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The only way it’s bad for us here is if they are so successful that they decide to double or treble the current prices on everything else because “it worked!”
I mean, isn’t that what already has happened several times? Beosound speakers in the last 10 years basically doubled in price.
Beoplay A1 was £200, Beoplay M3 £280, Beoplay M5 £529.
Now Beosound A1 comes at £239, they got rid of cheaper speakers (P2, except the relatively new Explore), and the less expensive multiroom speaker (previously M3, £289) was less than half the price of the current less expensive multiroom speaker (Emerge, £699), despite Emerge not even having the same driver capabilities as M5 (£529).
Let’s not talk about the Beosound 1 (£995 -> £1399), Beosound 2 (£1350 -> £2649), Balance (£1750 -> £2399). Similar story with A9 and Level.
Okay inflation and everything, but no other company has raised prices this much.
I personally love the design of Beosound 1 and 2, I think they’re two of the most iconic and timeless pieces of the B&O collection.
However, rationally, if I had now to choose between Beosound 1 and Level (or A5), I’d definitely choose Level/A5.
Currently, the ASE platform BS1 runs on is still fairly well supported, however it runs on extremely weak hardware.
If you have any interest in using Chromecast specifically, absolutely don’t buy BS1. ASE products have been updated at the beginning of 2022 to Cast firmware 1.52, and that’s likely the last version of Case they’ll see. Then, in 2-3 years, Google will raise the minimum Cast firmware version needed for most Chromecast features, and you’ll find yourself no longer able to use Chromecast (just like it happened with many devices B&O has left with Cast firmware 1.28 confirming they’ll no longer be updated to more recent versions, hence basically ending their Cast functionality).
In addition to that, Mozart as others have mentioned make the Level (and A5) much more serviceable, so in case you’ll have issues in the future (out of warranty) it should be easier and cheaper to find parts to get them fixed.
Mozart devices, in addition to the sources that older ASE devices support (including BS1), now also supports Tidal Connect.
Again, in terms of look I am ALL for the Beosound 1, and I’m sure I’d enjoy listening to it and staring at it with these eyes -> ????
But I am quite sure in a few years, it will become a pain to actually use (unless you use it just as a Beolink endpoint, extending to it sources that are originally played by other, more recent, devices).
TL;DR: unless I’d find BS1 at an incredible price (i.e. 50% the price of a Level in the same condition), then despite the love for its design I’d definitely go for Level/A5 (A5 likely being even cheaper brand-new).
This is my point of view, from a purely technical/platform perspective (not sound).
I’m resuscitating this thread with an update for whoever curious… The dealer was kind to send me the original microphone, the ones that were originally sold along the Beolab 50, and it worked like a charm at my first try! So, the culprit of my frustration was indeed the microphone. Thanks again for reading this.
Hope the dealer reports that to HQ so that they can fix the integration of older Beolab speakers with the new standardised mics.
That’s not a “real” problem, plenty of companies are already doing that. Denon, Sonos, Beosound… Yes, obviously if your Wi-Fi network is shit that will reflect on the surround set-up.
But it should not just be up to Wifi. B&O are one of the founding members of WISA.
That doesn’t really matter though, as WiSA hasn’t been the huge success that its founding members hoped it would be.
The problem I think with Mozart speakers to be used as rear/surround speakers is that you will run into problems when you don’t have a super stable and capable (wifi) network. There’s too many people that have mediocre networks, or, these networks become mediocre when you add wifi surround speakers. So developing something stable will take a while B&O has to add powerlink to overcome this. But people want generally everything wireless. Except me ?
That’s not a “real” problem, plenty of companies are already doing that. Denon, Sonos, Beosound…
Yes, obviously if your Wi-Fi network is shit that will reflect on the surround set-up.
The BL28s can do it (with the same engine) but Balance and Level cannot??
Just to be the devil’s advocate, BL28 can be interfaced with BS Theatre because BL28 (just like most other Beolab speakers) have a WiSA receiver module – something that the usual speaker from the Beosound range just doesn’t have (at hardware level). Currently, they don’t “sync” with BS Theatre over the Mozart platform itself.
I think B&O are protecting product financials by closing off these “less expensive” products from being used with a Theatre or Stage.
What I just wrote above however doesn’t mean that the products (Mozart or even AES Beosound speakers) can’t be integrated in a surround system with Theatre via other means (just like other competitors do it, i.e. Denon/Marantz/Heos, Yamaha MusiCast, Sonos, DTS Play-Fi, Bluesound, Bose – all without WiSA and just over the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard), and for this reason, I agree.
Just to make it clear, this is absolutely normal and it’s nothing out of the ordinary warranty process.
