[Stan]

It seems they’re redesigning some of the TV controls. I can no longer move the stand on my Eclipse gen1. They replaced the text option “stand” with a cute icon, but pressing the icon does nothing. Same with the TV remote control features. Instead of the text “remote control” that took me to screens that allowed me to control my TV similar to the actual beoremote1, I get a cute icon that does nothing. Optimistically, I’m hoping this was a stupid oversight/build error that will be fixed soon. I can’t see them taking these function away since they were working quite well. Then again, you never know the depths to which software may sink.

[Stan]

If you really want Alexa support, just get an Alexa product with an audio output and connect it to the Balance line in connector.

[Stan]

I’ve finally been hit with a non-working “improvement”. I’m not in the beta program, but with latest Android release (5.9.0.24…). The TV remote feature no longer works with my Gen1 Eclipse. I also can no longer control the stand. They’ve redesigned the interface so I get a cute little remote icon replacing boring words, but pressing it does nothing. Similarly, there’s an icon for moving the stand that doesn’t work either. 2 steps forward, 6 steps back..

At least the beoremote1 works, but it is sometimes more convenient to use the app if the remote is not near or lost in the couch.

Then again, aside from Sonos, every one complains about their “smart speaker” apps (e.g. Kef, Klipsch, Naim Muso). Doesn’t mean it’s acceptable, but at least we’re not alone.

[Stan]

I have an older Orbi setup: one base, 2 satellites. I have an Eclipse, BS1, BS2, 2 Essences, M3 and a BS5 linked via an airport express all connected via WiFi. I have a pair of Balances (daisy chained) and a BL/NL converter wired to the base station. There’s also a couple TVs and variety of smartphone, computers, printers all on the same mesh.

I highly recommend the suggestion to assign fixed IP addresses to all of the B&O devices. Before I did that, things were pretty flakey. Now, for the last maybe 2 years, my B&O equipment is quite stable. The balances have hiccuped a few times, but this seems more from the daisy chained network connection. I say this because, once or twice, I’ve had to completely reset them, and they only seem to reset correctly if I removed the network cable, set them up wirelessly, then plug them in to the router. I have thought about running them wirelessly to see if this changes anything, but then I go a long while with no problems so why change anything?

 

[Stan]

I have a pair of bw1s that act like this. LEDs behave normally, but, over the period of a year (iirc), they went from sporatic sound, then no sound. They mostly worked when new.

[Stan]

From my experience, older B&O devices are built well so 20 years is not that old. Then again, there are some trends – BL3s rubber coating can get sticky, BL4s have some issue which I don’t recall (power supply maybe?), certain older BL4000s have sound dampening material that degrades and damages the circuit boards. Meanwhile, my 20-ish year old BL4000s, 8000s and 1s are working without problem and give no indication that they’re running short of life. A lot probably depends on how they were treated over their lifetime.

I don’t know if I’d recommend the BS5 Encore. I have no experience with it. It didn’t seem like B&O ever put much into it. Maybe I’m wrong, but in my recollection, it kind of came and went pretty fast. It runs linux under the covers so while it looks like the BS5, it’s quite a different piece of kit. I have a non-Encore BS5, and it is running fine but is on its 2nd mother board. Then again, if it suits your needs and the price is right, why not? However, I don’t think it plays CDs directly (need to digitize), and if you’re going to digitize, you might be better off with an Essence Mk2, Core or Core Connect. No B&O wow (as these are mostly meant to be hidden away), but much less to break.

I don’t know much about the BeoCenter 2. Seems like the wings sometimes need repair and there might be a long-term durability issue with the translucent metal controls and maybe the laser, but don’t take my word for it. Never had one or paid much attention to it when it was a current product.

I haven’t heard the A5 or Emerge. I really like my Balance, BS2 and BS1. The stereo pairing of the Balances works fine so I would assume the same about the A5 and Emerge. I imagine a stereo pair of A5s or Emerges would sound very good. However, if you like loud music, I don’t think Emerge is the right way to go (according to one of Steve from Sounds Heavenly videos). To my ears, the newer Beosounds are more dynamic/punchy whereas the BeoLabs are sort of flat (not necessarily in a bad way). It’s personal preference.

I know, I know, a lot of rambling and not much else. However, no one else answered so I thought I’d share what I know about your questions which isn’t much. In the end, it’s personal preference. We all hear differently. We all think some products look better than others. I don’t think there’s any one right answer.

[Stan]

From the user guide:
“Note: You might need to configure your TV to send out stereo sound (PCM) only. Beoconnect Core cannot decode surround sound formats, such as Dolby Atmos, which are the default on some televisions.”

