[NQVHNWI]

I dont think the power cords are an issue. B&O has always packed cheap power cords and Ive found that they are reliable. As to the powerlink, I guess it depends who made them? Genuine B&O and soundsheavely cables are reliable. If it was the wrong type (I think with ICE-Powered Beolabs…you will get a hum. Not a crackle. However, if something has been strained or compressed – it may leads to problems.

I would not discount that your equipment is old and has worked a long time. A lot of B&O – particularly at that age can be serviced. As I said above…I would be surprised if you did Service the TV…a Capacitor or two may need replacing?

[NQVHNWI]

The BL5 will keep its calibration in non-volatile memory.

The last time I read-up on this, the Mk1 BL5 could keep only 10 calibrations and needed a Dealer re-set to clear the 10 memory allocations and to be able to re-calibrate. i.e. dont do resets unless you are changing the sonic signature of your listening room. Whether this limitation was address by the MK2…..or whatever version, I am not sure?

 

[NQVHNWI]

Just an add on.

Does anyone in Beoworld know if the BS5/BM5 used vTuner as it’s web radio module?

if so, v.Tuner has been down for a couple of days now (Auralic board has raised a concern). This may be why the radio has stopped?

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

Unfortunately I don’t. It’s a long time since I played with one. They are problematic machines because of the way Windows SE is the core program with a B&O wrapper over the top.

As I’ve stated, if you get into maintenance mode and get into Windows (you will need a usb mouse and keyboard), you will see network settings combining in ot not from your home network.

Part of the factory reboot is to help reset those connections in terms of the B&O wrapper and accredited B&O account.

it’s something I have muscle memory on……..but it is very difficult to guide you through to success via a web forum.

 

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

Long time since I was tinkering with a BS5. If you can ascertain the BM5 is connected to the network that would be good.

Next, try rebooting

Next, try service menu with a mouse and keyboard and tinker around the network settings in windows SE.

Next, try a factory reset.

Ultimately, it may just be that B&O have killed that server and because the BS5 can’t get authorisation……..it simply clears the radio list.

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

Testing the connections on the BL6000 is not easy but the MX6000 is straight-forward. (Lay the 6000s flat and fiddle around with the connection. Maybe taking the foot off will help?

Also play swapsies with the cable and channel selection. 1 cable. MX PL1, BL6000 PL1, switch pos 1 and 2, repeat for PL2 on the same speaker etc….. Go methodically through all the combinations of MX-PL connect, cables, channels, L/R speaker….if it persists throughout – likely its the MX. Maybe you get lucky and its a broken Powerlink cable?

With the age of that equipment there may be a possibility that there is an internal component near failure? A Cap perhaps? Once you have done logical swapsies and no clearer on the answer, its better to take it into a repairer who is familiar with servicing older B&O to see if they can lock down the fault?

[NQVHNWI]

So just to add to the chitter-chatter looking at the Nvida, it looks from the specs (and again my interpretation of tech), that it too cannot handle DTSX? Rather, it passes the buck to the downstream reciever to fix the problem?

Another point is that when you buy a BR disc, or download files from say Kaleidescape, they come with many attached formats. There may be a 4K HDR attached audio file (usually Atmos/DTS-HD) but also they include audio files for non-BR quality sound files (also second language audio files are subordinate quality). So my Atomic Blond Movie I talked about previously has these files attached

4K HDR
English (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)
English (DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo)

BLU-RAY QUALITY
English (DTS:X)
Spanish (DTS 5.1)
French (DTS 5.1)
Director’s Commentary by David Leitch w/ Editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir*
Described Video – English (Dolby Digital Stereo)

DVD QUALITY
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Director’s Commentary by David Leitch w/ Editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir*
Described Video – English (Dolby Digital Stereo)

So with the Nvida , guess it depends where you get your files or streams from. Its not just the BS Theatre arrogantly using Atmos only and neglecting DTSX users……the whole industry (from media to hardware ) is like that.

