[XavierItzmann]

Thank you Mads, great comments!

The serial numbers are separated by a mere 30 units at the very top of the 20810900 range.

Worth mentioning that both T and R go to sleep (solid red) after about 20 seconds, but pressing buttons such as “Play” or “CD” on the BL2000 immediately wakes up both the T and the R;

… ergo, it appears ML traffic is sent, or at least an activity wake-up; however, the audio master BS3000 fails to wake up.  Also of note, having the CD already playing on BS3000 and then trying to get the BL2000 to merely JOIN has no effect.

Sad!  Have to assume the BLWs are duds.

 

 

[XavierItzmann]

I bought a Beo6 for very little money.  I twice read the Guide (v.2) generously written by hfat in 2012.  I installed the CTSetup program, version 6.84.

I played with the software and with my remote.  I couldn’t quite get it to do what I wanted; in particular, the Beo6 works nicely with my BS5 N.MUSIC, but I could not make N.RADIO even start on the BS5.  I asked for help in the forum but apparently not very many people are familiar with the system anymore.

It must be said, the Beo6 has the very nicest volume control of all B&O devices that I know.

[XavierItzmann]

Reporting for duty!

😉

[XavierItzmann]

For years I tried to use RCA connectors to my Beolab 4000’s.  No matter what I did, no matter what cables, or how short, or how long, or what price, what amp —indeed, even when connected via RCA to one or another B&O audiomaster, the “pop” was always there at on/off time, always disagreeable.

As my location changed, I simply went back to Powerlink.  It works.  You do have your speakers set to Powerlink, and not to LINE, right?

[XavierItzmann]

My favorite radio station, which I got to know when we spent a winter in Venice in 2016-2017.

It beggars belief that in 2024 the B&O app is unable to properly render the French alphabet: instead of displaying the composer’s name «Théodore Dubois», B&O shows it as «ThA©odore Dubois».

Anyway, the music is good!

[XavierItzmann]

In my BLC NL/ML, the following sources appear.  Words [between square parentheses] not displayed by the App, and added only for clarity:

• CD [from BS3000]
• N.MUSIC [from BS5]
• N.RADIO [from BS5]
• B&O Radio Beoplay A6
• Deezer Beoplay A6

From my extensive tinkering with the system in the last year or so, in the absence of the Beoplay A6, my BLC NL/ML will simply refuse to play B&O Radio and Deezer.  In fact, as I was typing this, I was playing B&O Radio from the BLC and went and turned off the A6 (I have it on a switch, English-style).

The audio stopped.

[XavierItzmann]

No worries, I appreciate all your help!

I’ve written Jasmine, we’ll see what she says.

[XavierItzmann]

??????

Wow.  I even have a friend with a Digi-Key account!  Of course you are right that that must be a standard industrial part.  But all OEMs (including B&O!) do this: they use a propietary part No. when it’s probably something from Würth like the image below.

If I get it from B&O it’s going to end up being $50 for 2, I just know it!  Which is fine, I wouldn’t mind.  But today, for instance, B&O Scottsdale didn’t even get back to me.

I’ll contact tekmg.

Digi-Key apparently would sell something along the same lines (if I had the measurements!) for 6¢!  See below.

[XavierItzmann]

I have contacted the Scottsdale, Arizona dealership.  I did not realize how fast these stores have closed!  The stores I used to patronize, Miami (The Falls), Miami Beach, and Charlotte (Carolina), are no more.

I’m travelling to Europe in a few weeks, will try my luck with a store there if the US is unable to supply parts anymore.

[XavierItzmann]

I am not familiar with Windows Media Player.

On iTunes, here is how I do it: once I have extracted the music from the CD and iTunes has completed all of the metadata, I select all the songs in the album and ⌘i (command-I), which is equivalent to the menu item > Song > Get info…

On the dialog window which appears, I select the tab “artwork”.  And then I choose “Add Artwork” and select the square image I have saved somewhere in my disk.

It works perfectly every time.

[XavierItzmann]

It means: which software version is installed on the device?

[XavierItzmann]

sw version?

[XavierItzmann]

On my system, I always use images that are perfectly square.  I may have made an exception or two and imported for instance 500×499 once —maybe twice— only because I was not able to find anything else on the internet.

I add the images to the songs using iTunes (also known as Apple Music).

The representation on the BS5 is always that of a perfect square, using this procedure.

[XavierItzmann]

Paolo,

I am not a network expert but from what I know, yes, generally speaking, in most homes, the IP address of your computer should be very similar to the IP address of the BS5.  For example:

computer: 192.168.10.55
BS5: 192.168.10.120

This similarity is critical because if the first 3 numbers (example: 192.160.10) are different between the two devices, communications are impossible unless special protocols are deployed.

A thing to keep in mind is that when a device loses contact with the gateway, the device self-assigns a random address.  So, for instance, if your BS loses contact (which could be physical due to a faulty wire or connector, or virtual due to a protocol change), it is possible it will self-assign to itself a strange IP such as 0.0.0.0 or 211.35.162.92.  Such a self-assigned IP will not be able to connect to the PC, unless special measures are deployed.

The symptoms you describe are better analyzed with a person who knows computers, rather than a person who knows B&O!

