Hi,

I currently have a BV7-40 MK3 ---> ML to an ouverture.

Connected to the BV7, I have a BL2 and BL7-4. I was wondering what would happen if I added BL3s to this setup.

TV/DVD etc would use all speakers, im sure.

But when i listen to the radio or CD, will the speaker system switch the centre BL74 off?

Thanks

Good thing in this setup is, if you connect your BL3 to the tv, you can change with beo4 which speaker you want to hear.

So you will have three options, Speaker 1, 2, 3 to choose from beo4

1 is for BL7

2 is for BL3

3 is for all together

Sot this is very easy ...

And you will be more than satisfied if you add BL3.

IMHO I will exclude BL2, cos I think it is very bomy for music, but if you like it than ok!

Thanks nmartin. I know about the speaker set up but i want to keep things simple too... do you know what mode it goes to by default?

 mode 2 !

At my setup is like that and I can not change it

I have Bc1, last generation model.

Maybe on BV7 you can change default setup....

By default is like this,

When you listen CD-radio fro overture is mode 2

When you turn on TV is mode 3

timhanna:

Thanks nmartin. I know about the speaker set up but i want to keep things simple too... do you know what mode it goes to by default?

You can choose the speaker set up in the sound menu of the BS3 for video and audio.

Stefan

doh... so in effect, i would need to program the beo5 to macro: CD + speaker 3 etc.

Why did they do that? I love the BL74!

Thanks Stefan, do you have instructions how, because i dont remember seeing it?

As said, it`s in the sound menu. Press MENU - OPTIONS - SOUND - Here you will find the speaker set up for audio and video...if I remember correctly - I`m not at home now.

Stefan

ok Stefan, ill take a look. Thanks!

Does anyone know why b&o chose this config?

Because... it works?

how exactly does it work then? because after paying 2200 quid on a centre speaker that wont play automatically for music isnt exactly clever?

I can't comment on your setup but I don't think I would personally select music with a centre channel. Most music is "encoded" when recorded as a stereo signal to be played in the conventional 2-speaker equilateral triangle arrangement. To get a good performance from a 3 speaker setup the music would have to be re-encoded as a Mid+Side signal by the BV7. I'm not sure I see any real advantage (other than some control over the apparent stereo width).

However if it is capable of being set up that way then I agree it should be possible to store it as the default setup should you wish.

To further what Puncher says, a CD contains information for two speakers (it has two channels - stereo), and should be played as such - through two speakers. If you try and play it through a pair of 'main stereo' speakers and a centre speaker at the same time (in this case, your, your system is going to try and 'extract' information for the BeoLab 7-4. You will always lose something in this process.

The B&O system is clever in that you can tell it exactly what you want - for CDs, speaker 2, for video etc... speaker 3. You can get your TV to play out of speaker 3 by default all the time (including with CDs), but I would frankly recommend against it. The centre channel is there for speech during movies/TV/other 'centre-channel' encoded content - not music...

I see. The way I would love for it to work is so that the BL74 would kick in for high frequencies (voice?) the BL3 as a mid and the BL2 obviously for the sub...

timhanna:

I see. The way I would love for it to work is so that the BL74 would kick in for high frequencies (voice?) the BL3 as a mid and the BL2 obviously for the sub...

 

I think that would get rather sonically confusing when playing back stereo sources, and sounds would be coming from all over the place, destroying the soundstage in the process...

Whilst I can agree it is sometimes, err, interesting to listen to stereo sources in a surround mode, I think L+R+ a centre channel that only has the "voice-pitch" sounds would somewhat ruin things for me....

Still, if you like it, that's all that counts...

But how do things like car speakers work? They use cross-overs that assign particular frequencies to a particular driver... shouldnt the same idea be used in this case?

There are already crossovers in the system, but this is different.

What you're referring to is the splitting of high-frequencies (treble) off to the treble speakers, and lower frequencies/middle-frequencies (low/mids) to the woofer/midrage speaker.

In the case of your centre speaker, we're talking about assigning each speaker it's own channel of sound. On a CD, there are two channels of sound (left and right). The recording engineer/producer can choose to have an instrument coming out of either the left, the right or any mixture of both channels. When he/she does that, you get a 'stereo image' - a 'fake-band' or wall of sound appearing between the two main loudspeakers.

For this to happen, the left hand channel of audio must be played through the left hand speaker, and the right hand channel must be played through the right-hand speaker. What about the centre channel though? There is no 'centre-channel' of audio on a CD, only left and right. For this reason, you will always end up with better fidelity when playing the CD as it was intended - through two speakers, not through three.

Middle-Side does have it's place (although it is more common as a microphone recording technique than playback) - what it does give you is a true "mono" channel i.e. what you would hear on a mono radio.

My advice would remain, listen and enjoy stereo recordings on a conventional stereo speaker set-up, certainly don't listen to them with a 3-way speaker setup without proper decoding, it will certainly muddy the stereo image.

Thanks guys for the very useful info... is there a format that is encoded for surround sound music?

rayfenwick:

timhanna:

I see. The way I would love for it to work is so that the BL74 would kick in for high frequencies (voice?) the BL3 as a mid and the BL2 obviously for the sub...

 

I think that would get rather sonically confusing when playing back stereo sources, and sounds would be coming from all over the place, destroying the soundstage in the process...

Whilst I can agree it is sometimes, err, interesting to listen to stereo sources in a surround mode, I think L+R+ a centre channel that only has the "voice-pitch" sounds would somewhat ruin things for me....

Still, if you like it, that's all that counts...

 

I agree !

I have similar set up as I mention above, and listening CD from L-C-R really harm music .... Sound is more soft and some information is lost during this process.

BTW do someone knows how to change default setup for speakers on BC1 ?

timhanna:

Thanks guys for the very useful info... is there a format that is encoded for surround sound music?

SACD and DVD-Audio were the "high def" surround sound format contenders, SACD's are still available although the take up has been poor and in truth it's all but a dead format for the masses although there is still some following among the classical, jazz and audiophile communities. What is apparent is that the majority of music now is bought by the iPod generation and they are happy with the generally poor quality of MP3 based music. The promise of better than CD quality surround sound didn't excite very many purchasers, that together with the fact that SACD's require a different playback machine, meant only a small number of enthusiasts took it up.

There's also an Audio-only profile among the Blueray specifications, meaning Blueray audio-only discs are possible (with the advantage that there will already be players out there capable of decoding the discs) but the marketing issues remain the same - will folk pay more for HD audio content or continue to buy cheap (or in the majority of cases free) low quality MP3-type content.

Thanks all.

Another question is what would happen if i installed rear speakers too? would the BS3 switch to speaker 2 still for CD audio?

Yes, as far as I know.

By default it always switch speakers2 for audio source.

nmartin771:

Yes, as far as I know.

By default it always switch speakers2 for audio source.

 

Ewww. So basically in my eyes, adding anything more than 1 pair of speakers and a sub is a waste of money! I do watch movies, but the main priority is sound!

So its probably best I just kept the BL74 and BL2 combination until i have enough money for BL9/5...

and if i then wanted surround sound, use some used BL6000 in the rear