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Sounds like it could have been a shielding problem with the cable.
It is my understanding the only way to update the software of the Beolab 17 is with the wireless transmitter? It would be nice if you could do it through the Theatre.
Do you know what setting that is? When I use the app to control my Beosound 2, go to Radio and select the B&O Radio tab, and then a B&O Radio station I get:
Action not supported by the selected product.
I did not adjust the bass and treble on the Theatre but I did turn loudness off. With this setting the addition of the 18’s and 19 in the front are much more noticable, and pleasing.
My speakers are now all wired to the Theatre and I feel like I can now give it a serious listen.
I like it… a lot!
While I said before, the Theatre sounds fine on it’s own, the addition of the 18’s and 19 up front improves the bass and treble and gives it a more enveloping 3 dimensional feel to it. I watched the first hour of Top Gun Maverick from the 4K blu-ray and it sounds fantastic! While I did not notice the rear 17’s activity on their own I did feel like I was in the center of it all. Dialog was crisp and clear as was everything else. I stopped the movie short because it was getting late and I wanted to move on to some music.
It was a little problematic going from TV to Airplay. While my iPad showed that the song was being Airplayed to the Theatre no sound was coming out. I had to reboot the Theatre in order to Airplay to it. This is not the first time this happened, switching sources on its own can be an issue. I really wish you could change the source on the B&O app. I know Airplay is a different beast but I shouldn’t have to reboot between sources. I can change the source easily on the Halo and I had to do so many times.
All the music I played sounded wonderful. The system provides a beautiful soundstage with the 18’s. The bass is strong but not overpowering and the treble is nice and crisp. It will be a joy to listen to music! I can hardly wait until I get my usb adapter from Steve so I can listen to some records. Tomorrow maybe?
I fretted a little in purchasing the 18’s and 19 over the BL28. My reasoning was since they are being used with the Theatre I didn’t need another very complex system, and that I might be better served in the long-term with basic speakers that don’t need software updates and there are no moving parts! I also prefer the looks of the BL 18’s. It turned out to be a good decision as I really like the 18’s and 19.
There are still bumps in the road with the software especially when changing sources I hope are worked out quickly. I also had to calibrate my speakers twice with a reboot in between because something didn’t go right the first time and without the reboot there was no sound when doing the calibration.
Now for the BIG job of doing cable management and cleaning up the cable mess.
Do the 18’s up front widen the width of the soundstage?
Yes they do. Now I don’t have them that far from the Theatre, probably about 18″ away, but it does improve the soundstage, and along with the BL 19 I think the bass is more pleasing. The bass is definately noticable coming from the Theatre alone, but I think it blends better and not so noticable with the 19’s. All settings are from the calibration.
Edit: Loudness on the Theatre is turned off.
I have two listening positions, one with just the Theatre and the other with all 5 connected speakers. While listening to music I have been switching between the 2 positions. There is a 2 to 3 second gap when selecting the new position, but I prefer the sound with the 18’s acting as front left and right. It “feels” slightly more bassy with just the Theatre. Not a huge difference, but just a subtle difference as it feels more open with the 18’s, which would make sense. Once the music is playing just on the Theatre after a little while I forget which position it is in and does sound very pleasing. I am glad I have the 18’s up front though!
Tunein had some internet radio stations that I listen to that B&O Radio didn’t initially have. I made a request to B&O to see if they could add them and they did shortly after.
I guess I am not one of the lucky ones that can use my BL 17’s wirelessly. My test started out well and they played for about an hour, then I had to go somewhere. When I got back they played for about 10 seconds and then shutdown. The BL18’s are more stable wirelessly but not 100%. It’s dissapointing that I can’t benefit from the wireless features of the Theatre.
Wow, it seems that it is widely regarded that the WISA standard isn’t very good, or at least usable under certain circumstances. B&O relies heavily on it for its products it seems. Is that wise?
I am going to conduct a test. I created a new listening position with just the BeoLab 17’s and the BeoLab 19 as “Rear Stereo”. At the beginning of the calibration the BeoLab 17’s “were there”, after finishing the 17’s seemed to go offline and needed to be unplugged. Could this be a Theatre issue and not WISA? I can now play music to them and I can hopefully get an idea how stable the wireless is.
I read a post I think on this thread that someone said their BL17’s were rock solid on WISA. It was their BL19 they had daily night problems with. So I’m not giving up yet!
I haven’t used the system much except for tv, but every time I “Play sound” today it worked.
I am wondering if a firmware update on the BL 17s will fix this? I don’t think I can do it because it looks like you need a Transmitter 1 to do it.
I received my Beosound Theatre, BeoLab 18s, BeoLab 19, and BeoRemote One BT yesterday.
Setup:
The Theatre didn’t have the user manual included as shown in the installation videos. The video skipped over attaching the side fins which needed to be done. After that it was pretty much as the video showed. I am using my BeoLab 17s that used to be connected to an Essence MkII, now in wireless mode for the rear speakers. Once I assembled the BeoLab 18’s and unboxed the 19 and set them in place I plugged everything in. To my delight doing a scan on the Theatre everything was discovered correctly, and after the calibration all the correct roles were assigned. As a result of the BeoLab 18’s being assigned front left and right, the corresponding channels on the Theatre are disabled. I don’t know if that means that the speakers are unused or if they are at least partially assisting the other channels as described in the sound design video from B&O. This part went pretty smoothly.
