Dear All

Registered today - thank you for approving membership to Beoworld.  Question/dilema.  Got Beocenter 1, Beosound 3000.  Love both, and got a Detoma A102 power amp feeding my 10 year old £150 Eltax liberty 3+ passive speakers.  My dilema is that I crave the BeoLab 8000 for aesthetics, treble and midrange, yet feel that upgrading my passive speakers to a £500 pair might produce better results.  I listen to a wide range of music, from classical to Pink Floyd, Van Halen to Fleetwood Mac, and rarely play my music loud.  I am not a fan of deep thudding bass (live in Semi-detached house!).  My room is 5m x 7m.  I guess I'm going to get a 50% split for suggestions.  Anyone else out there had a similar dilema and how did you resolve?!!

When I have auditioned BL8000 in a showroom I have not been too impressed (mainly bass) but feel that it was unfair as the showroom was a massive room and that can not have helped bass response plus you can tweak bass up can't you?

Thanks for reading and humbly await your expert input!

Kind regards

Jonathan

The Beolab 8000's are a classic design, but they don't represent the ultimate in sound quality, see this discussion:

In your position I would go to either Iconic-AV or Lifestyle-AV and buy a set of Active Beolab Pentas.

Simon

Speakers are a very personal choice. They make the most difference to the 'sound' of your system. Clearly your source needs to be good but the tonal balance is dependent on the speakers. Beolab 8000s are wonderful looking and good sounding speakers - but they are not the best - remember they are a compromise with small bass drivers. The only Beolab speaker that really takes my breath away is the Beolab 5. And so it should!

A good pair of big passive speakers and a good powerful amplifier will be the cheapest way to upgrade - don't confine yourself to B&O. For design and integration, Beolab speakers are great - I have quite a few! For complete accuracy, either you need Beolab 5s or something with a big bass cone! Pentas are great - I have some of those - but the top end is woolly compared to the 8000s and the bass is artificial - they make planty of it but the detail gets lost.

Go with your own music and have a listen to some Beolabs - make sure you hear the 5s - that will give you an idea what good bass sound like - not thumping but detailed - then listen to the other speakers and see what you find acceptable!

And with reference to the other thread, I hate Redline speakers! Have had several pairs and given them all away! Not my thing at all! Compare Redlines with some of the Uniphase speakers - S120, MS150 etc and you suddenly hear what the RLs just don't have. Again confused and muddy bass and the positioning of the tweeter ensures the top end is lacking as well to my ears. However this just shows why you must listen for yourself!

Peter :

And with reference to the other thread, I hate Redline speakers! Have had several pairs and given them all away! Not my thing at all! Compare Redlines with some of the Uniphase speakers - S120, MS150 etc and you suddenly hear what the RLs just don't have. Again confused and muddy bass and the positioning of the tweeter ensures the top end is lacking as well to my ears. However this just shows why you must listen for yourself!

Good points Peter.

I wouldn't recommend redlines either, I don't like the way they look so I have never felt tempted! The larger redlines must be the least wife-friendly speakers B&O ever made!  I posted the link to demonstrate that the Lab 8000s aren't the last word in quality rather than recommending the redlines.

I'm still happy with my S45-2s but the treble definition may not be sufficient for the OP.

Simon

First welcome to the forum !

I have similar setup like you ! my setup

It is totally different when you listen them in home environment ! I'm truly satisfied with them .... both sound reproduction and aesthetics !

They have for me amassing bass !

My mistake, sorry!

nmartin771:

First welcome to the forum !

I have similar setup like you ! my setup

It is totally different when you listen them in home environment ! I'm truly satisfied with them .... both sound reproduction and aesthetics !

They have for me amassing bass !

 

  I have the same one pair of BL 8000.

 I agree with nmartin117. They are an excellent speakers!

I love it very much 

Alen

P.S. Welcome!

Well thank you everyone for your input.  Today has been a sad day in one respect but a profound one in another.  I have auditioned 2 pairs of BL8000 (one MK1 and one MK2), in a room of comparable size to mine with my own music.  At low/moderate volumes I could tell the difference in clarity and depth of sound between the two.  I have tried to like the sound of the BL8000 but I felt they were totally eclipsed by the BL3 also available to audition at the push of a switch.  But even these BL3's at the price a leading re-seller would sell them for I can not justify.  So my delightful Detoma power amp (so sonically sweet and designed with my dilema in mind i.e. powerlink socket on the back!!!) lives to satisfy me another day, and hopefully years.  And I shall look for passive speakers £500 - £750.  The Acoustic Energy AE1's look tempting..........

One thing that did astound me was a demonstration my great chum Ian allowed me to enjoy - a demonstrator DVD playing through BL5's at the front and BL3's at rear.  INCREDIBLE sound!  BL5's are monsters and awe inspiring!!

So it is sad as I think the BL8000's are beautiful but for me, and this is just me, my Eltax old speakers are sonically weightier and musically more satisfying.  Today has laid to rest my fascination with them as a potential addition to my system.  But I am extremely lucky to be able to enjoy the best of both worlds - my BS3000 and BC1 I am SO chuffed with and through the Detoma amp I can enjoy some very special speakers, just don't know which ones yet!  Oh and I'll get some decent speaker wire too! 

Thank you.

Jon

The budget you have will buy you a fine pair of speakers, and ultimately finding a system you are happy with is the main thing.

Don't overspend on the speaker cable though. As long as you have a resonable-quality OFC cable there is not a shred of evidence that spending any more will make  any difference!

Simon

Hi Jon, the point WirralSimon makes earlier is valid, and that is that Pentas may not be the best looking speaker but they are worth a listen.  it may have been helpful if you had made clear that you had used the facilities at morethanAV given that two other companies were recommended to buy a completely different speaker!!  However with your budget and ear the Detoma/Passive option driving third party speakers can deliver excellent results at a (comparatively) budget price, whilst still giving the advantages of an ML based system for future expansion into other rooms.  You won't get the B&O look or high residual value with other speakers but you will get the performance!

At MorethanAV I just listened to B & O loudspeakers and was priviliged to audition the BL5's being given a workout to Pink Floyds' "Time" from Dark Side of the Moon!!Don't know whether LifestyleAV has got a similar set up with instant flicks between speakers but it was an extremely valuable visit.

I apologise if I went beyond the remit of this forum in discussing other manufacturers loudspeakers.  But the Acoustic Energy Aelite 3's I think I'll go for as long as they audition as expected.  I was going to go for some more stand mounts but my wife surpised me and said she preferred the concept of floorstanders, so message received and understood!!!

Jon

Once the wife is onside Jon, Nirvana!!  Good Luck, I think you would really need to borrow passive speakers, hook up to the DeToma and listen to them individually given your attention to detail.