I’m genuinely happy you’ve had a nice experience and now you can enjoy the Emerge stereo pair, but let’s not make it sound they bent backwards to serve you 🙂
It’s actually quite “odd” (not to say “pathetic”) that the “repair place” (that is?) kept the Emerge for 6 week without repairing it, given it’s assumed to be a modular product and hence very easy to repair.
OK, thanks. I was hoping that I could use a better DAC that’s in my pc.. That’s why I bought a Audioquest Dragonfly so I could use that instead my pc as an Roon endpoint. (when listening with headphones f.e) Really hope that BO could be a Roon Ready product soon.. I then have to reconsider what I should do with the A5, sadly as it really is a good speaker with nice punch.
Just to be clear, even without using the Dragonfly, you still wouldn’t be using the DAC of the computer or the DAC of the iPhone.
Putting the Dragonfly in the middle (computer/iPhone -> Dragonfly DAC -> Beosound A5) would be completely useless and actually a bad practice, as you’d run the sound through two DACs. The Dragonfly and the internal DAC of the A5. It’s good practice to do the digital-to-analogue conversion (i.e. what’s done by the DAC) as few times as possible (ideally, just one), so the perfect and most “high quality” way to listen to music on the A5 would be to use only its internal DAC.
How do you ensure you’re only using the speaker’s own DAC? By ensuring that everything you feed into the speaker is pure digital and has never been converted to analogue. And how do you do that? Just by connecting the speaker to the source in the most direct way possible, that is by using digital audio over USB-C.
An external DAC such as the Dragonfly makes sense only if what comes after it is a purely analogue audio device (i.e. passive wired headphones, or an analogue amplifier connected to some speakers – or to headphones).
Placing a digital audio device at the output end of another DAC? Very very very bad choice 🙂
So, just use a Lighting to USB-C cable (I think a normal Lightning to USB-C wouldn’t work as Apple made them only capable of signaling the iPhone to a host device, while in this case the iPhone itself would be the host device, so you either need a Lighting to USB-A camera connection kit and then a USB-A to USB-C cable connected from the camera connection kit to the USB-C input of the speaker, OR a Lightning to USB-C cable specifically made for this purpose – as I think as I mentioned earlier a standard one wouldn’t work).
If you want to use a computer instead, just use a standard USB-A/USB-C to USB-C cable and that’s it.
No need to worry about the Dragonfly, for the best sound out of a Beosound speaker you won’t use it.
Hope it’s clearer now ?
Edit: for iPhone, a Lightning to USB-C OTG cable should work (bear in mind they’re not “Made for iPhone” certified as Apple really wants to sell you the camera connection kit), such as FiiO LT-LT1 or LT-LT3 (different length).
Do you know what is the future “Fluid Sweet Spot” acoustic DSP mode ?
Obviously can’t say for sure, but I assume that it’s something related to UWB connectivity.
I.e. you have on yourself an UWB-capable device (a smartphone with B&O app, a Beoplay EX MK2 case, or any other sort of electronic item with UWB and enabled by B&O for this purpose), and based on your live position when moving around the A5, the device will keep directing the sound towards you.
Like the option that some Beosound/Beolab speakers already have (i.e. Beolab 50/90, Beosound Balance, etc, not sure which other ones) where you can select how/where to direct the sound, except that instead of being a fixed setting that you need to manually change, this will just follow you wherever you are around it.
The FCC testing only shows Bluetooth, QI and UWB ? No wifi frequencies tested, maybe it can connect with bluetooth to a Mozart device ?
That’s because the Mozart board is a separate component and has passed FCC certification on its own 🙂
You can find some thoughts I’ve shared here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BangandOlufsen/comments/128vxjn/beosound_a5_new_portable_speaker/
(point 1 is no longer accurate as the post is from three weeks ago, and new details have come out since then)
The lack of not being able to add speakers down the road is not an issue to me as I won’t go down this road again, I (should I say more my wife ? want a simple solution. To me the 2 major downsides of the Stage are more: – the lack of subwoofer output. I have an SVS SB2000, so if the Stage had a subwoofer output, the only thing I would have kept from my current set-up would have been the subwoofer. – the limited Atmos effects. So if a Stage 2 would be released with a subwoofer output + additional speakers firing towards the sides to enlarge the sound stage, then it would be the perfect product to me. To be fully transparent the 3 soundbards I had shortlisted were: 1 – the Stage 2 – the ambeo Plus. With this one I could keep my SVS SB2000 but apparently the music is not its forte and I use my speakers a lot for listening to music. Also the Ambeo Plus is not ugly but the design is a bit boring. 3 – the Devialet Dione but madam said no because of the design. On top of that after she said no I saw the Andrew Robinson’s review who destroyed the Dione… so that comforted me not to take it. In the end I chose the Stage for being good at movies AND music + for its design, over the Sennheiser.