Most TVs are not set to PCM as default. You may need to dig around in your TV’s audio menus to find how to set it to PCM instead of the default.

[Stan]

NEVER MIND: I read through the manual, and it is only Beosonic unless you have a Shape.

Hi Razlaw,

Does the Core Connected have any advanced sound settings beyond the “Beosonic” equalizer? I just noticed in the latest BeoApp release there are some new advanced sound settings for my Balances and curious if these are Mozart settings or specific to Balance settings.

Thanks

[Stan]

If it offered value above the beoapp, I’d have no problem paying for it. However, I don’t think the beoapp is so terrible.

[Stan]

sk8man wrote:

And about streaming NRadio to your Beolabs, I think the Beo App can handle it solo, no need for an audio master.

This has not been my experience. When I choose a B&O Radio station while having my BLC selected, I get a “Something went wrong” error.

[Stan]

I have a 1st Gen BS2 and a pair of Balances (non-GVA). They both sound quite nice. When I tested like-for-like, my BS2 vs single Balance (in my office, centered directly behind me, about 4 feet away), I slightly preferred the BS2. However, when I added a 2nd Balance, the Balances were much better – hard to beat a stereo image. I never tested a stereo pair of BS2s because my model of the BS2 doesn’t support that, and I didn’t want to buy 2 additional more current models.

While I’ve never heard a stereo pair of BS2s, I’ve always questioned how the BS2’s side firing midrange speakers might interfere with one another in a stereo pair configuration. Not exactly fair criticism since I’ve never actually heard them, but I have to believe the BS2s were never designed with stereo pairing in mind whereas it’s possible the Balances were.

I’ve since moved the BS2 to a bedroom, and it creates very nice room filling sound.

My advice is if you have no plans to eventually stereo pair them, buy the one you like the looks of best – their sound and functional differences are minimal, and you will most likely enjoy either one. If you think you might stereo pair them one day and don’t hate the look of the Balance (many on here seem to, at least when it was first released), I’d go for the Balance.

I don’t see a huge difference between Mozart and the older BS2. Yes, Mozart has room compensation, but I always felt the BS2’s corner/wall/free switch worked fairly well. They also recently added support for Beosonic (B&O’s take on an equalizer). On the other hand, my BS2 will play multiple WMA lossless tracks from my NAS whereas the Balance will only play one and then stop. It does play multiple MP3s and Flacs, just a problem with WMAs which, unfortunately, is most of my collection. Therefore, when I want to listen to an “album”, I’ll play it on the BS2 (or one of my other older Beosounds) and join my Balances to it.

I guess one could argue that the Balance wins on longevity because Mozart is newer and will most likely see new features that the BS2 will not. However, it’s hard for me to make purchase decisions based on futures. Best to have what works the best for you today and worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

One other gotcha is that the GVA Balance cannot distribute line-in audio via NL.

They’re both good. No wrong choices.

[Stan]

You can still daisy-chain a BL2. There is just no dedicated sub out.

[Stan]

The BLC NL/ML doesn’t have any in-built sources. It can play (with attached speakers) or pass-through NL and ML sources and anything connected to its “line-in”.

Therefore, to get streaming to your ML you either need a NL device or a streamer hooked to the BLC’s line-in. I’d recommend getting a 2nd hand BeoPlay M3 and put it in a bathroom or some other room that currently doesn’t have music and can live without hi-fidelity. If you have no need for another speaker anywhere in your house, just stick it in a cabinet.

In this way, your M3 can be the source for B&O Radio and Deezer. You can control it with the B&O app and play it on any of your ML equipment. If you don’t want to listen to your m3, set the default sound level to 0 or mute it. You can also setup the BLC so that unused Beo4 buttons can be mapped to the M3. For example, “CD” (since it doesn’t look like you have a CD player) can be mapped to B&O radio on the m3 and sending CD to your BS3500 will automatically start everything required to listen to it. You can skip to the next/prev station/Deezer song using the Beo4 arrow keys (similar to the BeoLink PC).

I do this (mute NL device and listen through BLC to BS9000 + BL1) quite frequently. It’s better than driving it strictly with your phone (for example as would be the case with Bluetooth) because you can use your phone for other things (like talking on it) and it doesn’t impact the music.

You cannot distribute Spotify because of licensing restrictions. Not sure about any other streaming services, but Deezer definitely works.

[Stan]

I’ve seen Geoff Martin (B&O sound meister) mention that the BL2 doesn’t play nice with BL9/20 or any BL with strong low bass capabilities (BL28, BL50/90). If I understand correctly, it has something to do with the slight delay from the BL2’s passive drivers cancelling out the similar bass frequencies from the other BeoLabs. So.. if you run out of other ideas, turn off the BL2 and see if it helps… easy enough I would think.

