[trackbeo]

Since this question has sat for a week without answers,…  Because I run an old Denon AVR-4310CI and various B&O equipment, but not mixed(*), I don’t strictly qualify to answer you.  Nevertheless:

1) You should read Geoff Martin’s blog post on this topic, particularly latency when mixing speakers, if you haven’t already:  https://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/2017/12/06/bo-tech-beolab-loudspeakers-and-third-party-systems/

His comment about the impossibility of setting speaker distance to a very large number in the AVR *probably* (but not certainly) also applies to Audyssey and Dirac measuring a distance and then deciding “that can’t be right”.  If B&O ever get the Mozart platform speakers to work with the Theatre, they will have to implement a lower-latency set of filters than they now have — or, more likely, a mode that turns their own DSP off entirely and lets the Theatre supply an appropriately delayed & EQ’ed signal. So for now, I wouldn’t use Mozart platform speakers with AVRs.  (No personal experience; maybe Audyssey and Dirac have been designed to support abritrary delays, but buffering many channels of audio must have *some* practical limit.)

2) I’ve seen multiple AVR reviews say things like “beware line-level out vs. speaker out is all or nothing”, i.e. you can switch all of the outputs to use the RCA jacks or none of them — except for the fancier models.  So test your AVR if you plan to mix BeoVox (or any passive) speakers with BeoLab (self-amplified) ones.  That said, my 4310CI “External Power Amplifier” option does not seem to have any menu setting to choose, and the manual merely warns not to use both outputs at the same time — which implies that they are all always active.  (I’m sorry I don’t have the oomph to set everything up to see if Audyssey applies to the line-outs or only the speaker-outs, but except for annoying license restrictions I see no reason why it would not: the line-out is merely a feed from the wires to that channel’s amplifier board.)

Good luck, and please post (& photo!-) what you end up using for the AVR & the various channels.

(*) I have run them combined but only in the simplest way: using a Beovision 10 as a monitor from the AVR, with 5.1 Definitive Technology Mythos speakers.  But that doesn’t take any great leap of tech support, being all old-fashioned HD & Dolby Digital, not 4K & Atmos.

[trackbeo]

Nice!  I believe you could remove the 4 black rubber bumpers from the corners of the Level — they were intended for shipping, although they do fit very sleekly!  Underneath are tiny rubber dots & ells which hold the Level away just far enough from scratching the windowsill (or vice versa!-).  See close-up of @MBee’s unit at the top of this page, fully disrobed.

[trackbeo]

I paid membership fee once just to get a service manual.  I felt prize drawing was worthless in the USA because shipping would cost more than the value of the item, and it was likely to arrive as scraps of metal and shards of glass anyway.  So I stopped paying after getting the manual and just “donated” time, giving answers to newbies that the old-guard — who had true technical knowledge — couldn’t be bothered typing for the Nth time over&over again (which seems entirely appropriate).

Mybe you could change Gold to paywall manuals, and make Silver paywall the Archives? See americastestkitchen.com for an example of how Cooks Illustrated made “freely available” recipes that aren’t really freely available except to subscribers, yet have google hits that somehow show excerpts with the hit text un-ellided.  The archives would otherwise show up as 3-line “abstracts” with blurred-out long text. (Yikes, sorry for more work, Keith!)

Or maybe you could blast-mail B&O dealerships, who are theoretically independent, asking each for a modest donation as a public service?  Renew annually, asking again.  The value of keeping even a few customers out of their hair is a couple hundred or so per dealer, without even thinking about it.

Free ideas, worth every penny.  Not free to make happen, alas.  But some management consultant would say you should capitalize on your existing relationships:  You already know a great many people, and making that pay off is easier (in theory) than striking new deals.  Another idea is harder to implement but I’ll throw it out just in case it triggers something: “Form a partnership with youth.”  How that applies here I have no idea, but it’s axiomatic in some circles.

[trackbeo]

Aha, of course!  As with the Edge, my personal “hidden surface algorithm” failed to parse the rest of the box behind the tabletop.  Thank you.

