigger on this purchase and I’m not willing to fly across the country to visit my closest B&O reseller to give them a listen.  I find myself missing the 80’s and 90’s where there were B&O dealers in most decent sized cities.

 

[brian.lillo]

Thanks for the response.  I really appreciate your input!  I will reach out to my B&O dealer and see if they can provide a short shielded RJ45 to female DIN cable.  If I can get that, there are several higher quality male DIN to RCA cables available that seem to be pinned out correctly to meet my needs.

My main profession is IT work.  I do own the correct tools to crimp shielded cat 7 cables and I’m very comfortable with that process.  I also own soldering equipment, but I don’t have much experience with it and to be honest, I’m just not very good at soldering.  I would really prefer purchasing a high quality professionally made cable if at all possible.

I understand your concern about bypassing the amp on my powered subwoofer.  It wasn’t difficult because I built the subwoofer myself.  I’m a fairly competent wood worker and I’ve dabbled in building speakers and subwoofers over the last 30 years.  About 5 years ago I started using CSS SDX12 XBL2 12″ Subwoofers.  In a properly built sealed enclosure, I haven’t found another subwoofer that provides such clean, fast and crisp sound without being overpowering like most subs are.  This particular subwoofer doesn’t really shine unless it’s powered by a 1000 watt amp.

If I can’t find a good RJ45 powerlink to RCA cable solution I’ll probably just go with a BeoLab 19 sub. I have heard the BeoLab 19’s and they are good, but they just don’t seem to deliver the impactful bass that I’ve grown accustomed to with my 12″ CSS subs.

[brian.lillo]

Sorry for the delayed response to this old post.  I just picked up a Theatre about a month ago and only found this forum recently.

I understand that you’re using your BeoLab 8’s as front speakers.  I think you could get much better use out of your pair of BeoLab 8’s if you set them up as side or rear speakers.

I purchased a BeoAmp2 and have been playing around with testing a pair of speaker in different positions.  With just one set of speakers to add to the Theatre, I really feel that adding them as sides or rears provides the most immersive sound.  I currently have a pair of speakers positioned just to the sides and slightly behind my viewing/listening positions.  After positioning those speakers and running the room setup routine, the sound seems to just seamlessly wrap around you.

I just purchased two pairs of in-ceiling speakers and a couple more BeoAmp2’s that I will be setting up as front and rear height speakers.  I’m hoping those height speakers will greatly improve the overall sound in my home theater.

I’m not sure if I will ever purchase front speakers.  The Theatre’s left and right front channels seem to do a great job.  It seems the only benefit that I’d get from adding front speakers would be just to widen that front sound stage.  Personally it’s going to be hard for me to add front speakers, because at that point I’d only be using 2 of the 12 speakers in the Theatre and I’d end have a very expensive 2-speaker center channel system whose primary function would just be surround sound processing.

The picture you shared of your setup looks very nice.  I’m in the process of building out something similar in the front of my home theater.

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