[Stan]

I believe the Stage can do this – limited control of limited set-top boxes via CEC when paired with a subset of LG TVs (Cs, Gs and Zs) – so why not the BCC. The interesting part is that the Stage requires an ethernet cable connection between the Stage and TV whereas I’m not seeing this as required for the BCC.

[Stan]

Is this bug specific to BL50/90s or is there an app upgrade that I need to avoid (as a non-BL50/90 owner)? Regardless, loss of volume control in the app is really, really bad (to state the obvious).

[Stan]

@MM

I understand the difference between home cinema and stereo, and I agree that they’re not really comparable. I have an Eclipse after all. My point in asking why so many TVs have 2 speakers was to point out that maybe listening to stereo TV was NOT the “weirded possible way”. Also, if it’s solely about cost, why not just have 1 speaker and eliminate that weird stereo TV watching experience? It would be cheaper still.

This will be a music first system so TV audio is secondary (or perhaps even tertiary, with looks/usability being secondary). Having said all this, my wife is not excited about the return of the “all those speaker cables” (i.e. one thin PL running from source to daisy chained speakers) so the Stage is back in the running… or I need to do better cable management.

I agree that given B&O’s history of outstanding home cinema audio it’s a bit odd for B&O to be pushing this stereo TV concept, but then you have to sell what you have. Marketers will do their marketing. Or maybe this is a case of “the customer is always right” (used as that phrase was originally intended, not the more recent “Karen” interpretation). That is, perhaps there was enough feedback saying this is desirable so they built it, even though it runs counter to ~30 years of B&O’s home cinema audio history.

 

[Stan]

@severed_hand

The Marantz can’t multi-room with my Beosound in the adjoining bathroom. It also doesn’t work just like all the other beosounds with which my wife has finally become comfortable.

I listened to TV through stereo speakers for many years. I don’t understand the pushback. I’m not doing critical listening. It’s mostly background noise, but with better bass, treble and midrange than the weak built in speakers. If stereo is so odd, why do most tvs have 2 speakers?

[Stan]

Wow, tough crowd here…

This is almost EXACTLY what I wishing for yesterday morning as I was trying to find the right audio solution for our newly remodeled bedroom. I have a non-B&O TV and wish to improve the TV sound and listen to streaming services and a turntable. Music is more important than TV audio (we don’t really watch movies in the bedroom, just regular TV and sometimes I get banished there to watch sports). Integration with existing B&O equipment is a big plus along with cost (relative with B&O) since I’ve already dropped too much on the remodel.

My internal conversation: “Why don’t TVs have variable analog audio output anymore? I can’t be the only one thinking this… Oh look, they have cheap boxes that can capture the audio from an HDMI signal and output it as analog. I can send that into a Core/Essense and there we go. Ugh, another box, and I wonder how good that will sound, and what about synching audio with video?… and I will probably need 2 remotes – one for the TV, one for the volume. Yuck!”

For these reasons, I had my finger hovering over the “buy” button on a Stage but held off because it really is overkill for my situation (the smoked oak that the wife likes is almost $3K now, the Stage is more about video audio than 2 channel stereo), and I’d really like to put those BL8000s or BL4s I have gathering dust to use (and get better stereo separation). Let’s just get the TV (a LG C3 in case I need to integrate with Stage) and see where to go from there after using it a bit.

Late last night, I’m bored and decide to pop into BeoWorld and see if there’s anything interesting going on… A new Core!?! Oh my, they really hate it! Let me take a look. Glory, glory, it’s just what I’m looking for!!!

For those complaining about the price – it’s only $50 more than a Core, and it has pretty much everything the Core has plus HDMI (arc), Tidal, Mozart and a better way to drive BL50/90s (I assume that’s what the USB output is all about). Only one PL output? Buy a splitter (and help keep Sounds Heavenly in business). Personally, I don’t see the loss of TuneIn as a negative. If they added surround processing / center channel / wisa, they’d probably charge at least $3-4K. Looks? Really?!? It’s going to be hidden in a cabinet and at least this one doesn’t look like an Ali Express special.

I still haven’t hit the buy button on this, but I most likely will. I’m not looking forward to being an early adopter – I usually hang back and let others debug, but given Mozart and HDMI(arc) are not new to B&O technologies, I think I’ll be fine.

I can’t predict the market, but, to me, this is a winner.

[Stan]

One small correction to what I said above about GVA and line-in: All Balances have line-in. However, only the non-GVA version can distribute the line-in audio via NL. An odd quirk that I misremembered.

[Author]

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