 

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

I think most streaming services (Netflix, most of amazon Prime) is DD+. Amazon does show Atmos film …..but Im not convinced (from a data package perspective). Next time I play back something on amazon as Atmos…I’ll check Signal Info at to what the Theatre is recieving.

[NQVHNWI]

As I currently understand it, there there is very little between Dolby and DTS root encoding. I believe but stand to be corrected is they are all supported in the Theatre at PCM 5.1 and maybe 7.1??

Where it gets tricky for the Theatre is the extensions to the core encoding of Dolby and DTS is supplying uncompressed data and spacial coordinates of each discrete recorded object. Dolby Atmos specifies height channels to the Atmos, DTSX does not but does give information in a different way to give the impression of 3D spaciousness.

The Theatre has only been programmed to decode the full Atmos compatible data. If it cannot, or if no height speakers are detected, it defaults to a lower standard.

in terms of Atmos or DTSX, when I look at films available in the US Kaleidescape store….there is I believe +10000 titles available to buy. Approx 45 titles are encoded to DTSX, whereas approx 700 are encoded as Dolby Atmos. The rest are of lower standards of both, all the way down to PCM2.0

i can’t tell if DTSX is rising in popularity or not. I suspect not and most studios are releasing in the main Atmos. Additionally, a few days ago I watched Atomic Blonde. It’s one of the 45 DTSX titles available. It played just fine with PCM5.1. Is that the Kaleidescape Player or the Theatre? I cant tell?

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

chartz wrote:

Blah blah. The man is listening to himself. Almost every YouTube video is like that. A written review is much better in my opinion.

people like Andrew Robinson, John Darko et al are all ex-HiFi magazine writer/reviewers. Their job – and livelihood – like all these reviewers is to stitch together word salads to entertain and enthuse us to go and buy the product. An articulated advertisement if you like. Paid by sponsors and product enablers by the word.

With Robinson, at least we have someone speaking about the B&O brand and trying to project its values. Most don’t or won’t. Darko for instance tries to vblog products arguably in the lower spectrum (sub £2000-ish products).

Like all audio products, they are 100% discretionary and anyone buying an A1 or a BL90, or anything in between, you as an adult need to do your due diligence on if it meets your needs, is it worth it and can you really afford it?

At least Robinson invites you in the door to see more.

 

 

 

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

I believe your Media Player (for which I mean a 3rd party HDMI-connected box and not LGs media player app – in the LG G2) should be plugged into the Theatre. you can control the Player either via a PUC IR (if a common one) or possibly sluggish CEC if enabled.

I believe that your player will only send a signal via HDMI that can be received by the Theatre. This means that normally, your player will typically downscale the DTSX to PCM 5.1 or, it will draw from another format which may already be encoded on the disc/file etc…

I also think the Theatre can do the same thing with TrueImage if it cannot maintain the DTS standard.

What player are you using and what is the media?

 

[NQVHNWI]

I’m not 100% certain…..but I believe that B&O have standardised all their external microphones for the Theatre, BL50 and 90 to the Theatre mic (plus an add-on 3.5mm to RJ45 adapter). Contact your Dealer.

The original BL90 mic (and I assume BL50) was based on the Behringer ECM8000. A shorter neck and single piece inc cable. The ECM8000, requires a XLR to RJ45 cable as well (plus unknown wiring solution at the connections making it too much faff)

That aside, I have had issues calibrating the BL90s with the Theatre mic but not the Behringer. Maybe there is something in it or not?? Contact your Dealer.

[NQVHNWI]

matteventu wrote:

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.

[NQVHNWI]

I can’t guarantee anything but I’ve never notice a change or loss of settings after updating.

I am also not aware of any issues with 2.5.3 and the Beta team this evening just sent 2.5.5(1039) which I assume is the next step?

[NQVHNWI]

Sandyb,

I think the flip on that (and Im not 100% certain of consistency), is machines like the original Beosound 1, The Beosound Century etc…were cut-down products for those who could not afford the B&O separates range of Source(s) plus beolabs.

