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I guess simply because they were designed as a standalone single speaker. A lot of work has gone into into making them pairable rather than the BL8 which was designed from the get-go as a stereo pair speaker.

i have my preference when listening/comparing to the Balance and BL8 and although I had a definate bias in wanting the 8s, the Balance did not please me sound-wise. But that’s just an opinion. If you are happy with the Balance…good. Enjoy.

look, rather than get triggered over a comment, please read the point I’m trying to make…..you simply can’t say the BL8 is not as good as the A9 or Balance because it has less power, less drivers etc…it patently does not. But it is a generation or two ahead of both the A9 and Balance, and I would have thought the tech and the in-house development would be superior to both if there was an equality in hardware?

[NQVHNWI]

I think you can watch/read these type of reviews and come to a black and white /2D conclusion but in essence you are comparing different capabilities and price points. You may as well throw in the BL50 or 90s to push the little Blights down.

I have the opinion that they are very competent speakers in stereo pair (Balance can’t do that) and a more compact piece of equipment than a couple of A9s. At the end of the day, you can always buy something bigger, more powerful, more expensive, more drivers, more amps.

Go and listen to all 3 sets. I don’t think you will be disappointed when comparing against each other.

[NQVHNWI]

I have had a similar/related problem for over a month. Not bothered too much with it but I have found the LG remote. I think you have to (I hope this is it) a repair with the home button on the LG when in fire-stick settings/bluetooth. – At least that’s what I was planning on trying next. I dont think this is a B&O issue but an LG or Amazon issue.

[NQVHNWI]

I don’t think they have lost confidence – on the contrary…..I think they are starting to get more confident that the Theatres issues are reducing ‘ ( or rather the control app is now starting to perform off from the nadir of its being)

B&o I think realise that they cannot sell a bunch of evolutionary-dead-end mono speakers(that give Psuedo stereo sound ) and at the opposite end of the spectrum sell a soundbar that can accommodate 11-12 speakers but the price of entry is another +£15k add-on for 5.04. Rather, I think the strategy is to use DPL/BLS as a gateway drug and get people to constantly update their surrounds to progressively better kit.

[NQVHNWI]

Details are vague and there is stuff I cannot talk about but my understanding is the the original DPL seen on products like the BL90 and 50 is a high-speed/high quality proprietary communication system between Master to Slave on the big Beolabs. Both data, post-data and music is sent from the Master to the Slave. I believe it only exists as a CAT7/8 Transfer link.

This technology may have been superseded by the last +3-5 years of BeoApp development (Settings for both speakers can be accessed and I guess communicated to each via the app/wifi directly and possibly WISA?

 

The new DPL is/has to be Mozart based and I believe it is a (more or less) real-time Ethernet/Wifi/Lan solution. The DPL of the BL90/50 and the DPL of Mozart-based products are not compatible or interchangeable with each other.

From my experience, adding the Moz-DPL speakers to the Theatre instead of WISA I believe somewhat simplifies the whole setup. The Theatre takes over all the controls as a DPL Master and you can even hide Moz-DPL speakers from your product page so everything is Theatre-centric.

Looks so far to be quite a unifying solution and will be probably ensure WISA (cable-less powerlink ) and Powerlink will soon die-off in future products?

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

I think its call “first-world problems”.

Well where I live –  a “good” working class wage is about £12-15/day. A middle class professional wage would be less than £50/day that and a decent 3-bedroom house would be the price of a single BL90.

I think many of us here look at superyachts or million-dollar cars as excessive but when your whole household income is less than £30/day, I know that the builders that I employed to renovate my home recently see the BL90s in exactly the same light as this and cannot fathom it?

I am grateful and blessed.

[NQVHNWI]

Correct Sandy but that is one of the reasons we run 3rd P{arty DAC/Streamers – so we can get that proper experience. For all intents and purposes, BL90/50, a Halo and a good 3rd party DAC and/or Streamer and you are 98% there.

I imagine that sometime down the Tidal path….B&O will flick-over to Tidal Connect so they dont even have to bother designing a music player (with search function) for their own App – which is sorta a blessing in disguise as they will only endlessly mess it up.

[NQVHNWI]

My bag is with Qobuz not Tidal. I hope B&O also develop their connectivity with this too?

Deezer is the proverbial dinosaur in the streaming market with low-res streaming. Sort of not compatible with where B&O should be in my opinion in terms of Hi-Fi and glad to see them moving away from this. I would of hoped that Spotify develop their Hi-Res offering but this is 2-3 years overdue to what was originally promised. I also think that Tidal dropping MQA (digital rights management disguised as a high quality lossless format) was a catalyst of B&O moving to a hi-res provider.

