The speaker inside the BeoVision 9 is the same as the BeoLab 7-4. It's a single-point source speaker designed to be used as the centre channel in a surround sound setup. I wouldn't want to mix everything down to mono, you can start to get quite a few nasty phasing issues, even complete cancellation of sound on rare occasions. If your room is too small

I would switch too - BeoLab 9s are stunning speakers. Maybe you could move one set of BeoLab 3s as link room speakers in case you hadn't already thought of it?

I don't think Applemac1 wants to run OS X on the actual Beomedia itself. Yes, the BeoMedia will work with a Mac through BeoConnect, but it won't play iTunes-protected files. What do you want to use the BeoMedia for?

Puncher's hit the nail on the head. The output from the S/PDIF will produce a standard PCM signal. One thing to bear in mind is that some BeoVision 7s were not capable of decoding stereo digital audio - the digital input would only decode Dolby Digital/DTS. For this reason, you may be best off just connecting it to the TV via analogue connections.

I wouldn't want to go for speakers which 'virtually' disappear in the corners of the room. The only company which does this is Bose, and their speakers aren't exactly... Hi-Fi (with all greatest respect to the company). You may disagree with me here, but I find touchscreens boring. Have a play with the BeoSound 5 and see what you think. It doesn't do

koning: Is it correct that the soundcard inside the Beomaster 5 is a special custom built one. Depends what you define as the 'sound card'. If you mean the chip which converts the 1s and 0s into an analogue waveform, then no. If you mean the circuitry design itself which produces the sound, and not the individual chips which have gone into it, then

BeoBoyLit: Keith Saunders: From my observations there is nothing particularly special about this audio cicuit which uses off the shelf components to provide the required solution. Totally agree here. and then... Alex: The BeoSound 5 is high-end ! It's not a direct replacement for the BeoMedia; the BeoMaster 5 is, which is part of the BeoSound 5

Here and present!

Software 4.17 works perfectly well. In fact 4.24 does for most users...

With exactly the same music recorded at the correct bit-rate (we don't even know what bitrate the music currently on the BeoSound 5s is).