Over the years, all the Sources have disappeared (except TVs), lower-end Beolabs have disappeared and there is a deluge of BeoPlay (Bluetooth?) and one-box Beosounds without interconnectivity.

We now have a Flagship product which has been purposely designed to accept Beolabs but there is nothing in the current range suitable for surrounds (certainly heights) and anything new, will almost certainly be a BS Balance-type product with that internal jumper crossed-over to “integrate mode”.

Im certainly simplifying matters by stating “how difficult could it be to integrate a RJ45 powerlink and kill all the electronics apart from the ICE/Soundboard” and use as a dumb Beolab?

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

I stated this before but there are different layers of the B&O onion:-

1. All new B&O loudspeakers I believe will be dual purpose. i.e. a speaker and a communicator for music sources.
2. This means they will be more expensive than a straight Beolab of old but modestly cheaper than traditional Source + speaker setup.
3. There are technical problems of mixing WISA and WiFi (and bluetooth I guess) in small speakers because of the separation required by the respective aerial/antennae for each system.
4. I believe there are a number of new Beolabs coming to open-up the Atmos capabilities of the Theatre.
5. I would imagine that is going to be quite expensive (3 pairs or 6 units if each is considered like a BS Balance in different form-factor) i.e. £18-20k? where only the transducer side is required.
6. As you said, mozart is a bit of a mess because in my mind….like my point 1 above, it is trying to be all things to all people, it is trying to incorporate AES and other products into the control/integration umbrella, add-in complicated speakers with source/source control and it gets expensive, complicated and delayed in product release.

[NQVHNWI]

I think the RJ45 is wired ethernet, the usb-c is i think another power-option without the charger puck. Both the RJ45 and usb-c are intended for permanent wall mounting.

The manual – as im sure you have seem already makes no reference to Powerlink connections.

Interesting that there seem to be different connection boards too?
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=aMEN4n8B&id=00173BDC8A5C8ECCA7DB99CA3B9FE1C00AEB4271&thid=OIP.aMEN4n8BYlUqFbMPLhXPvgHaE8&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2F149362691.v2.pressablecdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F04%2F22.jpg&cdnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FR.68c10de27f0162552a15b30f2e15cfbe%3Frik%3DcULrCsDhnzvKmQ%26pid%3DImgRaw%26r%3D0&exph=1334&expw=2000&q=beosound+level&simid=608014430113958862&form=IRPRST&ck=7E9E69EBCDE16CE642B905E3DF75A8A0&selectedindex=46&vt=4&sim=11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NQVHNWI]

I don’t know if a BS Level has any connections other than the power dock, and no connection to the BReciever1. All for the reason I suspect to reduce the cost of the Level and possibly to push Theatre Owners to higher-end beolabs. I.e. 2 pairs of BL28s in the opening marketing campaign.

[NQVHNWI]

I’m not sure of the specifics but there is a technical problem with WISA and WiFi modules in that they have to have antenna separation over 1m apart.

However, that should to my mind not preclude a wired option if their role is expanded to surrounds?

[NQVHNWI]

I purchased an EOL Auralic Altair G1 for my office which are connected to a pair of BL17. This is running at approx £1500 used (the G1.1 and G2.1 are a lot more) and more than your budget indicates.

Three points in this:
First, the BL17s, nice that they are are not good enough for the Altair, so I think your budget is more appropriate at the BL17 level

Second, I found the RCA to RJ45 did not trigger the BL17 on/off. The RCA to RCA works just fine.

Third, your streamer will need to have either electronic attenuation adjustment (-3, -6 and -12dB with -6 and -12dB being useful) or an external attenuator (variable or fixed) which when I attempted this…it sounded very bad.

A BSCore May be a good match and fully integrate into a B&O system and match the qualities of the BL17s. Personally, I did not like the core playing into the 90s so never tested it on the 17s as I have already migrated to an Auralic streaming system across everything in my home.

[Author]

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