[NQVHNWI]

was not aware of no B&o radio? I was under the impression that b&o radio was embedded in Mozart and the BeoApp??

[NQVHNWI]

I think it offers a reasonable value-proposition from B&O (well that is until the 50% price increase in spring 2026 no-doubt)

It falls between the Flagship Theatre and the Stage. Stage being relatively standalone (and rumours are it is not EOL yet), the Theatre being the fully connected all-singing-dancing soundbar with PL, DPL, WISA for 9.0.0 Atmos, PUC.

The Premiere represents a GBP5000 saving over a basic Theatre and looks apart, probably offers 85-90 of what most Theatre Owners want/use. It also represents 500% more flexibility over the Stage being Mozart, connections etc.

We can argue all day on the aesthetics but then again in true B&O style, the Theatre is not exactly the prettiest B&O offering?

Good choice of User selected materials and aluminium colour-ways I think can make-or-break this product in terms of looks. Not sure about the Wood myself, white fabric on Alu may be good. Black on black may be good also? Personal taste.

In terms of legacy…..yes perhaps but I assume that B&O would like you to expand and buy a DPL-capable satellite speaker rather than keep with the BL4000’s/6000s etc..

Not many people will be connecting the Premiere to CRT TVs these days?

 

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

Yes. First-world problems and tribulations.

[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.

[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.

 

 

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

My recollection of testing the BC-Core with the BL90s via USB was that you connect the USB (Audio) sockets together and run the BeoApp. The App “knew” that a BC-core and BL90 were connected together and ran a special sub-routine in the App.

Once done, the BL90s were “owned” by the BC-Core. (I imagine the in-built Core calibrations etc…are bypassed for the BL90 Calibrations which will be superior)

I imagine the BL50 will be very similar to the BL90 in that process?

 

p.s. The Core via USB to the BL90s sounded pretty good. (comparing to my full-fat Auralic G2 streaming system). My recommendation is not to connect analogue powerlink. It will sound several order of magnitude poorer quality.

Run the compare and contrast yourself and see!

[NQVHNWI]

Great work.

My original thoughts were to simply put a BeoAmp2 on the end, RCA-up the speakers to the Amp outputs and if you ever get a Mozart Soundbar or the Core…..tell it your connecting a BeoVox Penta.

However, you choose a far more challenging route. Good luck.

 

One of my rainy day projects has been standing in a box for a couple of years now….while I rebuild a house. Converting an old pair of CX100’s to the innards of 2 x Beolab7.1 loudspeakers. One day…..

..perhaps I will finish?

 

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

Move the navigator arm to MODE and use the wheel to highlight SETTINGS.

- On BeoSound 5, press:  >>,  <<,   >>,   <<,    GO to activate ‘Service Configuration Menu’

[NQVHNWI]

I think a lot of B&O – although it looks splendid from a distance in my opinion actually ages like everything else. I’ll probably offend a lot of people but there are lots of models which today I would not entertain now but in the day…thought it was the bees-knees.

Aside, for my 100 years…..

 

Childhood Dreams….wall mounted BeoSystem 4000

 

Owned and loved:-

Audio: BeoSound 5 – modified with a zippy HDD – it was not as bad as many have stated.

Loudspeaker: Beolab 5 – I think this put B&O in the “serious” Loudspeaker and amp market

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

AV5,  I remember that as I was getting in to my first major purchase. Again, a legacy TV where the CD-i or CD-Rom outdated it immediately and would have done well if only they adopted or updated to the DVD standard.

[NQVHNWI]

[Disclaimer mode_on] I think first and foremost every B&O user who uses any add-on or third party/non-approved equipment with do so at there own risk and their own risk assessment. [Disclaimer mode_off]

 

Next, I have used a lot of these over the years. The problem they have is they burn-out relatively quickly. However, most are now cheap enough it does not matter too much.

I have used them for travelling with a business laptop more often than anything else. They are compact, easy to breakdown wire-wise and not only can you charge your laptop…..you can power all your mobile gadgets the modern world has to offer.

So with a 100W unit and a 65W power-0draw laptop, my PSU got hot quickly and soon had electronics failure (the PSU – not the laptop)

I now use a 320W unit (same size etc) and it appears far more compliant. So I’m guessing its how the solid-state transformer (or whatever it is) takes wall-mains and knocks it down to a low Amp DC voltage for whatever you are powering.

