Hi

I recently bought a BeoLab 3500 and I must say I am not quite pleased with the sound.

I find the sound very "portable radio" or "transistor radio" like. Like the sound misses something.... Mid Range maybe. It can be tuned to give more bass and more treble, but I dont think the sound is ever good. In fact I find it QUITE unpleasing. They sound very "forced" and not natural.

In my main room I have BL3 and BL4 (as rear) and I find even the BL4's to be WAY better than the BL3500.

I didnt expect to get BL3-like sound, but I did expect a LOT better sound than I have.....

Have anyone had any simular experiences, or is my unit faulty - or my expectations way too high?

 

I've always been impressed with the sound of the 3500 whenever I've heard one. How is yours mounted? Did it sound similar in the showroom to your ears?

It's mounted high on a wall above a door opening. But pointed towards the listening position.

Showroom!?! ;-)

 .....the showroom didn't really have to well displayed, so I just heard it briefly. It's hard to say.
 

Hmmm, it's always possible I suppose that you've got a defective unit. I suspect however it's more to do with where it's mounted.

Either that, or there's nothing wrong with it and you simply are in want of something better! Wall mounted BeoLab 4000s + a BeoLink Active will give you much much much higher standard of performance!

The Beolab 3500's normally provide very good sound and certainly do not sound like a "transistor radio"

I am assuming you purchased the Beolab 3500 second hand, so could it be that the previous owner has left the bass/treble etc settings at one end of the scale. I would check this first.

Then I would check that the speaker grills have not slipped sideways in shipment which could also provide a "portable radio" sound. To remove the grills they are moved left for the left grill and right for the right grill about 1 cm then they can be removed.

Lastly, the unit could just have a fault which needs to be fixed.

Hi to me it sounds like an Master link fault, the link signal is a balanced signal (needs a + and - signal for both left and right) If it only has one of them the sound is very bad.