Would anybody be so kind as to offer expert advice please. I am trying to decide on best equipment to suit my needs which are:-

Location of equipment - large family kitchen area

Needs - CD/radio and poss cassette  -

Do I need to buy sep speakers?? (told you I am new to this).  Obviously, with so much money involved here I do not want to get the purchase wrong - are the speakers wire free, how do they link up with the device?

Hope someone out there can advise. Kindest regards

BeoSound Century - every time.

Welcome to BeoWorld.

Lee

Agree though the cloth speaker covers might get sticky! An Ouverture with Beolab 2500s with the metal fronts could be preferable. Also allows expansion in the future.

Thanks to you both for your speedy replies - As im sure you have already guessed, I havnt got a clue with regard to selecting the best piece to suit my needs - Im not keen to have wires trailing (have a 5 yr old) and also, do like stream lined equipment.  Expansion in the future is quite attractive (finances allowing) - Im viewing second hand sites at the min (on-line) and switching between this site to read your much needed reviews.  Keep them coming please.

It does depend on exactly what you want. The Century is a good sounding stand alone device which has a basic cassette player, CD player and FM/AM (in most cases) radio. If you don't need the cassette and don't use AM, then the Beosound 1 is another more modern single piece unit. Neither can be expanded any further.

After that, we come to the hi-fi range - The BeoSound Ouverture and 3000 offer a compact unit which can be used in a complete house system. They will however require speakers - the 2500s will attach making the system effectively one unit but you could of course use other speakers like the 4000 and wall mount them.

Remember that there is a chance of FM radio going so if this is a long term purchase, consider the Beosound 4 if in the UK.

Go with me on this one please Peter and allow my ignorance to shine thru -  do the speakers attach to Ouverture via a wire to the back or are they wire free ?? (in which case how do they operate)  I fully accept this will be the silliest question you've been asked to answer but, in my defence, I did own up to knowing absolute zero. Thanks Peter

Lin

Allow me to pop in :)

Yes, you need to connect overture via cable ( power link cable - 8pin Din ) to speakers, for example BeoLab 4000.

All current B&O speakers are active.

Basically then you will have source ( cd - radio ) connected to active speakers.

If you have more questions, just feel free to ask

Thank you Martin for your help - much appreciated.

OK, silliest question no 2 coming up - what does "all current B&O speakers are active" mean?  I dont mind asking and looking a fool so feel free to respond using 'explaining to dummies' text.  I truly dont mind and am so very grateful for all the help.

Kind regards

Lin

link

link 2

Basically active speaker mean that you have amplifier built in the speaker.... so you don't need separate amplifier to power speakers.

You only need source ( cd player, iPod .... ) to connect to the speakers.

Lin,

Welcome to the forum

BL4000

Beolab penta

Here you can find explanation as well ...

How very kind - thank you.

Think ill be OK now - will familiarise with link 2.

Thanks to everyone for keeping it simple.

Lin