OK, here is another “hard-by” setup of Beolab 18s flanking a TV whose speakers are sub-par:

(Setup is “Speakers 2”, i.e. no center.)  To my eternal cabling shame, note the diagonal Powerlink from the BV10 to the BL18.  But it was temporary: the speakers are going elsewhere, leaving the TV as a “utility” set in the office.  Now having fulfilled the purpose of this thread, ta-ta from yr servant, sincerely, etc. etc.

[trackbeo]

Millemissen wrote:

If similar would be the case for ’B&O drivers’, the company would soon be bankrupt.

Absolute LoL @MM! “You have a good sense of humor… for a foreigner, Monsieur Frank — like the French, sly wit: Just the right amount of flavor.” — Inspector Tarconi, “The Transporter”

matador wrote:

From the picture, also a Beosound Edge behind the red guitar ? I, personally don’t see the point of the TV with the two 18’s so close and the sub underneath. … … … In this picture I can see fetihism … … …

I missed the Edge!  Must take exception to your swipe, though: The Edge has a purpose, being used as the beautiful guitar amp!  And placing the 18s hard-by the TV is because its own speakers stink, therefore off/muted and localization of sound & dialogue demands such placement of Front L/R given phantom CC.  The reverse shot shows another piece of equipment I don’t recognize, underneath the Cedric Hartman lamp (which I do recognize: oooh, lamps!-).  (“View Image” in your browser to see full-size.) Maybe a mixer, thus this is the mansion’s “music room”?

Yes, sorry to post a video screencap here in a thread that ought to be pictures of our own setups!  But this thread is moribund, and the photos immediately above came from the same YouTube channel, which doesn’t rise to the level of Movies, nor even TV (IMO:-).

[trackbeo]

That same YouTube channel (Enes Yilmazer) just posted the Wallace Cunningham “Cascade” 2012 house in Park City, Utah with Beolab 18 & 19:

Oddly, it does not have speakers in the ceiling of every room, unlike most contemporary American mansions.  (Maybe they’re all hidden mud-in speakers, but with sloped ceilings and glass and Serpentine Verde stone walls, it must be an audio echo nightmare.)  A small theater room has a Beosound Stage.  No B&O televisions.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6JI1rmvqdU

 

[trackbeo]

Alas, a few of @matador’s additional photos didn’t survive in the archived forum, but here is a second thread, which describes the process:

https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/42927/311741.aspx

(Note if you try it yourself: Avery # 8960 sheets have the smaller die-cut center circle.)

[trackbeo]

I don’t remember whether BS3000 is the male or female jack, but beoparts-shop.com has both antennas: EP-096 and EP-097.  Click on the photos of the end connectors, to choose the plug opposite sex to what you see on your BS3000.  (They are even reasonably-priced, about the same as the ones you find on eBay or amazon.com.)

[trackbeo]

Correct, phones & PCs only support the 38kHz IR frequency everybody(!) else uses.  A (used, now discontinued) Logitech “Harmony Hub”, using the old Harmony app, can shoot 455kHz by configuring it for whichever Beovision MX Logitech’s website supports.  I used it with an MX5000.  It’s annoying tapping on-screen buttons to change channels & volume, but they are there at least.  But the MX5000 had a round red button on the lower right corner, which would power the TV on as well as off — provided you were satisfied to watch whatever it was last tuned to!  Not on the MX1500?

I think you’re better off buying a used BeoLink 1000, than a Harmony Hub — or a Beo4, or even a new Beoremote 1 BT, though that’s awfully pricey just to save an old TV that will soon need power supply repairs.

[trackbeo]

30% off Beoplay A9, both website & dealers, thru 2/20/2023.  Brings the price back to its 2012 release: USD2450 black / white, $2660 gold-tone.  Presumably this signals that a Mozart’ed version is ready to ship!  (Thanks to BeoBoston for doing the e-mail blast notice.  Coyly, they also hint they may have leftover stock in some previous colors.)

