I have a Beosystem 3 with a Panasonic monitor and the Beosystem 3 double cabinet, Beolab 8000s at the front, Beolab 2 and also Beolab 4000s at the back.

I am considering purchasing a Beolab 7.2 or 7.4 for the centre speaker (currently using 2 4000s as centre speakers) the obvious choice is a mono Beolab 7.4 for centre speaker in a sorround setup however, cosmetically if I stand the 7.4 speaker on the cabinet It would overlap some of the screen unless I higher the screen making the screen a little to high . Also the 7.2 would look great on its table stand on the Beosystem 3 cabinet

Will there be much difference sound wise in this setup between 7.2 and 7.4? Will the 7.2 be happy to act as a mono centre speaker? 

 

The 7.4 is supposed to be the best mono speaker but in your set up, you may well find the 7.2 is better anyway. If it is a question of the 7.4 simply not fitting anyway, I would get the 7.2. Have you listened to both? If I had Beolab 5s or 9s as front speakers, I would probably get the 7.4, but with 8000s, I think the 7.2 will be a better match.

Thanks for that Peter. Why do you think the 7.2 is a better match with the 8000s? I have listened to to the 7.2 and the 7.4 at different times so not directly compared them yet

So you don´t mix alt speakers with non-alt speakers.

Alt is the lens on BL7-4, BL3, BL5 and BL9.

 

I like the 7.4 but i doubt it would look right higher than a cabinet. Ive attached a pic (last time I tried this the pic got stretched but the attachment was fine) of my system which has a 7.4 fixed to the wall with a slim wall bracket from the stb-brackets range.

Cheers

peter

 

Excellent install, where are the wires?

britops:

Excellent install, where are the wires?

Well thanks for that. The wires are in the wall and then under the floor to the BS3 which is in a cupboard out of the way. This I think is one of the main advantages of the BS3 as most of the cables go to the BS3 so there is not much to hide near the screen making for quite a clean look.

Cheers

Peter

First time I hear / read that you shouldn't mix the (ALT) BL 7.4 with BL 8000....?

Do more of you agree?

Marcel

Rombeek:

First time I hear / read that you shouldn't mix the (ALT) BL 7.4 with BL 8000....?

Do more of you agree?

Marcel

There sure is a point in the mixing/ non-mixing issue, but it goes very far into details. IMO, if the center speaker is an ALT-speaker (BL7-4), then you can add front speakers that are not ALT. But I would not set up the opposite, BL7-1/2 as center with ALT front speakers...

I spoke with my dealer about it, and he said B&O never gave any recommandations about this issue and he never heard talking about it. It is true, that most of the ALT speakers outperform the non-ALT in clearness of the high-end, but I am sure that most of the people won't bother about that fact. I think that ALT speakers are wased as rears.

 

You can obviously mix any speakers you want but there is some stylistic and technical sense in using like with like.

We have a Lab 7.1 with our BV-7...and we have Lab 3 front and Lab 4 rear...and a Lab 2.

We like our set-up...although i would like to compare a Lab 7.4 in our home just out of interest...but there are quite a few programs that we do not want to watch in Speaker 3 or 5 mode...The News or documentaries for example. Some programs just don't sound right to us if not played through the stereo Lab 7.1 centre speaker on its' own. 

Will there be / is there a very big difference between listening to your TV with only the 7.4 (mono) on, instead of the 7.1/7.2  (stereo) ? Has anyone compared ?

Perhaps the first thing you notice with ALT speakers are their clarity, so having to front speakers with ALT and a none-ALT center will simply sound as if there is something "wrong". So, yes, you should have all ALT or no ALT at all for the 3 front speakers.

 

The BeoLab 7-4 doesn't do a decent job on its own - the BeoLab 7-1/7-2 does a very decent job on its own!

Roger

Rombeek:

Will there be / is there a very big difference between listening to your TV with only the 7.4 (mono) on, instead of the 7.1/7.2  (stereo) ? Has anyone compared ?

I heard the 7-4 at my dealer's. On it's own you cannot listen to it. It sounds like voices came out of a steal-box. If you use 7-4, then you must add a pair of front speakers, whereas the 7-1/2 does a very good job when working on it's own, even when playing music.