Puncher:

I've linked THIS (I imagine most have read it), because it does have a spectrum within which doesn't show any real "holes" (although there is no mention of who or how it was measured).

It's fairly unusual for B&O to receive praise in the audio press and most are ready to knock it down - the BL9 does fair quite well, not only in this but also in other reviews from hifi mags etc.

I can only assume there's some sort of environmental factor at work.

Well, we will never really know if B&O decided to try the BOSE trick, and pay some publishers for these reviews...

Dave:

Well, we will never really know if B&O decided to try the BOSE trick, and pay some publishers for these reviews...

Seems to me a bit to dramatic to be real :-). Lets wait for the feedback of Dave M. after his trip to Texas.

On the other hand, this is a very interesting thread and as I was planning to buy a set of BL9's for my studio as well, I am very curious too. I will grap a bunch of cd's later this week and visit my dealer to obtain a better understanding of this issue. Could you recommend some music you used?

Anything under the Deutche Grammaphon label is good if you like classical music, Goldfrapp is good, take something that you know well, i'm sure you know which cd's of yours that are good quality (what do you mean by a studio? music studio?)

well after reading this thread three things i have heard stick in my mine

Speakers fee like they are missing something

Listening to them is tiring
lacks something

i have listened to these for days to try and get used to them, but something is missing big style and it kind of feels like they need turnign up all the time

SOme music has no bass others to much treble, i cannot spend everyday changing the settings on my tv.

Bass is overpowering on some songs and non existant on others

midrange is missing and to much treble

i fear that i will return mine in the next day or two as my lab 8000's never made me feel tired or the need to listen hard.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH thats how i feel

Seanie, I think you have exactly summerized  what I have also experienced after one year of extensive listening to my Lab's 9 and experimenting with numerous settings and positions in my room. However my conclusion is you never get where you want to be. Sure, these speakers have some strong points but the overall impression is indeed tiring to listen to and an unbalanced sound. I am sorry to say but IMO these labs 9 as they are today need a serious sonical redesign.

Peter McGrath, who spends time developing speakers for Wilson Audio, will spend up to half an hour finding the best position for the speakers in a new room -- of course, he lets the goal of optimum sound dictate placement.

However, if one begins by placing the speakers where they look best, are the most out of the way, or most decorative, then that might impact negatively on the sound they produce -- so one needs to find a compromise.

My BeoLab 5s had amazing things happening in the mid-range depending upon where they were placed, down to 5cm adjustments of position. Worth looking into.

Yes, moving mine further way from the back wall made a positive difference, also changing the potentiometers on the speakers (treble to zero).

Hi Dave

I just tired to call you on you rmobile /cell.

Yeah i think I maybe should give them some more time.

according to the service book those settings should be matched to a replacement speaker.

If it does not damage them i will have a play with mine today after writing the original settings of course.

did you not think of turning the midrange up?

Dave: Anything under the Deutche Grammaphon label is good if you like classical music

I disagree; some CD's using a technique called "original bit imaging/processing, for more clarity, etc" are harsh to listen to, talking about to much treble... A shame for a company like DGG. 

Seanie_230:

(...) Bass is overpowering on some songs and non existant on others

midrange is missing and to much treble (...)

If you're using mp3 music to make the test, the poor or overpowered bass is not a fault of the BL9, but the music. Try to use CD when you're making the set up. You've got a really stunning pair of speakers...

Actually I also have a large living room (approx 70m2) with wooden floor. But I have to say that the BL5 make a superior job. I Never listended to a speakrer with a better sound reproduction. The BL5 are really great work from B&O and they also look really great. I bought them approx. 3 years ago and still enjoy those speakers every day. 

I have now changed my mind.

My speakers were Ex Demo.

My issue was that i was feeling the speakers lacked everything when in fact what i was actally hearing was so much in the high end.

The feeling i was getting was that i needed to turn the sound up to compensate for the lack of everything but High Notes and Voice

I had look at the POTS on the back and can confirm that on the right speaker the bass was infact on 0 and on the other speaker the treble was in fact right up.

No wonder my ears were hating this noice and everything sounded to high.

well i dont know if i am aloud to touch the POTS so i have used an EQ to fix this problem :)

Now i have nice sounding speakers with plenty of Bass and Midrange and not just voice.

I have also disabled my Lab2 and im not missing it so far i will test with Film later.

Happy Once Again

The idea is each speaker driver is not made equal - these are tested, then the pots are adjusted to what the results of the test were.

Every speaker should come out of the factory sounding the same.

I assume you've got the position select switches set correctly too?

According to the manual, each driver has a label which indicates it's correct "pot" setting. Not sure how easy the drivers are to access/read though.

(The labels could feasibly only be marked on replacement drivers, but I suspect they will be on the factory fitted ones too).

Hello 

Yeah I believe each speaker has its pot setting on it once its tested in the factory.

I do wonder if the pot setting had been changed on my speakers while they were out on demo's with potential buyers.

Hello Comrades

Dave and I have been having this conversation for several months... (Dave, whenever you are in Sydney, let me know, lets have a drink! I'd be keen for you to see my set up as well and make any suggestions for improvement.)

For me, my beolab 9's are a source of great joy and at times frustration!!! Play Jazz (eg Rigmor Gustafsson, Astrid Gilberto) they sound fabulous. Electro Pop (e.g  Human League, Goldfrapp) amazing.. Even Kylie Minogue and ABBA sounds great, something to do with good quality sound production I suspect.

