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Alas. See above. The 2- or 3-pin DIN outputs arexxx were speaker-level (amplified) outputs. The RCA inputs of the Beolabs are line-level inputs. Get a portable music player (rather than running the Beomaster in a broken state) and wire up a headphone jack to RCAs, to see if the Beolabs are still functioning. They have an automatic power-up circuit when they hear sound on the RCAs.
4 November 2023 at 17:18 in reply to: Help!! Just bought house with 11 MCL speakers/transceivers #50200Whoever did the previous paint job didn’t even bother to pop them off the wall. I *hate* little rectangular brush strokes in in the middle of a roller-matte-textured wall. Which of course isn’t what you are asking?, sooo…
IMO trash them all since you don’t have any of the central equipment. What you are looking at is the equivalent of Xantech remote-IR receiver/transmitters, only better-made (but still aged plastic switch parts) and at the B&O IR frequency, incompatible with other brands. Maybe keep their wires (which hopefully also go to the central A/V room, you didn’t say?) and use them for DC (USB) power supply to wall-mount a bunch of iPad Mini’s — which you will use to control your Sonos Amp’s, all of which will also be back in that central A/V closet. Home-run speaker wires is great, everybody seems to want all the smarts out in the room but it’s not necessary or even always the best quality. Replace the in-wall speakers on your own pace, as you discover foam rot or place your own furniture in front of the supposed “perfect” locations the previous owner chose. Or if wired iPad Minis are just too much (they will cover those paint marks completely!?!), then repaint and stick up Lutron Pico Audio’s either ganged up with the light switches (iff Decora) or separately just to cover the holes. Then you will have the same button control for your new Sonos Amps, though not IR retransmission of course. (Thus the reason for selecting iPads, source selection was part of the original B&O IR setup via handheld BeoLink remotes.)
It’s a B&O forum, so hopefully someone has a brilliant 20th-century idea for filling in your A/V closet instead of my wimp-out answer. (If death was recent, search eBay listings for “ten great Bang & Olufsen SpeakerLink ‘passive’ kits plus a BeoCenter”.) The stuff really does look cool, nicks and paint drops notwithstanding — but don’t mount B&O Halo’s in each room just because the previous owner left his old keypads there… Nevertheless “audio right next to the light switch in every single room” is luxury, so I’d keep *something*. As would most others here I’ll wager. Good luck, and please post what you decide to do ultimately! For that matter, a photo of the current state of your audio closet would not be amiss — might trigger great ideas from people less didactic and penurious than me!
Summary: search for “mesh” above, maybe try Ubiquiti equipment?
Details: Based solely on Plume’s claimed design, I would expect other mesh systems to hop less frequently. Yes, search here for “mesh” and you’ll see reports of problems, but nothing as frequent as what you were seeing. Personally I installed a Netgear Orbi kit of 3 without issues, but it was older (RBK43?) so irrelevant vs. modern Orbi firmware. At least Orbi can select 2.4GHz for your device connections, though the wireless backhaul might be forced into 5 or 6 GHz. But since it’s new construction, hopefully you pulled communication wires with the power lines to the guest house?
The only brand people seem to agree on is that a single Ubiquiti controller&router with multiple Ubiquiti WAPs seems pretty solid. But it isn’t a consumer-trivial configure, nor is it mesh — and not the same as their Amplifi consumer line. If you have a lot of $B&O$ equipment, perhaps you might $pay$ your dealer (or, in USA, preferably one of the third-party integrators listed on the B&O website) to configure & install you a network, making it their problem?
Hi, Debbie Downer here — The answer is simple: switch back. Put the Plumes back into their cute hexagonal 6-pack and unearth whatever router and/or wireless access points you were using before. CenturyLink doesn’t require you to use their equipment, and the base (Sun!) Plume still uses an Ethernet cable to connect to the perfectly ordinary DSL modem. [Edit: Plume may have pushed OpenSync into the DSL modem nowadays, but that only means you must get help from CenturyLink to bypass or turn it off.]
Maybe the Plume app has gotten better, but it didn’t allow configuration of much really, so prioritizing Airplay is not an option. The fact that you can’t even select 2.4GHz is a warning sign, though there *is* a reason for that, namely they can’t frequency-hop and -multiplex to do a high-speed backhaul without the multiple channels available in 5GHz.
If you want to keep trying, then if you haven’t installed all 6 pods, do so. Line of sight thru doorways will help the 5GHz signal that doesn’t go through walls well. Yes, multi-unit hops slow everything down, but down to *tens* of megabits in the worst case, which is plenty for music distribution. Better to improve coverage at the expense of throughput.