[NQVHNWI]

In DPL, they go “off ” your wifi network and don’t transmit an IP address like they would if they were in Standalone mode.

Not sure what what that really means technically but I read it as the Theatre and the BL8s have their own hotspot and the Theatre takes care of BL8 updates etc…

[NQVHNWI]

I have the 8s as rears.

This is how I look at it.

1. The Sound. Any of your existing speakers will be great for filling in those rear-channels. I dont get too upset when people demand “all the speakers should be the same…..to balance the sound,,,yah dee yah dee dah”
2. The Sound of the BL8s is very good. I listened to them recently without being tied to the Theatre and though they were exceptional for the size.
3. The Aesthetic. They are the modern B&O book speaker / Stand speaker. There is coherency between the BL28s, the Theatre and/or any modern B&O TV
4. If with the Theatre, the integration is now very good with DPL and the BL8s become an extension of the Theatre rather than a satellite.

If you have the funds and the space, I would not hesitate to get them and retire the other gear elsewhere.

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

Actually, I like the idea of a couple of A1s on a pair of A9-like mini-stands for PC speakers.

How’s the best way to pair it to a PC and keep them charged? BT sound with two USB cables for power or will sound and power be transfer with the USB-C as stereo pair??

[NQVHNWI]

My comments are this.

1. The forum is getting progressively slower in terms of posting turn-over.
2. The forum is more of a letter-writing format than the Discord forum – which is more “chat” – based format. Less dynamic.
3. The opposite of that is Beoworld is easy to find things (if the search engine is improved), where in Discord…its very difficult.
4. The forum itself appears to be a very old Forum system and not in-line with a lot of community forums elsewhere. People cite “the you are the product” and “personal info” (which is covered by laws everywhere)…..yet are all over the Discord site. It like Dad used to say “were not joing a Video (VHS) library….cos then everyone will know we have a Video Player and it will get stolen“. Well maybe, naybe not? But then everyone had one and ours was old and worthless.
5. Too many categories. Compress. Make traffic look as if it is flowing…forcing people to read perhaps what they would never be interested in (i go to General Forum only.)

10

[NQVHNWI]

Ok, thanks.

i cant unfortunately help you with that. I am aware of sometimes the BC core fails to trigger the Shape (on but mute) from time to time and is cured be hard reboot of both (Shape first).

[NQVHNWI]

Im going to assume this is a BeoConnect Core (Mozart) and not a Beosound Core ( ASE) your talking about?

Additionally, what is the Core connected to? Sources/equipment/Loudspeakers etc?

[NQVHNWI]

The keypad is an all-in-one moulded design with the base-layer being a thin rubberised plastic membrane fused to the buttons. This presses a metal foil on the circuit board to activate control.

I can confirm that the keypads do fail when fatigue sets in.  Mine happened on the diamond/centre “go” button.

I suspect that a similar fatigue may have happened to yours? Its a non-repairable part and (was – in January 2025) a GBP180 fix for a new keypad.

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

Had the same problem earlier myself with the formatting.

I had a similar problem from the otherside – selling a (unknown to me) burnt-in Eclipse 65. Had to do a deal with the Dealer to keep everything on the level.

On one hand…Im happy that I moved from an Eclipse to a Theatre and took the panel (obsolesce – for now or future fault/burn-in) out of the Ownership equation. Even back in late 2022 IIRC, the Theatre was getting up there price-wise and I almost thought the Eclipse was my last Beovision?

Back to the Post. Glad that went well. I have heard anecdotal stories that Dealers can take other panels (oh, and B&O did have some original panels to cover warranty issues only) and graft them on. From what I loosely heard, its more about retro-fitting the C7 for a C9 or CX into the case more than anything else?? Maybe.

This is where B&O really need to pull up their socks. Its history know and Buyer beware but at the time the C7 was a problem panel and B&O knew it. They did very little to warn people, recall or even collaborate on revised software as far as I can ascertain? The STB solution is not cheap but I guess it can get you up and running and not trashing a perfectly good soundbar and stand?

More importantly, this Cradle to Cradle business is less about the Customer having endless repairs on their products I fear….and more about 100% recyclability at the local dump? Im sure we will see when a few PCBs or drivers give-up and there are no spares left (again). Just sign-up for the latest $30k soundbar and swallow it as the cost of doing business?

[NQVHNWI]

I do wish the Owners of this forum would get the post formatting sorted out. Its so hard work

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