[XavierItzmann]

Thank you Guy. I ran the “BeoPort update” and it ran successfully. No change to my situation.

I also found an old thread on the archived forums where it was revealed that BeoMaster 5 radio updates were terminated a few years ago, with a few surprised comments from BeoSound 5 owners… after all, BeoSound 5 incorporates a BM5 !!!

But the comments on the thread appeared to confirm that BM 5 N.Radio updates were a thing of the past; there was quite a bit of puzzlement that B&O had actually used different databases for two products which were apparently one and the same.

Methinks the radio db for BeoPort and for BS 5 are also distinct.

[XavierItzmann]

I’ve been listening to BS 5 radio heavily in the last few days. Last night I went thru all of the BBC channels (most by far do work) and then Spanish radio (after a few dozen radios I was still on “b”, so I gave up) and then I’ve been going through every station on the “jazz” category. Right now I’ve had “101 Jazz” from the US for a few hours, which I flip back to “101 Smooth Jazz”, its next door neighbor, every hour or so at the first hint of an advert.

I’d say well over 95% of stations work.

What sw version are you using?

[XavierItzmann]

As a placeholder until a new system arrives, I have set up a BeoPort (BP) and a BeoLab 2000 to run headless —no PC. The audio source is a Wiim connected to the BP where it normally expects to get sound from the PC. No IR eye needed, as BL 2000 accepts Beo4 IR commands.

The setup is:
1. connect the BP’s USB to the PC running BP software.
2. press N.Music on Beo4. Any sound coming from the Wiim plays.
3. Disconnect the USB (this shuts down the BP program on the PC).
For as long as power is not cut off or any of the buttons on the BL 2000 depressed, the BL remains available to play any AirPlay stream from any device. I’ve had this running for a week. You can control volume with the BL 2000’s metal knob, or with the WiiM or with your iPhone. On this room, do not leave any Beo4s laying around.

Alternative if Beo4 not available: Play any N.Radio or N.Music from PC; this opens the BP’s port that sends any available audio out to the ML net. Press the “PLAY •” button on the BL 2000.

[XavierItzmann]

I was never much of an N.Radio listener in the years I had the BeoPort hooked up until I put it away in 2014.

Now that I have a BS 5, I have been playing with N.Radio and dug out the BeoPort. Some comparisons between the BS5 and the BeoPort (BP) on Windows 10 Home 21H2 build 19044.2251:

• Very few radio stations work on the BeoPort, and even those which work can’t be relied upon 100%. Even a “dependable” station appears to play from first selection only about 3/4ths of the time. If the “dependable” station doesn’t start, going to another station and coming back will usually work after a couple of times. Sometimes it will start on its own after a few minutes.

• The radios are sometimes labeled differently on BS 5 vs BP. One BP-working station I found had two different label endings on the BP (only the 1st worked) whereas on BS 5 the “two” stations had exact same labeling and same audio, so on BS 5 it appeared to be a repetition of the same station.

• BBC on BP starts with Afghan Network, Afrique, Arabic, AsianNetwork Gold, Burmese, etc. On BS 5, BBC starts with Asian Network, CWR, Essex, Guernsey, Hereford & Worcester, etc. Eventually going down the list you come to BBC World Service Afghan Network, World Service Afrique, Arabic, “BBC World Service Bangla”, etc. Inconsistent labeling results on different alphabetical positioning.

The argument that Windows 10 broke BeoPort N.Radio is a bit suspect, don’t you think? If it had broken N.Radio then nothing would work? How come a very few stations appear to be relatively reliable?

[XavierItzmann]

I read about a decade ago, or longer —probably in this forum— that MasterLink is a type of RSC-232 communications network, first introduced in 1960 (or was it its cousin RS-422 from 1975?). If true, it is probably a subset of the full protocol. If true, it is not an “analogue” network, but a digital one —for the command and control. The sound distribution itself is evidently analog.

matador wrote:

There is the masterlink input (large rectangle socket) that is THE usual input. It is analogue but it need some dark digital protocol to be started.

[XavierItzmann]

I cloned the BM5 disk drive using a $25 “FIDECO Hard Drive Docking Station Support Offline Clone” on Amazon. The steps were:

1. Connect the cloner to power, but leave it off
2. Insert the original 1TB B&O 3.5″ drive on bay 1

3. Insert a $66 “Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD” on bay 2

4. Turn on the power switch, depress the “Clone” button for 3 seconds

The process took less than 4 hours (just a handful of CD’s on the BS 5). I had some trepidation because it turns our the actual Crucial box doesn’t advertise itself as 1TB, like Amazon does, but instead as 1000GB. And 1000GB < 1024GB, so I half-expected the cloning would fail.

