I am very curious about how good ambio actually sounds.
Does anyone out there use it daily?
I have just added a Beomaster 4000 to my B&O corner, though haven't connected anything to it yet.
I have spare speakers to go in it , RL45s, Beovox 1000, S30s and S35s. Haven't decided which yet.
In this photo', the 4000 is under the 5000 and over the 7000!
Ignore the spaghetti, it's worse than it looks.

You're mental Andy.

I don't know too much about these things but it wouldn't deter you from buying one even if I did and told you they would burn your house down within a week would it? I think they were inteded as a cheap/daft/ineffectual way of turning your sterio system into something resembling a quad system. As quad sound was never really truly successful (as far as I remember) the I imagine this bit of kit was even less so. Nice museum piece though - when do you open to the public?

Chris,

Yeah, Craig might be visiting on the King Street weekend. Must make him feel at home!

Sorry Andy, but what is ambio?

How long have you got Tom?

Jandyt:

Yeah, Craig might be visiting on the King Street weekend. Must make him feel at home!

Is he bringing the ferret?

Chris.

Jandyt:

How long have you got Tom?

I have all the time you need to explain... 

I agree with Chris! You need a new home, either one of the larger variety or of the type full of men who have their clothes put on for them in the morning.

RE the ambio system - I don't like it. I find the rear speakers often sound 'warbled' with digital sources, even CD. MP3s etc... are appalling and I don't find the rear speakers add much sonically -they're often too quiet.

 OK, short version!
In real life, when listening to your orchestra and your wonderful tuba playing, I would hear the sound from your tuba but also the reflected sounds from the wall in the concert hall.
Ambio takes the left and right signal away from each other and sends what's left to the side speakers, an early version of surround sound.

I would hear what comes off the walls          I think!

Medogsfat:

Jandyt:

Yeah, Craig might be visiting on the King Street weekend. Must make him feel at home!

Is he bringing the ferret?

Chris.

Carol's a bunnie, not a ferret!

Alex:

 the rear speakers add much sonically -they're often too quiet.

Perhaps I could use 35s at the side, and 30s at the front, no?

Jandyt:

I would hear what comes off the walls          I think!

thanks, Andy. I can't really imagine what ambio sounds like, but I don't really see the point of this system... 

Don't see the point in climbing Everest either!
It's there Tom! Got to use it.

Jandyt:

 OK, short version!
In real life, when listening to your orchestra and your wonderful tuba playing, I would hear the sound from your tuba but also the reflected sounds from the wall in the concert hall.
Ambio takes the left and right signal away from each other and sends what's left to the side speakers, an early version of surround sound.

I would hear what comes off the walls          I think!

Sadly this is rarely the case. Most good classical recordings are designed to take up about 70% of the soundstage between your speakers, with only 30% of that (around 15% either side) being dedicated to 'room' reflections. This means, in terms of left/right difference, around 30% of the sound from the rear speakers will be room reflections, the rest will be sound which would normally come from in front of you.

I remember playing with the ambio feature in my BeoMaster 4000 and found it novel at first, but after a while I just felt there was no point - the rear speakers added so little, when they would be doing so much more in a good surround sound setup.

Yeah, but don't forget, Alex that this is from the seventies!  Quite innovative in it's time. To make four speakers from a stereo signal is an achievement.
Off to Maplins next week to get about a mile of speaker cable!

Jandyt:

Yeah, but don't forget, Alex that this is from the seventies!  Quite innovative in it's time. To make four speakers from a stereo signal is an achievement.
Off to Maplins next week to get about a mile of speaker cable!

True, but IMO more of a novelty innovation than a truly useful innovation.

It isn't quite 'four speakers' though, the rear speaker signal is mono - the two speakers always reproduce the same sound.

I'll probably agree with you after I've heard it, but I can't go through my life not knowing.