[trackbeo]

sorenfelden wrote:

Will I be able to stream from the Sonos app directly to Beolab 18/19

No.

sorenfelden wrote:

or do I need some Sonos hardware for the Sonos app to work

Yes.

(Note, depending on whether the B&O speaker has a line-in, you could use the Sonos “Port” as a front-end so their app would work, yet still have the beauty & sound of B&O. Ask @SandyB, maybe also you could be satisfied with Roon as your front-end which will cross music services — just not the two you named! — and AirPlay the results to certain B&O speakers.)

[trackbeo]

The 20% off with code FLASHSALE is back for USA & Canada thru January 31, on Level and Balance in all variants.  For the Balance, that brings it back to its release price in 2020 (which was USD2250(~CAD3000)), less a few bucks: $2200/2480/2720.  For the Level, prices were only raised by $100 so it feels more like an actual sale: $1280/1480.

[trackbeo]

drmichi wrote:

Upgrade BeoVision 5: To bring it into HDMI Full-HD, can you confirm that an upgrade to a BeoVision 10 Full-HD is a smart choice (no need for 4K res)?

SUMMARY: A smart choice? No. Your only choice? Yes, if MasterLink is to be maintained by itself.  (BeoVision 10 –>BeoVision 11 was the switch from MasterLink to NetworkLink.)

DETAILS: My BeoVision 10 has worse sound than a BeoVision 11, and that is *much* much worse than most available separates (or a BeoSound Theatre). The fan on a BV10 isn’t silent when it’s wall-mounted. There are no spare screens for BV10 repair. The sound on mine dies after an hour of use (despite the fan), until power-off.  (No repairs, no PUC updates etc. because no dealers nearby & dismount/transport of that monster is fraught.)

In one respect, it’s appropriate for you: The BV 10 sound is matched to your BeoLab 6000s.  I tried mine as center channel with BeoLab 18s (“Speakers 3”) and it’s just awful.  Turning off the TV sound (“Speakers 2”) and sitting in the center was the only acceptable solution.  It’s my office TV too, so I just left it by itself as “utility grade” and took the BeoLabs elsewhere.  You do label that room as “Home Cinema”.  If so, your upgrade should be more grand (if you can afford it after buying a house).  Or, get a BV10 for cheap and be prepared at some point to start trashing or giving away, and replacing what is now 10-, 20-, even 30-year-old equipment.

P.S.  Despite my disheartened tone, I do love your lighted BeoLab 6000 plinths, and understand the appeal of customized glass bookcase panels for BeoSound 3200 and the fully linked whole-house speakers.  Beolab 18s or maybe 28s would look just as good there if you ever do a “real” upgrade.  But so would floral arrangements!  (If you copied my capitulation to office-only, and moved the cinema experience down to the living room.)

[trackbeo]

This is unlikely, but it falls squarely into the “some setting I’m not aware of” category…

If your Wi-Fi network is using 5GHz rather than (or in addition to) 2.4GHz, make sure to configure it to select an individual channel, rather than allowing it to auto-scan for the quietest.  WiSA uses the so-called “DFS” no-license-required channels, which include local airport radars among other things; therefore it has “scan and back-off” safety feature.  Usually this works OK because WiSA pre-selects a secondary channel to shift to in case it hears someone else on its current channel.  Might there be bugs in B&O’s implementataion?  Maybe, but more likely is a router suddenly changing its own channel if it, too, is using the DFS channels — thus trampling on whatever WiSA had chosen as back-up.  So pick an individual channel, like 36, 40, 44, 48, 149, 153, 157, or 161 (i.e. skipping over the DFS channels) for your router’s 5GHz.  (Multiply by the number of neighbors using the same auto-select strategy, or super-wide bandwidth channels inside the DFS range.)