But ultimately Debbie sez “frequency-hopping confuses poorly written networking stacks.” If the Plumes keep forcing the B&O equipment to jump because now they prefer some channel to optimize mesh transmission, you’re just asking for trouble. And Plumes *do* — that’s the point of (so-called) “AI” optimizing. Worse, you don’t know how often they are monitoring the data and saying, “yikes, we must reconfigure for optimal transmission of this new nonstop (audio) stream,” i.e. at the worst possible time. (“Nonstop” depends upon AirPlay(1) vs. Airplay2, but ignore the details.)
Let us hope that someone who is currently using CenturyLink and Plumes jumps in here and saves the day, making Debbie’s advice irrelevant!
Next step eliminate potential failure of the Beosystem 7000’s DIN jack and data link driver for the Tape 1 socket by plugging the deck into Tape 2. (On the Beolink 1000, SHIFT then A.TAPE plays tape deck #2.) If that fails the same old way, you can either send it straight back to Hamburg or you can check the cable yourself by opening up the tape unit to check at the other end. If a break isn’t visible (or measurable with a meter preferably), then send it back to Hamburg for another (hopefully not expensive) fix.
Sorry, if you’re in the USA, you probably already guessed: you don’t. Connect a TiVo Edge for Antenna (or an old TiVo Roamio OTA) via HDMI to the Avant. Other countries are different, some even including a dual tuner with a USB recording drive! The 3 coaxial F-connectors, if you had them, would be at the top above the Ethernet jack (Satellite 1, Satellite 2, Antenna).
the function of the (relais) ‘Line In/Out’-Plug
Bridges the pre-amp output to the amp input. Imagine if you inserted an equalizer in the middle, for example. There was a custom plastic plug that ran the outs to the ins, to prevent cables dangling back there. See https://archivedforum.beoworld.org/forums/t/16926.aspx for more info.
For that matter, rather than thinking small, perhaps suggest that [Triple-Dot] or [Gear] / Music/”Open Stream URL…” become standard in the B&O App alongside Deezer, Spotify, etc. Self Service with a Smile!
[Edit: deleted iTunes Library idea: app doesn’t load shared libraries in local network]
This forum’s very *existence* is (in large part) because “Costumer[sic] Service” isn’t, and therefore community-based “free-for-all-self-service” became necessary!
Yes, @YannChris, please do post your path to success getting those streams recognized/loaded. I for one would like to see the initial interaction with Customer Service… and hear (literally, too, haha) the ultimate resolution (literally, too, haha).
That said, it should be simple if anybody at B&O bothers — those “Icecast” streams from Radio France even play in my 10-year-old Firefox browser. You probably know the ugly work-around (not app-based, no mybutton etc.) of playing them in your browser on some Apple-based device and using system software to Airplay to the B&O speaker. Is it 16bit/48kHz? I can’t tell (Beosound 1 🙂 ) but AirPlay is reputed to resample in some cases, alas. (Likewise Android & Chromecast but I have no experience. Supposedly 16/48 *is* their pass-thru rate!)
[Edit: Or, on a more modern Mac than mine, use the “File/Open Stream URL…” menu item and Airplay from Apple’s Music app, thus preserving system sound output to your Mac’s main speakers.]
If not already available, when you search, the station must be added by B&O….as far as I know. MM
And doesn’t that just *suck*? Gated communities, subscription services, techno-elite holding the reins — compare it to whatever reactionary thing you like: It limits direct choice of the masses if you must petition the gatekeeper for access.
Bad enough that content providers keep switching access methods, but at least they have the moral high ground that they must pay for their content generation:
Not exactly on topic, but I just lost 2 of my favorite stations. They are still in the list, but when select them, no music. I’m guessing the station owners are closing down the “free” streams to push us to monetization.
“We’ve stopped supporting our website… why don’t you download our App?”
But B&O Radio is pure walled garden, no benefits generally except avoiding some *other* rent-charging succubus (i.e. TuneIn monetizing). </rant>No.
But at least Beolink 1000 are modestly- (EU) to moderately- (USA) priced; you don’t need to buy a full-blown MCP 5500.
Yes, that is the way speaker-level subwoofers are designed to work. However, do not splice your speaker wires into an RCA plug: that could be incorrectly plugged into a line-level input on a sub, which would be very bad (because speaker level is several times the voltage of line level). Obviously you need a sub with both speaker-level inputs & outputs as well as the more common (in 21st c.) line-level inputs.
If you find an old passive subwoofer, it, too, gets spliced into the speaker cables between the amplifier and the speakers. But such an old subwoofer might lower the combined speaker impedance beyond what the 4500’s amp can handle. Therefore, if buying, purchase a modern powered subwoofer, which usually has a very high impedance on its speaker inputs, making it “invisible” to the amplifier. Normally, one wouldn’t even mention this, but you said you were driving two pair of speakers, thus might be nearing the 4500’s amp power limit? Additional reading: https://nucoustics.com/blog/connect-subwoofer-to-speaker-level-outputs/ or https://hometheateracademy.com/connect-a-subwoofer-to-speaker-level-outputs/ .
