Has anyone any experience of using Beovox Pentas with a Cona? I might be moving somewhere smaller in a few weeks, so am planning on rationalising some of my B&O collection, and unfortunately with a BM6000 Quad on the way shortly I might have to part company with the Beosystem 5000 I'm currently using in my bedroom. I'm loath to part with the Cona I've been using in conjunction with a pair of CX50s though, and thought that in my new setup the Cona might look pretty cool (it's black) next to my Pentas and my black RF Avant. Also, being a crashing bore, I love to tell people how the Cona is a permanent exhibit at MoMa and therefore lends my interior an extra dimension.

Any thoughts? Will the BM8000 kill the Cona in the process? Will it add anything/take anything away from the Pentas?

BTW - I had thought to position the Cona in the middle of the soundstage before anyone points out how placement is the key!

John, I'm sad to report that there are actually no b&o products in Moma now at all.  When I was there this year the lady in that exhibit area said the last b&o item they had was a beocom, which has also left.  Based on what I've seen at Moma, "permanent" items simply mean that they are left there longer than "temporary" items, but not actually permanently.

Austin

That's terrible Austin - they're still listed on the MoMa website too :(

Have you tried the Penta/Cona combo BTW??

No sorry, I don't have a cona, or have ever even seen one in person.  I'd be worried about too much bass overlap, as the cona is a rather small subwoofer to begin with, but that's just a guess of course.

I may be wrong, but I thought Chris (medogsfat) uses a Cona with Pentas.

Cheers

Nigel

PS John - I'll give Tim a call tomorrow.

Thanks Nigel :) I forgot about that!

Chris - have you tried a Cona with some Pentas then??

h1npw:

I may be wrong, but I thought Chris (medogsfat) uses a Cona with Pentas.

Cheers

Nigel

PS John - I'll give Tim a call tomorrow.

Nigel you are correct. Chris does or at least did have a Cona and Beovox Penta's. It sounded very good from what I can remember. Listened to Wish You were Here, or at least the first side of the album.

Craig

Craig:

h1npw:

I may be wrong, but I thought Chris (medogsfat) uses a Cona with Pentas.

Cheers

Nigel

PS John - I'll give Tim a call tomorrow.

Nigel you are correct. Chris does or at least did have a Cona and Beovox Penta's. It sounded very good from what I can remember. Listened to Wish You were Here, or at least the first side of the album.

 

Craig

Come on then Chris - were they any good? What amp were you using??

Chris was using a BM7000.

Craig

On paper, the Cona doesn't go any lower than the Pentas themselves, so I wonder if it can do any better than just cranking 40-150 Hz up in an equalizer... Maybe it is more linear at high volumes due to the larger driver, but on the other hand, the Pentas have eight of them.

Why not try it and report back! I would guess it makes little difference and remember the Cona will not take as much power as the Pentas.

Peter :

Why not try it and report back! I would guess it makes little difference and remember the Cona will not take as much power as the Pentas.

Not an option I'm afraid - tidy cable runs and a lack of spare cabling and DIN plugs mean that the only way I'll get the opportunity to try is when I move, hence my original question as to whether anyone else had done the hard work for me!

Craig is correct:-

BM7000 - cona - penta's.

I had this connected to a MX5500 as part of a surround sound system (pentas, cona & CX100's) - hence the cona was added for extra bass which worked extremely well for movies.

Since the demise of the MX I reverted to using my BS7000 for music only where the cona didn't actually add a great deal and has since been taken out.

Chrios.

Chris - were you running the Pentas from the Cona in this setup, thus using the crossover in the Cona to decide what went to the Pentas? I just wonder whether the Cona would add anything or take anything away from the Pentas???

Both John,

                as part of the surround set up I ran the CX100's via the cona. When the TV died I ran the penta's through the Cona. As my BS7000 is in a relatively small room (4m X 4m) it didn't really warrant the amount of extra bass provided. It was a personal choice on my part to do away with it as I aren't a big fan of most "bassy" types of music. It did add to the bass though and I found myself adjusting the sound settings to tone it down which really seemed a bit of a waste of time to me.