[trackbeo]

In the old forum, @riverstyx claimed “yes”:

https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/22895/189582.aspx#189582

[trackbeo]

Luke466 wrote:

When you say digital output i believe the beosound 9000 only outputs in analogue via the following connectors:

No, AES/EBU also, i.e. SPDIF via coax. The O.P. was right to suspect oddness since that connector should be outputting whenever the CD data is reading (but not the tuner, of course). Viz:

[trackbeo]

I have a non-B&O setup with similar problems.

Summary: Switch back to 5GHz and move the router around as necessary to get acceptable signal despite its lower range.  Turn off “airtime fairness” and select a single channel, not “auto”.

Details: (Pardon the long-winded-ness.)  You want to choose 5GHz if you can, because more non-overlapping channels are available.  But you get stuck using 2.4GHz because the 5GHz doesn’t reach as far.  But on 2.4 you should only use channels 1, 6, & 11 —  yet there’s always some moron neighbor who picks channel 3 (for example) and ruins it for 2 other people.  So you look at the signal strength bars (actually looking at the RSSI & S/N is best) using your computer, to decide which channel to program your router to use.  On 2.4GHz you do *not* want your router to be set to auto-select channels — do your own research, pick one, and stick with it.  (On 5GHz, it’s less problematic because there are more channels and one might actually be quiet, whereas doing your own research takes a while, switching back and forth and comparing RSSI & S/N.)  OK, then there are two “gotchas”: one is neighbors (or you, heaven forbid) still running gadgets using 802.11b — which the modern signalling methods have to back off and make time for.  This can make a poorly buffered or bad IP stack implementation lose the connection, and re-establishing the connection takes a bit more time than merely asking for a retransmission of a packet that got “hit” by someone else.  It’s worse because *anybody’s* router on that same channel with their 802.11b device wastes the airwaves, not just their own router has to back-off.  The other thing is to turn off your router’s “airtime fairness” setting.  For example, that’s a well-known failure on Sonos systems with Asus routers; maybe not B&O but why chance it if you’re having problems.  So if at all possible, choose 5GHz.  Except there’s WiSA, just another reason to pick a channel and hard-set your router to use it rather than dynamically selecting based on the *current* channel availability, if you know you’ll be using WiSA speaker connections — I forget which channels it uses but there’s a list somewhere: just avoid them by hard-setting a channel number in the router.  Finally, mesh setups with auto-handoff complicate this, when a bag of water (you!) blocks the signal from one access point and it hands off the (stationary but nevertheless!) device to one of the access points that has a better signal — at the moment.  More delays, and if the buffering and IP stack were perfect then it wouldn’t be a problem, but B&O surely just took whatever reference implementation was proffered by the vendor of the Wi-Fi chipset.  No huge knock, but you know they aren’t going to fix it because it isn’t their forte.  Well, OK, they can change the buffering but they can’t fix the wireless.  So it’s up to you to provide the ideal conditions for your device.

[trackbeo]

The Winter Park, FL store finally put a message on their voice mail.  “Still under construction. Hoping to open in January.” [Edit: updated to “mid-February”][Edit: updated to “March”][Edit: updated to “‘Soft open’ planned March 20”]

Vybe Systems is behind the store. (www.vybe.ai , formerly a design-only consultancy.) They told the Chamber of Commerce, “Our space will be a Bang & Olufsen retail space AND a showroom, showcasing Bang & Olufsen products as well as other high-end smart home products for local homeowners/builders/designers/custom integrators.”

[trackbeo]

Off-topic I know, but re: above:  Detail: Done with RFID tags in the sleeves and a reader behind the paneling.

Missing Detail: @beojeff, who’s the integrator?  Of did you DIY the reader mount too?

I said to BeoBoston what would be *truly* magical would be if there were a camera on the opposite wall (it’s pretty tight quarters right there at the entrance) matching the covers with discogs data.  Or a shopping cart scanner on the back for UPC codes (you know, for all that modern stuffe).  ¡¡¡Dream on!!!

[trackbeo]

[Which may need to be typed into primitive search boxes as “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”.]

[Author]

Posts