But no, the BS5 started up flawlessly and has been playing N.Music and N.Radio for over one hour. We’ll see if problems crop up later.

I am indebted to all those who contributed to the epic 210-post “Upgrade beomaster 5 harddisk” thread from June 2013 to February 2022.

[XavierItzmann]

Thank you Forrest.

While I myself have never done a thermal paste renewal, it seems that all the old-gear Macintosh experts renew the paste on their computers after a bit over a handful of years. It stands to reason that the same process should be done in any other systems that also employ thermal paste from the factory.

Heat is the enemy of electronics, dramatically shortening lives that could be into the decades. The A6 evidently self-protects against overheating. One wonders if there are other, possibly older B&O systems that simply hara-kiri themselves in a heat daze.

[XavierItzmann]

Thank you both Mr. 10% and Griebel.

I will now order both an HDD with a big cache and the Crucial SSD 1 To MX-500 and clone the original disk to both. You can never have too many backups! If the SSD can be persuaded to work, no vibration and less heat should be good for the BM5.

Not having a light meter, it is hard to say if the BS5 regulates its brightness automatically or not. It always looks quite brilliant, whether day or dark. Insofar as the blacks are a bit washed out —unless looking perpendicularly at the screen—, it might be that mine’s backlight is always at 100%.

Is backlight failure on the BS5 a concern? Or do other parts generally fail first, i.e., the motherboard on the BM5?

[XavierItzmann]

Thank you, Mr. 10Percent.

Posts in the old forum recommend, if I recall correctly, the Crucial MX100 as the only tried and tested upgrade for the disk, with various people having had problems with Samsung and other disks. Then again, most of these old posts date about a decade to when SSDs were an expensive novelty.

Crucial now only sells the MX300 and MX500, and it appears the MX100 is no longer available. Do you have an SSD brand and model that you recommend for the BM5?

[XavierItzmann]

My BS 5 has the CD device but not the very short cables that connect CD to screen. If anyone has them for sale, please advise. I wonder if B&O still stocks them?

[XavierItzmann]

Could those Wiim mini stream from their aux in to usual airplay device like Airport express boxes? From the user guide I understand they can from Wiim to Wiim but I wonder if an usual Airplay network can catch the stream also. Thank you.

No. A useful way of conceptualizing the Wiim mini is that it is a BeoSound Core, only with a 92% discount. Of course its quality standards may be lower, and you cannot use the Bang and Olufsen app —and must instead use the Wiim app if you want to use the app—, but it does more or less the same things.

So the Wiim mini will not wirelessly transmit: it is only a receiver, which sends wired sound (analog or digital, at your choice) to an amp, or to powered speakers, or to the aux-in in a music system.

The only other port on the Wiim mini itself is a signal-sensing aux-in (same as the Core).

Someone please correct me if I got any of this wrong.

[XavierItzmann]

So, why did I unearth my old BeoPort? We are at a new house which is probably temporary for just a very few years and I don’t feel like running Master Link cables all over the place again, yet I wanted to use an old BL 2000 in the library. Steve from Sounds Heavenly advised me he doesn’t have any solutions for a BL 2000.

I am using cheap $80 Wiim streamers as receivers for multiroom audio. In the library/BeoPort case, I Master Linked the BeoPort to the BL2000, ran the Wiim output as input to the BeoPort, hooked the USB to the Mac, got the BeoPort to transmit PC audio to the BL, and took away the Mac. Until someone mistakenly turns off the BL2000 or commands some other source, or the electric supply goes down, the BL2000 is happy to play any audio the Wiim sends to it.

But I wonder if the BeoPort could be persuaded to play “headless” without the Mac across power-downs. I already figured out that connecting a USB charger to the BP’s USB port doesn’t work.

[XavierItzmann]

Big, big thanks to Guy for his persistence and for pointing the way.

I had a BeoPort in a box (stored away for 8 years!) and just took it out this afternoon and without Guy’s findings it might as well have been a useless curio.

How about that curve ball, the BeoPlayer and BeoPort programs having the exact same versions to 4 decimals, and being different software applications? I too, had the wrong sw until I downloaded Guy’s version, which uninstalled BeoPlayer.

Mine runs flawlessly on 64 bit Windows on Bootcamp on a MacBook.

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