Good luck,

 

[XavierItzmann]

Non ricordo se si debba usare Beoconnect con il BM5. In ogni caso, non è obbligatorio e non l’ho mai usato.

iTunes non si connetterà mai al BM5. La procedura è la seguente: (1) si collega il PC via Ethernet o Wi-Fi al BM5. Una volta collegato, il BM5 appare come un “disco rigido” o “server” collegato al PC. È quindi possibile trascinare i brani dal disco del PC al BM5.

Provate con un brano che possedete o che avete rippato su iTunes, in modo che non sia “protetto”, cioè non abbia una gestione dei diritti digitali, ma sia semplicemente un file musicale aperto, ad esempio .MP3, .WAV o .AAC. Su iTunes, selezionate “mostra file” per quel brano e vi mostrerà dove si trova il brano sul disco. A questo punto è possibile trascinare il brano dal disco alla cartella “Musica” del BM5… e una copia verrà inserita nel BM5.

Buona fortuna!

INGLESE:

I cannot remember if one was supposed to use Beoconnect with the BM5.  In any event, it is not necessary, and I have never used it.

iTunes will never connect to the BM5.  The procedure is this: (1) you connect your PC via ethernet/Wi-Fi to the BM5.  Once you are connected, the BM5 appears as a “hard drive” or “server” connected to your PC.  You can then drag songs from your PC’s disk to the BM5.

Try with one song you own or have ripped yourself on iTunes, so that it is not “protected” —this means, it has no digital rights management; instead, it is simply a n open music file, such as .MP3, or .WAV, or .AAC, for example.  On iTunes, select “show file” for that song, and it will show where on your disk the song is.  You can then drag the song from your disk to the BM5 “Music” folder… and a copy will be made into the BM5.

Good luck!

[XavierItzmann]

• XavierItzmann wrote on February 25, 2023 at 5:55 am:
  I have a BS5/BM5, not a BS5 Encore, and store my music on the BS5/BM5. My tagging I do via iTunes on a Mac: I use the Mac to import from CD, I let the Mac deal with all the metadata, except the album art —because the album art the Mac assigns doesn’t get copied when I export the music to the BS5/BM5. Instead, I import my own album art into iTunes. I then export the music to the BS5/BM5. As long as the album art is 600 x 600 or smaller, the BS5 is very happy with the metadata and it all stores and displays correctly on the BS5.

I have since been advised that the maximum size is 1000×1000.

[XavierItzmann]

Credo che il ripper di CD del BS5 non abbia più accesso al database che gli forniva la grafica del CD o altri metadati.
Penso che sia meglio estrarre i miei CD su un Mac tramite iTunes, aggiungere la grafica lì ed esportare su BS5.

I believe the BS5’s CD ripper no longer has access to the database which gave it the CD artwork.
I find it better to extract my CD’s on a Mac via iTunes, add the artwork there, and export to the BS5.

[XavierItzmann]

Yes, you can no longer drag a soft button into a hard button, like hfat’s Guide to Beo6 Configuration – V2 proposes.

 

However, you can still edit the hard keys by right-clicking (or, on a Mac, “Control Key” click), which opens up the dialog where you can change the functionality of the IR sent.  I have not tested whether it actually works.

[XavierItzmann]

On Finder: ⌘-K
or Finder > Go > Connect to server…

You should get a dialog:

Enter your password.  Mine is very, very long and of course unique to this device.

If you enter the correct password, a folder will open up:

[XavierItzmann]

An excellent post, Lars, for keeping a Beoplay A3 alive together with an iPad 1 or iPad 2.  Here I offer an alternative.

I’ve posted before here on this forum how I wanted to run my A3 with an iPad with the current iPad OS (currently 17.4.1), and how I installed an iPad 6 (the final iPad that fits on the A3 cavity, short of an iPad Mini, which will be too small but will be the alternative after the iPad 6 becomes obsolete), so I have a post on the minimal work required to do this.

I do not use the A3 proper on a day to day: it is merely a stand for the iPad to be on at all times (screen on, unlocked), displaying the B&O App 24 x 7.  It is therefore a display to see what is playing on my system, and, on occasion, touched and used as a remote.  So I do not use the speaker abilities of the A3 except rarely, when we take it to the patio and play a little bit of music directly from it.

But your post made me think: what if someone wanted to use the A3 as an actual receiver, and use its speakers?  Your post is an excellent alternative, but here is another one:

1) On a Mac that is left on at all times (such as my Mac Mini, for example), run Airfoil by Amoeba Software.  Run Apple Music (iTunes).

2) On the iPad 6 inside the A3, run Airfoil Satellite, which is a free app available on the Apple Store.

3) OPTIONAL: on an iPhone, run iTunes Remote, which is a free app made by Apple.

Given this setup, at any point from your iPhone you can control your entire library of downloaded music.  The audio from videos on the Mac library can be controlled from the iPhone and their sound plays seamlessly on the A3 (but not the video images).

Since Apple lets you download any music you can also stream, you can download unlimited music to your Mac (as much as the disk will fit!) and play it from the iPhone.

You cannot, however, control “streaming” Apple Music from the iPhone: if you wish to do that, you have to access the Mac, either directly, or from another Mac, or from a VNC session on the iPhone, which is suboptimal.  The same principle applies if you want to use Deezer.

Anyway, here is the A3, the iPad 6 running Airfoil Satellite, and an iPhone running iTunes Remote.

And here is the Mac running Airfoil (the transmitter) and Apple Music.  Airfoil does not have to show its display: you can click it away.  Also, it does not have to be on the foreground.

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