I think generally the right direction. B&O just need to open-up a little further and not restrict their platform to one hi-res provider (like all the hi-end streaming hardware providers do)

[NQVHNWI]

L1no wrote:

Matter is a language ‘protocol,’ and Thread is a radio standard primarily used with Matter, often referred to as “Matter over Thread.” All ‘bridges’ are designed to connect different networks, usually from a local network or the internet to a specific radio standard, such as Zigbee. The bridge makes devices discoverable on your local network and exposes them over Matter. Although Matter works over Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Thread (all IP-based). The first two do not require a bridge and advertise directly to your phone. Unless your bridge supports both Thread radio and Zigbee, your setup will not function as wished. Very clear.

im failing to see what your point you are trying to make other than to school me on Matter/Thread or whatever protocols. Whatever.

The OP asked about Mozart and Matter. Why? Does he just want another bit of hardware/software stuffed inside a Theatre that goes on a spec sheet that 99.9% care nothing about or does he want to do something with it?

I suspect he wants the add some form of Automation or tap-to-run instruction or use a third party app instead of the BeoApp? So what the protocol standard is…is irrelevant…….and my comments reflect the fact that current bridging hubs either do not “see” the BS Theatre Matter credentials or they are muted somehow.

Either way, the practicalities in the real world is that I cannot directly automate scenes with my “smart” devices with the Theatre and have most likely to use a BLI to do so.

[NQVHNWI]

Beg to differ. There may be technicalities on how it actually works but my understanding is that Matter and Zigbee are low energy devices emitting Wi-Fi micro-bands. However, from a communication perspective theses devices differ slightly.

older generation devices that that use zigbee tend to relatively “dumb” and are discoverable via software and controlled via an App (and also a hub). Matter being a newer protocol is somewhat smarter and can immediately find other Matter devices and work like the old PC plug in and Play devices of yesterday.

Regardless, back to the original post. I was NOT trying to give an experts opinion on Zigbee or Matter. If you read it again, you will read that I have a “Zigbee/Matter Hub”. This hub is predominately for off line control of my Zigbee Devices but it can pull in Matter devices…..so connecting Dumb zigbee devices to the new Matter protocol. In that way…..I would have expected to “see” any Matter Devices via this bridge and either control them or be able to write automations for Zigbee devices to interact with Matter devices.

Hope we are clear on that?

 

 

 

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Damned if I know?

I have a huge network of Tuya/Zigbee devices in my home and one of the control hubs is a zigbee/Matter one and it cannot see any devices on the Matter protocol? I guess the Theatre/Mozert platform is “HDReady” or whatever but not activated.

i think it would be cool if it were? My curtains would close automatically, the lights dim just right and wife automatically mixes a “just right” G&T in the dark

[NQVHNWI]

I think there are lots of “loudspeaker Systems” that are as good – possibly even “better” than the 90’s?

I think at that level….the question is what are you measuring (objectively, subjectively, and financially):

1. A subjective preference to a particular sound or presentation
2. The room in where you hear the 90s compared to what something else is played in.
3. Loudspeaker System. The BL90s are a loudspeaker, Amplification, Loudspeaker cable, pre-Amp and Dirac room calibration of a fixed type. Other loudspeakers need this supporting package in one quality form or another to be compared. Its not loudspeaker to loudspeaker
4. The difference between Power Link from a Beovision and Digital direct or even XLR source is embarrassing for PL. Many don’t realise how bad it actually is?
5. The Difference between B&Os BC-Connect in USB mode and my Auralic (now obsolete) G2 Stack of DAC, Streamer, clock and Up-sampler (£1k vs £25k) outputting to XLR is significant in my opinion.

Ultimately, I think once you get over a threshold “Value” of a Hi-Fi package – it becomes more about personal sound/interaction preference, beer-bragging rites rather than a pure technical Sound Quality issue? You hear many internet forums and old paper store magazine reviews describe B&O as better Bang for the buck elsewhere…mantra….well I would say that somewhere near or above the BL50s package……that all stops and and as repeatedly stated above becomes preferential and financial.

10

 

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Just the Halo’s

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So something to check:-

If you are running 6.0.2, the page layouts have changed. That “Explore” button leads to your account (person icon in top RHS of the screen)

Select Settings >> Products >> Select Product >> Product Settings.

You can remove any “dead” products”, etc….

1. You may find you “missing” or offline product can be connected to the local network
2. You can delete missing or offline product (or the other Halo) and do a clean re-install?

[NQVHNWI]

I think there is an issue with the App,

Since my beta update this week, the Halo has been unresponsive and you can’t even delete it and re-install!

Another massive leap forward in B&O App development.

[NQVHNWI]

The App to me is broadly:-

80% One-Off Setup configuration of products

10% Running Setup/Configuration (Multiroom/volume/tones etc/listening positions etc..)

