Hi everyone

Just looking for a bit of advice really.

Have currently 20 year old Beo 5500 system in main living room with master link panel in new kitchen-diner with passive bose speakers.

PC with music is plugged into beo 5500 in main living room.

Everything works fine, but I am now looking for something new. We spend most of our time in the kitchen / diner. My wife would like to just put on a single CD in the kitchen without having to boot up the PC  / start tv as monitor, start windows media player selecting tracks etc.

My thoughts are :-

Beosound 3200 with Beolab 6000 speakers

Beoport linked to PC.

Disable the master link panel. Use old Beo 5500 as stand alone system in main living room

This would give flexibility to use single CD and radio, but also still access all music on hard drive etc.

Questions:-

Is beoport a physical device, I have never seen one, and what sort of price are they ?

Where does the beoport  plug into the Beosound 3200 ?

What control do you have using beoport of the music on hard disk ?

When the sales blurp talks about N Music  I assume it means using the PC / internet to play radio etc through it

Can you program the Beo 4 remote to control different models of TV etc

And finally will the  Beolab speakers be ok without a sub woofere speaker ?

Any commets would be appreciated

Regards

Tony

It sounds to me like an iPod and dock for the kitchen would be the ideal solution. You would need to rip the CD's to iTunes (or buy an iPod touch and subscribe to Spotify) but once this has been  done, it would be a much more convenient solution all round.

If you have the space for it a Fatman iTube with your exisitng passive speakers would be ideal. I use mine with a pair of Beovox S45-2s and it sounds wonderful.

In the continuing absecence of the B&O iPod dock you may also wish to consider one of the Bose Docks or somethng like the B&W Zeppelin mini if you have less space to play with.

Simon

wirralsimon:

In the continuing absecence of the B&O iPod dock you may also wish to consider one of the Bose Docks or somethng like the B&W Zeppelin mini if you have less space to play with.

Or wait until all the dealers return from the annual conference in Denmark next week and see what news they bring back

Opman

Tony:

My thoughts are :-

Beosound 3200 with Beolab 6000 speakers

We have this system and for us it works very well. We currently have about 200 CD's so the hard disk capacity of the BS3200 at 400 is more than enough. It means you don't have to have a PC connected to the system so there's no booting up, just On/Off with the Beo4/5 remote. And you can play CD's as per your requirements. Drawbacks are the 400 CD limit and navigating the hard disk for your stored music with the Beo4 remote (it can be difficult to know where things are stored).

Beoport linked to PC.

You'll only need Beoport if you want to access content from your PC's hard disk or listen to internet radio.

Disable the master link panel. Use old Beo 5500 as stand alone system in main living room

This would give flexibility to use single CD and radio, but also still access all music on hard drive etc.

Questions:-

Is beoport a physical device, I have never seen one, and what sort of price are they ?

Yes, it's a physical device - a small black box that connects via USB to your PC/Mac and then via Masterlink to the B&O audio master, in this case the BS3200. These can be bought second hand - check out the link to Lifestyle AV. To use one on PC you'll also need the Beoplayer software (a bit like iTunes) or alternatively, Linkplayer software for Mac.

Where does the beoport  plug into the Beosound 3200 ?

As above - via Masterlink cable.

What control do you have using beoport of the music on hard disk ?

I'm assuming you mean the hard disk of the BS3200? If so, you don't need Beoport for this. The BS3200 is an "all in one" system.

When the sales blurp talks about N Music  I assume it means using the PC / internet to play radio etc through it

Yes, that's correct. N.MUSIC refers to accessing music files stored on your computer via Beoport. N.RADIO refers to accessing internet radio in the same way.

Can you program the Beo 4 remote to control different models of TV etc

Not directly. But there are ways around it, eg Google "Lintronic" for one solution.

And finally will the  Beolab speakers be ok without a sub woofere speaker ?

Depends what your listening preferences are. I like the BL6000's as they are, but I'm looking into adding a BeoLab 11 as I feel a little extra bass would suit us given we have the speakers connected to our TV (non-B&O) and for movies, this would be nice. But, generally, they do a great job as they are - IMHO. And aesthetically, the fit very well into just about any decor.

Hope that helps a bit.

Hi Matthew

Thanks for the reply, just the sort of info I was after. As I suspected storing music on the B&O hard disk would be hard to find etc, you have to manually name each CD?

I was interested to know if the beo4 actual controls the B&O media software Beoplayer ? when playing music from the PC ?

Tony

It does but the problem you will have with this system is navigating around the music. In my view it is almost impossible. I use a beoport but have my music on iTunes and use the remote facility on my iPhone to control the music - this has two way control and allows me complete access to all my tracks.

Peter :

It does but the problem you will have with this system is navigating around the music. In my view it is almost impossible. I use a beoport but have my music on iTunes and use the remote facility on my iPhone to control the music - this has two way control and allows me complete access to all my tracks.

True ... BUT if the "personal computer" happens to be an Apple, then LinkPlayer, coupled to a Beovision and/or with its iPhone/iPad interface together with a Beo4, gives you greater flexibility IMHO.

I use the iPhone Remote in "party mode" with "next track" voting when we have visitors/family ... it's amazing how prevalent iPhones are ... and I still can't get one ... the local stores have "out of stock" signs posted on their doors

Tony:

Thanks for the reply, just the sort of info I was after. As I suspected storing music on the B&O hard disk would be hard to find etc, you have to manually name each CD?

You're welcome Tony.

Whilst navigating stored music on the BS3200 hard disk is not easy, I think it depends on your listening habits as to how useful you find the system. For us (wife and I), we have the music that we both enjoy in one folder (about 90 CD's in total), and just play it on random. Play lists or selecting tracks are not our priority - random works just fine. And if we do want to play a specific album, I have programmed our Beo5 remote to allow albums to be selected by name from the screen. As I say, it depends on how you want to access your digital music as to how suitable the BS3200 is.

Hi

OK, so when you say "selected from screen" do you mean from the Beo5 or a TV ?

Does the BS3200 come with a remote a standard (Beo4)?

I looked at the Beosound 5, but I dont think it offers enough features for the price. ( 4 playlist, no auxillary inputs, seems a nightmare to set up etc )

Regards

Tony

Tony:

OK, so when you say "selected from screen" do you mean from the Beo5 or a TV ?

From the Beo5 remote. To achieve this, you'll most likely need to program it yourself as I have done.

Tony:

Does the BS3200 come with a remote a standard (Beo4)?

Yes - it normally comes with a Beo4 (at least, in Aus it does). I bought an additional Beo5 as it gives me control of all my AV equipment (some non-B&O) as well as the BS3200 hard disk navigation I describe above. If you're interested in the Beo5 remote, head over to the dedicated forum for the Beo5 for more info.