I’m like 90% confident the next gen Stage won’t have side-firing drivers like those of Theatre.
I think they’ll keep mostly the same drivers set-up, and only change the platform to Mozart (hence maybe in the future enabling the use of other Mozart speakers as surround satellites). Sub-out? I’d exclude it.
(Obviously this is what *I believe* they’re going to do, maybe they’ll to the opposite ?)
Can’t they put a competent person to develop the promos?
Lost cause.
Even more recent products such as M5, Essence MK2, and Beosound 1/2 1st Gen no longer support new Chromecast firmware versions, which makes them incompatible with many Chromecast-enabled apps.
Some apps still work though. What app are you trying to use and with which devices?
I’d say don’t purchase a Beosound Stage now.
The hardware platform it’s based on has very old and weak CPU.
IMHO it’s worth waiting for a Stage 2nd Gen, although this may take even 2-3 years to come out… In the meantime, I’d buy something else a bit cheaper that you can in the future sell to replace it with the new Stage once it comes out.
Edit: actually, if you’re only interested in the soundbar itself, then even a current-gen Stage will do. If – however – you’re counting on being able to add rear surround speakers in the future – then definitely wait for the Gen2.
The website today says, “Beosound A9: Don’t mess with the classics. Unless it’s to bring them bang up to date. Beosound A9 is now available with stereo pairing, smoother in-app setup, and improved Wi-Fi performance. ” But it lists the same Wi-Fi specs as before (2.4/5GHz, ac support). Does anybody know what is improved? Was the old SoC/antenna combo sub-par? One other thing I noticed about the Gen.5 is that the USB C Aux Input is apparently only analog? Whereas Gen.4 spec lists a 3.5mm jack that was “combi”, i.e. supported optical too? I don’t have one to test… does anybody know if that was true?
Wi-Fi specs are the same but the underlying hardware platform (RAM, streaming module) is newer. CPU goes from a dual-core Cortex A7 (ASE latest gen) to a quad-core Cortex A53 (Mozart).
I’m curious too as to why they decided to ditch optical/digital input (mini-TOSlink) in recent Mozart products (or any other digital input method for that matter, i.e. they could have used USB-C digital audio, that they’ve been using for years with their Bluetooth headphones and speakers).
Also big news: finally they’ve introduced support to Tidal Connect! At least on these new BSA9v5 and BS2v3.
I actually was about to write an email to B&O pointing out how useless it was of them to gift customers 3 months of Tidal with a purchase of one of their Connected Speakers products, as they didn’t even support Tidal Connect (so a trial of Spotify or Deezer would have been more appropriate, given the support for Spotify Connect and the native integration with Deezer in the B&O app).
Good thing now Tidal Connect is supported on the new products!
I guess they’ll also update older Mozart products to support it (not sure about latest gen ASE products like Stage, Edge, BS1/2 2nd Gen, A9 4th Gen, etc).
Edit: is anyone also able to confirm whether these are still built at the ex-B&O now Tymphany factory in Czech Republic?
“The BS2 Mozart can be seen on the website – like the A9 (5), there is no GVA option anymore…” Oh, not good for me. I control my Balance, Level and two BS2s (the third is non-GVA and, if I’m honest, rarely use it for that reason…) solely using my voice! I might sell the Infantry Green non-GVA BS2…
Unfortunately with the re-launch of the Beosound Emerge they made it quite clear that they were no longer interested in having Google Voice Assistant 🙁
Such a silly choice!
No, it’s two separate things.
About stereo pairing: they’re both ASE, but different generations. A bit like the new Beosound A9 and Beosound 2 3rd Gen are small upgrades over the older Mozart platform.
The ASE platform on which M5 and Beosound 1/2 1st Gen are based, doesn’t support stereo pairing in any way.
For what concerns multiroom and groups via Google Home, that’s indeed related to the older Chromecast firmware version (v1.29) for which Google has removed the ability to play in groups (v1.52 is the minimum required firmware now for using a Chromecast built-in speaker in groups).
While Beoplay M3 supports stereo pairing in Google Home, Beoplay M5 is based on an older platform and does not support such feature (nor any Google Home multiroom features / speaker groups any longer).
M3 allows stereo pairing in the Google Home app and that will only work strictly within the Google Home/Chromecast multiroom system.
That means that the stereo pair is “”virtual”” and only available if you Chromecast to it via a Chromecast -enabled app. If you use any other way (Beolink, 3.5mm input, AirPlay, etc) it won’t work as a stereo pair
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