Recently the B&O instalation service providers were here to advise me on setting up a sat dish. To cut a long story short - the dish is no option as the house facade, roof etc. is protected by legislation ie. a dish may not be mounted :-(.... So before selling my 500 year old house :-) the good B&O man had a look at my set up.

In the front I have an Avant and BL 8000 and in the gallery (back about 10 meters) BS9000 and BL5000 panels.

Front and back are not connected. So this is what was suggested. A digital cable reciever for the Avant with 500 GB hard drive +-750€. Masterlink cable 20 Meters (no idea why so long) 112€. Powerlink cable 10 meters X2 80€. Costs for technician 250€ and the guy thats going to hide the cables below the wooden floor boards 250€. So schwooop di woop with some other odds and ends I am looking at 1700€ incl. tax to link the fornt to the back including the digital reviever on my oldish Avant.

Actually I was planning to replace the TV soon and would prefer saving the money towards say a BV10.

Are these prices worth the suround sound experience? Other than some more channels I dont think the picture quality will improve that much? What do you guys think? Rip off :-)

I don't actually think that this is such a rip off. I am not sure I would do things as suggested but the cost seems about what I would expect. The long Masterlink is no doubt to save pulling up the floor as he will take it around the edge ? behind skirting? The digital receiver can be used with the new TV - I think I know the one and saw it in action with the BV10 at the UK launch - it integrated pretty well. No matter which TV you have, you will need to have a cable box and if you want to link the BS9000 and TV and use the speakers as a surround system, you will end up with this sort of cost. It rather depends on how much you watch TV as to whether it is worth it though. You can have the best TV in the world and it will have no better programmes on if you cannot receive them. Equally, if you don't watch much, not much point spending huge amounts anyway.

Not sure the BV10 will be man enough for your room though - and the thought of a surround system with speakers over 10m apart using BL8000s and BL5000s sounds quite challenging. I would wonder about a wireless set up but different speakers for the rear of the TV. When replacing the TV, I would get a second hand BV9 rather than a BV10 as the sound will be better and the picture larger.

Thanks Peter! I will probably go for it, especially if I can use the same reciever with the new TV. The last BV9 I tried to buy (ebay) ended up being a hoax. Although the room is very challenging - nothing like they build today - I am happy with the sound, probably because I dont know any better :-)... I am also assuming that when master linked, that all speakers will activate simulateously when palying CD, MP3 or radio. 

You will have the choice to set them up as you wish - with the more modern sets you can chose between audio and viseo set ups and of course you can also change this using the Beo4. I would strongly suggest that your next TV has a Beosystem 3 processor as it will allow more flexibility in your splendid sounding room!