I do listen to a lot of mp 3's- varying form about 320 bit to lossless.. and the sound quality varies enormously. CD's also vary from brilliant to making my ears bleed. Has anyone listened to Alphabeat 'The Beat Is'??? it sounds likes a 128 mp 3!!! I love their joyous pop but cant listen to it as it sounds so badly produced ( I appreciate I have lost all credibility now for admitting I like Alphabeat!)

In part, I cant help but think that the 9's just emphasise any faults in the original recordings.. Sometimes they sound great and other times they sound muffled with no midrange... Surely this cant be the speakers, or else they'd always sound bad?

Against my design aesthetic i have put a large fluffy rug on my living room floor to soften the sound. some improvement.. A DAC has been added to further improve the sound of NMUSIC and NRADIO.

Treble and Bass are set to around middle settings... perhaps i'll turn down treble even further.... Speakers are set on free and are about half a metre out from wall....

I've never seriously listened to lab 5's and never in my house... would I be similarly disappointed? You can't make badly produced tracks sound much better can you? 

Of course if someone wants to loan me a pair of beolab 5's, I'll get back to you!!!!!

David

What would be interesting, given your experience, is to hears your views after taking examples of your best and worst sounding CD's into a dealers and listening to them on both 9's & 5's instore.

I'd also be interested to hear mp3's of your best and worst tracks to see if we can identify or even quantify the quality difference. (I do realise mp3 is lossy but David does say some still sound great and, in the interest of easy data transfer, they will suffice).

Puncher:

What would be interesting, given your experience, is to hears your views after taking examples of your best and worst sounding CD's into a dealers and listening to them on both 9's & 5's instore.

 

Those two sound so different it's not even funny. The fact that people constantly compare them or refer to them as the same sort of speakers, is funny.

David if i am ever in sydney i will do that! :)

Interesting discussion about the (asumed) second best speaker form B&o, hopefully mr Moulton will share his opinion on this subject, perhaps he's returned from Texas? The beolab 9 has been very positively reviewed by independent magazines (what hifi), but there seems to be some dissatisfaction among some here.

Hi All

After a good weekend of watching TV (Movies and General) & listening to Music I am now very happy with my Lab 9's.

The speakers i bought were all over the place but looking at the POTs they were setup very very badly, maybe someone changed them when they were out on a home trial but who knows.

I knwo that one speaker had the woofer turned to 0 and the other had the tweeter turned right up.

So all i could hear was notes and vocal but no depth and music or background sound on normal tv viewing.

I have since 1234567890 and now they sound 99.8% perfect.

I was watching Alan Carr last night and when the audiance clapped and screamed it was a little pearcing on the old ears so maybe a tad less tweeter is needed and i will have found the perfect balance

I have had my sub switched off all weekend and allthough i do notice it a little when watching film my music no longer rumbles which is nice.

I am 99.9% sure i will sell the sub very soon also.

Did MR Dave M ever get back to us about this, does anyone know? I'm sure we are all very curious about what he has to say, considering he had a big part in their devlopment.
Last post that i can see was april...

I have to say the BL9's never fail to impress me and I moved from a system costing nearly 3x more.

The quality of sound does vary depending on the age of the source material.Older stuff sounds slightly 'thinner' with more noise but take a current recording or remastered cd and this setup is just superb-I can think of less ways to improve this system than my last and I never thought I would hear more detail with these speakers and BS9000.

I have found using the tone controls and loudness settings just bloats and spoils the sound and run them in neutral as recommended by B&O.

I set them up approx 1m from the back wall and 7ft apart and never looked back,they are quite hard to position straight ahead though because of the shape of them but angling them toward the listner is a big mistake!!.

Its just such a novelty having them!

DirtyDiana:

I have to say the BL9's never fail to impress me and I moved from a system costing nearly 3x more.

The quality of sound does vary depending on the age of the source material.Older stuff sounds slightly 'thinner' with more noise but take a current recording or remastered cd and this setup is just superb-I can think of less ways to improve this system than my last and I never thought I would hear more detail with these speakers and BS9000.

I have found using the tone controls and loudness settings just bloats and spoils the sound and run them in neutral as recommended by B&O.

I set them up approx 1m from the back wall and 7ft apart and never looked back,they are quite hard to position straight ahead though because of the shape of them but angling them toward the listner is a big mistake!!.

Its just such a novelty having them!

 

Nice to hear some positive comments.... may I ask what kit you were running before your present B&O setup with the Lab 9's, and also, what are the demerits re sound, if you angle them in towards the listener?

Many thanks

Best Regards,

John...

I agree with your point about the position being ahead rather than the speakers pointing at you, i suppose this is beacuase the lens spreads the music anyway.

Since i have adjusted the levels on my speakers i love them

they are perfect and sound amazing.

i currently dont use the lab2 as im seeing how i get on without, i am thinking that i will miss the rumble very much for film so i may be this evening setting up my projector sound settings to use the sub while display 1 does not use it.

Hi John,

I worked my way up through the hifi separate ranks over the last 10 years and ended up using Mark Levinson and Pass labs which gave a beautiful sound but one that still didnt relinquish the need to upgrade to better cables or bigger amps ect,it ends up being more about the gear than the music and I basically got bored of the concept.

We always had B&O in the family and once I discovered how much R&D had been put in to the new speakers and the smallish outlay needed I sold off my other gear and now have a system that gives more enjoyment and is far nicer to use,I honestly was not expecting quite so much from the BL9 but everytime they are a revelation-if they were not I would be the first to say but no way would I go back to seperates.

Re the positioning,they did not sound at their best when angled and seem best straight ahead-unlike conventional speakers.