If you're thinking of organising a rave in your living room though - go for it

Chris.

EDIT - you also need to remeber I'm a bit more crumbly than your good self so my ears aren't the best judges to go by.

Thanks Chris

I really like bass, but it has to sound natural and I've heard setups before where a sub has been used and it has been overpowering.

The place we're thinking of moving to has a living space with an open-plan double-height aspect, and is about twice as big as our current living room, so I expect that the space itself can 'take' the extra bass. I guess I'll just have to play around if we go there and see whether or not I like using the Cona. I'm pretty sure it would look good near to my RF Avant that's also in black - but it does have to sound good, otherwise what's the point?

Either way, my trusty BM 8000 will get a good workout no doubt :)

Conas were designed to help the CX 50 and CX 100 in smaller rooms.  They run a sinlge 8" driver and will take about 60 Watts RMS.  I have not tried to connect them (I have 2) up to my Pentas, nor RL140s as they would not help at all.  I am considering using one as a centre speaker with an Avant.

In my opinion the best bass reproduction from B&O speakers comes from the MS150 or BL5...

Brian

Thanks Brian

I currently use my own Cona with CX50s and a Beosystem 5000, so know how they can help with bass reproduction with smaller speakers. Still worth a shot with the Pentas though if for nothing else other than to see what difference (if any) the larger bass driver makes. It might be better, worse, or just the same!

To try something like that out you really need a "switching box" and two pairs of Pentas - one of which is connected to a Cona all playing the same music.  I find it hard to copmare one after another and prefer to be able to flick between alternatives - especially if someone else is in control so you are as unbiased as possible!

Brian

The larger bass driver of the Cona is 8" - giving an overall area of about 50.2 sq inches.  The Penta is only 5" an area of 19.6 sq inches - but with 4 of them that is the equivalent of 78.5 sq inches.  You would need a 10" bass unit to give the same area (Beovox 5700, S75, M75 etc)....

Brian

Interesting Brian

Chris thought that the Cona added, rather than diminished, the bass dimension when he used them together.

Mmmm - do you think that the downward facing driver would give an extra bass dimension when used on a hard wood floor, as opposed the the multiple Penta drivers pointing out into the room???

At the end of the day you are using another 50sq inches and moving more air - but with the two pentas that is twice the 78.6 (as I was basing it on one Penta!) already!  I have Lab IIIs so am not sure how easy it would be to connect a passive Cona.  I need to check frequency crossoverpoints as the COna may well be concentrating on the lower frequencies....

Surface and set up will vary - but I would hang on to the Cona as I am sure it will work well with certain fabrics and floors....

Let the forum know how you get on.....

Brian  

One thought I had when driving down to Sheffield today:

If I connect the Cona to the BM8000, then run the passive Pentas from the Cona (as per the instructions) I'll be using the crossover in the Cona to decide what low frequencies it wants to handle, then the Pentas manage the rest. Does this mean that all the bass drivers in the Pentas would then be redundant because the Cona has taken over bass duties??

Assuming the above is correct, and I just wanted a shed-load of bass, what if I connected the Pentas up to the BM8000 as normal, then hooked up the Cona to the speaker 2 outputs and let it run by itself for some 'extra' bass. Would this work and would it be any better/worse??

if you use the crossover in the cona, the bass drivers should still be working to some degree with only the absolute lows being taken over by the cona sub, depending on how the filter in the cona is build.

I would use the second set-up you propose with the the cona as a pure extra to get a real benefit out of it as the spec of the cona are really no match for the pentas . Though I don't use a cona myself, I do use another subs in a similar setup and it works very well.

With the kindest regards,

O.

FWIW there's nothing stopping you from using more than one Cona. You could use F.E. one per side (which is what I would personally do, I hate subwoofers when in mono, they sound very flat IMO).