Yes, there really *are* 3 full-package IR receiver devices on PCB14, not just the 1 lens box by the side IR window: 2 are centered on the back side of the board. This means that masking the IR receiver needs more tape or foil, and may not be practical. They are under the waning-moon plastic bubble in the half-circle below the bottom CD position. Covering that plastic is certainly possible, but leakage around the edge looks pretty likely. (You can see them in Kose Trading’s disassembly video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Bd63-i_Gw , at about 35:00. Service manual aaargh: It isn’t called “IR Window”, just “Window”! Part number is 9025.)
Don’t think so: the IR safety feature has its own receiver on PCB28, not PCB14. Likewise the IR Receiver for the “Tacho Clamper” on PCB31 (not shown?!). Key to me: There is only one “IR Window” listed, part number 9042. It’s shown in the blow-out diagram disembodied, but is shaped as you describe, a right-angle piece of plastic.
I think you have found the receiver and it’s just super-sensitive (x3). Maybe try the “ever-creeping black plastic garbage bag”, starting with the whole damn unit covered up? I would be surprised if the finger-protection IR protrusions were somehow prism-ing the remote signal inside the chassis and that was enough to trigger the multiple IR receivers way down on PCB14, but in theory it’s possible, maybe? Or maybe there is leakage thru the front panel elsewhere? Anyway, the garbage bag will (hopefully!) tell you how far down.
Excellent guess! But don’t wait for some expert answer, just try it! (:-) (…and report back here to aid future searchers, of course…:-)
(As a gold member with access to the service manual, you probably already found out that there are 3 IR receiver chips on the “PCB 14” board, so there could be 2 additional secret receiving spots. But probably not, likely just improving coverage there at the tip of a board hidden inside the case.)
I thought there was an option to get a non-Google BS1,
Correct, at least for the 2.gen @ebnrob is considering, GVA and non-GVA were both sold. (Only 1 button on the non-GVA.)
A few designs in the late-middle to -end of LG’s design competition article show possible uses:
In the 1990s Timex sold an LCD travel alarm that had its silver reflective backing separated from the display, to be tipped down behind as an easel. It only really worked if there was a painted wall behind it when viewed from the bedside. (Of course I bought the silver version, even though it wasn’t actual aluminum; the logo was more discreet than later editions too!-)
“Van der Valk” television series (remake), season 3, episode 3 (2 July 2023): Part of the episode is a paralyzed invalid on life support, who supposedly may be able to hear — so of course she must have…
A Beosound 9000 and a CD holder star in this scene, set in a classic VHNWI Amsterdam canal house (alongside their co-star actor Darrell D’Silva):
It turns out that the CD holder is lighted! (oh, and actor Marc Warren too):
We see one Beolab 8000 hiding behind the hospital equipment for the invalid (actress Esra Abdioglu):
And the BS9000 gets its own panning action shot!
Third-party confirmation for Beosound 2 (mk.1): The PDF instructions above and its embedded links to firmware, were reported to successfully resurrect a Beosound 2 mk.1 which had lost its S/N and Type, on Beotalk podcast #270.
@mikipedia reported the symptoms of the failure were “everything worked except the App,” i.e. the internal webserver, Airplay response, Bluetooth playback, and connection to Wi-Fi, all functioned as originally designed, just the App could not “see” the unit to add it. The failure occurred after the unit was factory-reset because it would be newly added to an account & a Wi-Fi network.
@Beowillie reported being unable to find this info doing searches in BeoWise. He speculated that the loss of serial number, which does not happen often, but apparently often enough to warrant the repair notes, was the result of a CMOS NVRAM battery discharging after the unit being left unplugged. (Apparently in @mikipedia’s case that was ~2 years?) But he could not account for such cause, because battery failure should have affected many, many units, including those which may have languished on the shelf at dealerships before sale.
Sometimes I miss @Peterpan. (@Didork’s pic is from a Y splitter RCA cable, in case you couldn’t tell.) You don’t need double outputs, do you? Buy 3 of single RCA-male to RCA-male cables: Left single cable goes into the L RCA of the left speaker, right single cable to the R jack of the other speaker (and sub RCA to the sub). 17’s don’t daisy-chain analog RCA input, and each speaker doesn’t need both right and left like Powerlink would be. (Open the diagram in step 4 of https://support.bang-olufsen.com/hc/en-us/articles/360054694571-Beolab-17-first-time-setup in its own window to get full-size. That’s the reason the second RCA line is dotted, you choose one or the other jack. I guess you have to make the L/R switch match too.)
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