Gents! Please bring an old B&O dinosaur up to speed on this stuff!

My son recently found a Beomaster 7000 for me to replace my ailing 4000. I'm still running perfectly functional M70's up front but would like to add some rear speakers which will possibly eventually run off an A/V7000. Can I run some BeoLab 6000s which fit in the space I have available and will these run temporarily off my 7000 while I'm still running passive speakers up front? Is this even advisable from the "color" standpoint.

Currently the 7000 is hooked up to an HDTV cable box which has many broadcasts and movies in Dolby 5.1, so I'd like to take advantage of that economically..., and I miss my ambio! (The 7000 is also hooked up to my 4002 via an RIAA pre-amp and a matching CD 7000 which came with the Beomaster)

Grateful for any and all input!

William

No reason you cannot do this though I imagine the problem will be getting the volume levels right. 

You can get an ambio connection box which will fit any Beomaster of course. 

Peter :

No reason you cannot do this though I imagine the problem will be getting the volume levels right. 

You can get an ambio connection box which will fit any Beomaster of course. 

Thanks, Peter, I believe I take your point. I wonder if any here have actually attempted this "mix"?

I'm retired, but were I too break the piggy bank for a decent set of used 8000s and run the M70s as rears instead, do you expect the balance would be about right?

As for ambio, reading another thread here, it appears ambio does not sound so great with CDs and some digital sources. It did sound very realistic from good stereo recordings and my old 4000 which had the circuits built in. Not sure how I'd wire that module in with my "new" 7000 and a mix of active and passive speakers.

Any further input? Anyone else?

William

How are you getting 4 channels out of the 7000? It only has two. The problem is that you cannot alter the volume of the different speakers so it would be completely luck if they happened to be about the same. The same pre-amp will be driving all four with the power amplifier in the 7000 driving the M70s and the built in power amplifiers in the active speakers. Most AV systems will have at least 3 discrete channels which you can use to balance the volumes. The AV7000 will allow you to do this but you would need a power amplifier should you wish to use the M70s.

Peter :

How are you getting 4 channels out of the 7000? It only has two. The problem is that you cannot alter the volume of the different speakers so it would be completely luck if they happened to be about the same. The same pre-amp will be driving all four with the power amplifier in the 7000 driving the M70s and the built in power amplifiers in the active speakers. Most AV systems will have at least 3 discrete channels which you can use to balance the volumes. The AV7000 will allow you to do this but you would need a power amplifier should you wish to use the M70s.

Sorry, Peter, I did say initially that I was a B&O dinosaur! Wasn't expecting to get 4 channels from a 7000 though, but was wondering whether I could mix active and passive speakers in any front and rear combination as a practical proposition. From what you are now saying, I gather not. I wonder whether anyone here has any experience with this? Having no familiarity with any active speaker, I have no idea how close the levels might be from the 7000 either.

Around 1995 my son had a summer job in a B&O studio and recalls how the 7000 with A/V 7000 sounded with 8000s, 6000s, and an Infinity center speaker (because B&O sold none in that period.). It was he who thought that passive and active speakers couldn't be mixed but could not recall the reason as that was now 15 years ago.

Since I currently have an endless source of Dolby 5.1, it would be great to get the full benefit once I can lay my hands on a decent A/V 7000 but don't have the deep pockets to afford four "new" active speakers in "mint" condition off eBay unless the stock markets take a huge turn and start paying dividends again!

If no one else here has any suggestions or input, I'll ring the two geniuses at the authorized repair shop in MD later this week.

Thanks again!

William

What you need is a separate amplifier for each set of speakers. The 7000 can certainly power the M70s but you need some sort of volume control for the 6000s. At the end of the day, almost any pre-amp can be used. As long as you have some control over the 4 channels, the fact some speakers are active and some are passive is not important. On the AV7000, the centre speaker channel is passive anyway.

Sounds entirely too fussy to me! If I read you correctly, the A/V 7000 has only weak power for a small passive center speaker, and my remotes (early Beo4 and MCP 6500) will only control it and 4 active speakers if I want 5.1 and any other solution will only be moreastronomical? Better save my pennies...

Why not go for passive speakers all-over.

Works great with the av7000, as it already has the build-in amp for the center channel.
For the front L/R channels , I use a powerlink cable to a MCL2p amp unit. (you'll find plenty of these on ebay, fairly cheap)  connecting any passive speakers with 2pin din plugs.

Same for the back L/R channels. 

I have 5 pcs CX100 speakers as my home theater right now and works well for me.

I use the cona sub as my subwoofer, connected to my front speakers.

Mixing beolab (powered speakers) with beovox (passive speakers) does not seem to mix very well. If you put powered speakers in the back, they'll be too powerful for the setup. 

The beo4 will work ok for everyday use, but I suggest the good 'ol bl1000 remote, which is available on ebay for under $100.

Hope this info works for you.

cooldude:

Why not go for passive speakers all-over.

Works great with the av7000, as it already has the build-in amp for the center channel.
For the front L/R channels , I use a powerlink cable to a MCL2p amp unit. (you'll find plenty of these on ebay, fairly cheap)  connecting any passive speakers with 2pin din plugs.

Same for the back L/R channels. 

I have 5 pcs CX100 speakers as my home theater right now and works well for me.

I use the cona sub as my subwoofer, connected to my front speakers.

Mixing beolab (powered speakers) with beovox (passive speakers) does not seem to mix very well. If you put powered speakers in the back, they'll be too powerful for the setup. 

The beo4 will work ok for everyday use, but I suggest the good 'ol bl1000 remote, which is available on ebay for under $100.

Hope this info works for you.

Sorry, "cooldude", been away for a few days. Much obliged for the information and insights on the the A/V 7000. If I manage to find a clean one, I'll be back to you for more enlightenment! I have only book # 1 which my son gave me and it only shows what can be done with it using the Beolink 1000, not how it works, but I've seen digisnaps of the back with all the DIN and RCA connections.

I'd figured the "color" (sound) might pose a conflict between active and passive but was hoping someone might tell me otherwise...

You are running 5 x CX100s off the 45W from the A/V 7000 for the center channel and 2 MCL2ps = 4 x 30W? Isn't that a little anemic? Please explain. (My son had also suggested CX100 for the rear with my M70s up front. )

Made the mistake of speaking to the "local" B&O dealer, 125 miles from here. He advocated an "upgrade" to BeoLabs 3s and a Beolab 11 for starters! THAT would require selling a few of my remaining toys to finance I can tell you! Might go and listen with my son anyway. Will be a hard sell as my M70s sound very good still with my "new" Beomaster 7000 and CD7000 and my freshly serviced old 4002. Maybe I'll see what all the fuss is about with this acoustic lens business. At least he didn't try to sell me Beolab 9s!

First a clean A/V 7000 and we'll see where this leads.

Thanks for the help!

Note: Besides the 5.1 coming from my HDTV cable box, my musical tastes are fairly ecletic, mainly Baroque and Romantic, with a challenging mix of vocal, choral, harpsichord, organ, and some jazz but zero "pop". In my book, it has to sound live, the way it does in the hall, with no "processing" or "enhancement". That's what B&O used to be all about. Hope that's still the case.