Initial Imparessions:
I watched the beginning of The Greatest Showman on 4K disk and it seemed fine, but I am not able to compare it with anything. I listened to a lot of music, looking for something with a lot of bass. I came to one song I was really familiar with and I thought it sounded kind of “tinny”. I looked up and saw that the lights on the 18’s and 19 was red. They evidently shut down. After rebooting the Theatre I tried again and things sounded better. I’m not sure why the front speakers shutdown? Wireless issue? I used the B&O app to “Play sound” on all the speakers and noticed it wasn’t playing on the 17’s behind me. I unplugged the 17’s and then it was fine again. Music sounded very good and I am pleased with all of it. I then watched a stereo concert from a blu-ray that I ripped to AppleTV. It was really good, but being stereo not really any rear channel activity. I paused and did a “Play sound” just to check everything. Again no sounds from the 17’s. Another unplug and they were working again.
This morning I AirPlay’ed a song to the Theatre and notice all lights were green. A good sign. But looking at the rear right the light went from green to red to green again. I’m not sure what that means.
I paired the BeoRemote One with the Theatre and one of the first things I noticed was a flaky volume control. I could take the volume all the way down, but I could only raise it a little bit. The volume control of the Halo worked fine. I later noticed that this behavior on the BeoRemote One was only this way when I was using AirPlay. There must be some kind of communication between the AirPlay source and the Theatre that is still a little shaky. It does work sometimes.
Other odd things I can’t change the settings for the virtulized speakers, up-firing and side firing speakers. I also can’t find the source list in the B&O app like Steve mentions in his post about the line-in input.
My B&O USB-C adapter didn’t arrive yet so I purchased an Apple variant. I can’t get it to work yet, so no turntable. Are they different adapters or do I have a setting wrong. I have to choose source from the Halo.
Things seem ok for the most part but I’m most concerned about the BeoLab 17’s shutting down. I guess it is probably a wireless issue, but I really want to use wireless if possible.
It can be a tough decision. I currently have the BeoSystem 4 as my control center. When I moved to a 4K TV it suddenly it became a little less useful, still worked ok for the audio, but a little more “clunky”. I considered other brands solutions, including Marantz but something inside me prevented me from pulling the trigger, possibly much like you.
Products like the Theatre are heavily dependant on software and it’s typically buggy in the beginning. I’m still fighting software issues with a stereo paired set of Levels. My Theatre should arrive tomorrow and I am prepared for some software issues. The Theatre is very expensive (at least for me) and a lot of thought has gone into it to determine if it is the best replacement system. For me the answer is yes.
I’m sure most of the issues with the Theatre will be worked out over time, and then you may get a better feeling if the Theatre is the right replacement system for you.
If you look at the connectivity specifications for the Theatre, under Remote control it lists:
Remote control
Integrated system control, including LG OLED TV:Beoremote One BT
Bang & Olufsen App
Music streaming:
Beoremote Halo
So currently it looks like the Halo is not for the video functions.
I have worked out how to bring back in the side-firing Theatre speakers when they are greyed out, by first selecting virtualise, then change their role and then untick virtualise.
Lastly I remembered why I have set the Panasonic to PCM not Bitstream, some UHD discs are in Master DTS and not Atmos so I let the player decode and send a 7.1 uncompressed signal in to the Theatre, as DTS is not supported. In truth not sure it really matters whether it is the player, the TV or the Theatre which does the sound processing… it sounds epic so I am now after a calendar week of tweaking settled with my settings and can enjoy the purchase.
Thank you for the update! Your first point is very good to know. This should be in the Beosound Theatre Knowledge Base.
I will have to see how my UHD player is configured, but outside of the Atmos speakers in the Theatre I probably wouldn’t notice the height information as I will have a 5.1 system.
I’m very glad to hear you and John are impressed with the sound. I’m really looking forward to receiving mine on Monday!
so I have needed to put my UHD into the LG G2 to use the universal control HDMI-CEC, but as the pass through is now the reverse path, for some unknown reason it doesn’t recognise Atmos via bitstream and so still needing to use PCM to get 7.1. From the Panasonic DP-UB820EB.
Thank you for describing the issues you are having. I hope somehow I can benefit from this knowledge, or at least know what to expect.
I am having a little difficulty understanding the issue with the UHD player. When you say “reverse path”, do you mean the audio goes to the TV and then to the Theatre via eARC or something else? Atomos isn’t recognised this way? It is supposed to right?
My current plan is to use the Theatre for the center and front L and R. Use Beolab 9s for front wides. Have a BL2 in the front area. Use Beolab 1s for the surrounds. Use Beolab 6000s for rears, and use a total of x4 Beolab 4000s for front hight and rear hight speakers.
That’s a lot of wired speakers. I count 6 pairs and the Theatre only has 4 powerlink ports. Are you planning to use some of them wirelessly with the wireless receiver?
I’m sure this setup will sound absolutely amazing!
I can certainly understand the initial issues for a product like the Theatre that is supposed to work with so many different sets of speakers. The real world cases vastly outnumber what they are able to test in-house I image. I think it is great that B&O Manchester is going to support the installation as best as they can and not let the responsibility fall solely on the new owner.
My dealer is in another state and I was suprised to hear “they” were going to deliver it and not FedEx or UPS. They did not mention setting it up so I’m guessing it’s all on me. Right now it sounds like the issues are with the mic calibration not assigning roles correctly. I don’t mind modifying the results as that shouldn’t be too hard. I can survive initial software issues because I have lived with it before with the Level.
Just out of curiosity, is the teething problems related to the installation or to the setup and configuration of the Theatre? I’m asking because I don’t think my dealer will actually set mine up (along with the Beolab 18’s) I think they are just delivering them and it is up to me to set up everything.
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