8% Music interaction and selection (Radio channels/FLAC on my NAS, no possibility of Qobuz for me yet)

2% Marketing guff I can read about on my PC or tablet…or here or other places about poor little Charles LeClarke etc…)

 

They (B&O) really have this App messed up into a gordian knot of uselessness. Just a fraction of the App is dedicated to music or video listening/watching and the interacting of such. Too much is dedicated to setup (which should have been long-fixed for ASE and Mozart platforms).

I hope Charles LeClerke and his fellow over-privileged ambassadors don’t start eating into the remaining 8% of the remaining useful part of the App?

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Perhaps a simplification of my rantings above.

Two Swiss Luxury watch manufacturers: Rolex and Omega.

Both open a non-AD but company owned Boutique in the posh bit of Anytownsville.

Both charge full price, no discount.

One requires a good and solid purchase history to be considered for a few “hot” but bland models, one does not.

One brand has Grey Dealers selling (although cooling somewhat now) sell for 1.2-2 times the AD new price for a unworn to seriously worn watch, the other sells new watches discounted at 10-20% straight-off. 20-30% with negotiation and haggling!

Everyone talks of Rolex, nobody about Omega (even though I think Omega make significantly better watches IMHO)

 

B&O wannabe a Rolex of luxury HiFi but are just seen like Omega and realistically, are treated such by Joe Public. VHNWIs do the same unless their Interior Designer tells them differently.

[NQVHNWI]

Well you can put YT on subtitles and auto-translate. English is certainly available.

Back to the content – which to be frank, I speed read, goes on a bit with the same cliched approach on BNO design, prices and so on and so forth.

It does highlight though how BNOs aspirations are to attract VHNW Individuals (you know the ones where you see YT videos of $10-70million dollar palaces where the BNO products are hidden as well as BNO hide their cables in their marketing guff) and compare the brand to the timeless design, elegance of luxury products Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Rolex etc…

I am guessing that my interpretation of what the Content maker is trying to project is similar to my own view point on the current BNOs marketing strategy to woo and capture the VHNW individuals. That is:-

1. The cheaper on-the-go products (A1s. Headphones etc) don’t make so much money (a few may even lose money – hence the price increases) in a competitive market and for the budget conscious.
2. There is no real stand-out “Burkin Bag” or Classic Rolex Submariner (includes a few Ferrari and Porsche models too) which sells-out so quickly, prices can be arbitrarily increased without protestation, supply and ownership to based on your previous buying history (buying loss-leaders),
3. There is no real stand-out tech that sets BnOs technology way above the competition and therefore can be cited as the go-to products for high fidelity etc…..There can be no better example of this than the BL90 and the BS-Core/Essence. In 2016, the BL90s were perhaps one of the best loudspeakers in the world at the time. IIRC, you could add only the BS-Essence (PL only) or the BS-Core (optical/TOSLINK at best) or a Beovision. PL is utter trash for the 90s. Then it was either a choice of your own ripped FLACs or non-Hi-Res Deezer or Spotify. That stayed like that until a couple of months ago with the introduction of the BC-Core/USB connection to make it a half-interesting fight against the competition. Tidal I guess, is helping a little but try as it might, the BC-Core does not compete with the full-fat black-box streaming products available from 3-parties for years. So that’s 8-years of a flagship world-class loudspeaker that needs other companies products just to make it work properly.
4. All BnO have done in the 8 years the BL90 has been available…….is add a few (expensive) colour-ways and increased the price. Come August 1st, perhaps early 2025, we could well see the BL90s at triple the introduction price (that would be £162k) and filled with the same 9-year old tech and negligible firmware updates to improve the sound to boot.
5. As above. All these swanky gin-palaces with marble surfaces on every wall, ceiling, floor, fine Italian furniture, fine old and contemporary art, a level of ultra-high cabinetmakery in every room, kitchen, bathroom etc….and minimal BnO on display?

I think that selling a “few” more of the flagship products “helps the margin” and adds to the “flat to slightly improving” finances better than the cheaper-end of the product range, but the VHNWI strategy I think is more about reducing losses in the mass-market than becoming a financial giant like LVs parent company LVMH?

Whatever, the first thing BnO have to do is make much much better products to gain a higher level of global appreciation and desirability.

 

 

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B&O probably figured out that no one was buying their £100 Qi charger and buying the £15 version on Amazon.

I have two £15 ones from Amazon and they look as near to the B&O one that I could find. I used them for my iPhone and the Halo. Both work on the iPhone but only one can charge the Halo. I’m thinking that the Halo is very marginal in terms of wireless charging design to be practical?

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Not now…now but I need to get on and finish my Beolab CXX’s (BeoVox CX100s with BL7.1 innards)

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