I am considering a pair of Beolab 5s. They would be used with a BV7-55 with a BL7-4. Thoughts on rear speakers? I could move my 9s to the rear and have all ALT speakers, or I could move my 1s from another room and have the height of the 1s as rears? The 9s would then become fronts in the other room.

Thanks!

9's at the rear without doubt..

If you're getting into acoustic lenses, having them all-round sounds much better than mixing them with non-ALT's in my opinion.

I had BL5's with BL3's at the rear with a BV9 and it sounded amazing.  So BL5's and BL9's at the rear.. Wow!!

Last week I acquired myself a 7-55.  May i just say what an absolutely amazing TV it is !!  You have a superb setup - better than mine.  I'm envious!

Lee

 

 

 

Thanks! I am talking to dealer about bringing the 5s for an in home demo.

 

 

That's like having the baker bring a bite of cake for an in-mouth demo. 

I am very curious to see, or should I say hear, how much difference I notice between 5s and 9s with the sources and volumes I listen to.

And then maybe try both the 9s and 1s as rears.

Have to agree with Lee - go for all-ALT.

With 5's at the front, I replaced my BL4000's with BL3's and the clarity was amazing. I then replaced the BL3's with BL9's and the improvement to the sound image was unbeliveable: better staging, improved clarity - but above all so much more punch in the bass region and the improvement to the mid range when watching movies was almost funny.

I know the range pretty well, but was rather surprised by the effect the BL9's had as rear speakers - they should have been an overkill as rear speakers. So I have stopped laughing at those with 4x BL5's in their setups

Roger

Having broken down a lot of surround sound mixes, you'd be surprised what often gets sent to the rear speakers! 70% of the time there isn't really much going on below 150 Hz (ie, not much bass at all), but occasionally you get really full-range content!

House of Flying Daggers springs to mind. When you play the bean-throwing scene on a 5.0 system with full range speakers all around the effect is spectacular. Using a subwoofer is cheating!

 

The only potential issue with BeoLab 9s as rear speakers is whether they're high enough to get over the top of the sofa. Ideally, the tweeters should be slightly higher than ear-height, which you can see is difficult to do with BeoLab 9s!

Alex:

The only potential issue with BeoLab 9s as rear speakers is whether they're high enough to get over the top of the sofa. Ideally, the tweeters should be slightly higher than ear-height, which you can see is difficult to do with BeoLab 9s!

That was my concern which is why I was wondering if my Beolab 1s might be better as rears. Height verses ALT I guess is the question.

 

Alex:

Having broken down a lot of surround sound mixes, you'd be surprised what often gets sent to the rear speakers! 70% of the time there isn't really much going on below 150 Hz (ie, not much bass at all), but occasionally you get really full-range content!

House of Flying Daggers springs to mind. When you play the bean-throwing scene on a 5.0 system with full range speakers all around the effect is spectacular. Using a subwoofer is cheating!

 

The only potential issue with BeoLab 9s as rear speakers is whether they're high enough to get over the top of the sofa. Ideally, the tweeters should be slightly higher than ear-height, which you can see is difficult to do with BeoLab 9s!

 

Very much agreed.  Dolby specs actually call for five full range speakers all around in a surround sound setup, plus an separate LFE effects channel; using smaller rear surrounds, usually crossing over at 80hz to the sub to allow the rear channels lower bass to be reproduced along with the LFE is 'permissible' - BUT as Alex points out, full range speakers all around certainly have their benefits and is the setup of choice if finances and space permits.  Certainly I prefer to run all my speakers set as large in a surround sound setup - unless you cross over at 80hz or lower (which means a decent size speaker anyway), bass can be directional, and stereo bass in the rears is preferable to 'mono' bass coming from up front from a subwoofer doing double duty for LFE and bass from the rear surrounds.  I'd also opinion that by removing bass management with crossovers etc re setting all speakers to large, the overall sound detail and transient response improves as well - perhaps because of phase or other issues involved in the crossover process.

I have heard a movie demo of Beolab 5's as fronts, 9's as surrounds, and 3's as back surrounds in a 7.1 setup (really 7.2 using the speakers in the lab 5's for the LFE, and the sound was far and away the best movie sound I've ever heard - including much vaunted specialist movie surround sound setups such as M&K THX systems etc.

So, very much with Alex on this one

 

Best regards

 

John... 

 

Go for BL1's as rears. Almost every sofa will be higher than the BL9 acoustic lense, their height is just not enough. I've used BL3 as rears but switched to BL1's due to the same problem. On the other hand, BL9 at rears are overkill for 95% of the movie material. BL9 are designed to be front speakers.

 

Beoboiinoz:

I'd also opinion that by removing bass management with crossovers etc re setting all speakers to large, the overall sound detail and transient response improves as well - perhaps because of phase or other issues involved in the crossover process.

Agreed! I run a 'full range' system in my lounge with B&W standmounts (only a small room, and even without the subwoofer there's an obscene amount of low end on tap when it's needed!). The subwoofer is left for the .1 channel, everything else run full range. Sounds absolutely superb!

 

Beoboiinoz:

I have heard a movie demo of Beolab 5's as fronts, 9's as surrounds, and 3's as back surrounds in a 7.1 setup (really 7.2 using the speakers in the lab 5's for the LFE, and the sound was far and away the best movie sound I've ever heard - including much vaunted specialist movie surround sound setups such as M&K THX systems etc.

Agreed! As of yet haven't heard a single system which will even get close to BeoLab 5s + 7-4 + 3s!

I have BL5s front with BL3s rear.

A good friend purchased a pair of 9s about 3 months ago and I had the opportunity to

place the 9s in the rear of my system.

YOU WILL NOT DO BETTER THAN THIS!

The sound 9s in the rear were ridiculous!  I am fortunate enough to own most of the speakers in the B&O range. . .new and old.

I do not have the BL1s but I can tell you that I 'personally' can 'hear' the difference in ALT versus traditional speakers.  I would not mix and match if it could be avoided.  Leave the 5.1 system all ALT speakers. 

Depending on your room set-up, you might be able to back the 9s away from a 'high' couch soas to prevent any loss from the low stature of the speakers. My guess and intuition is that if you place the 9s in the system you will NEVER put the 1s in.

Good luck.. ..I envy your dilemma

MJM

You are making me want to get the 5s even more.

Razlaw:

You are making me want to get the 5s even more.

I don't have a surround setup but I use Beolab 5's to listen to music. They are amazing!

Thanks for all off the input!  Much appreciated.

Resurrecting this thread. From comments in this thread it seems as 9s as rears can be spectacular with 5s as fronts, even better than 3s in the rear. After listening to 5s at both the dealer and in my home multiple times I decided against the 5s. I am now thinking about 3s or 9s for rears. Any thoughts about it? My preference would be 4 9s but they are too low to sit behind my furniture where I would place them. Too bad B and O does not make some sort of riser for them. :)

What about a pair of Beolab 3s placed up high with a Beolab 11 for the rear bass? Powerlink to Beolab 11 then to Beolab 3, as in a two channel set up? Then tell the system it has 9s at the rear?

 

Razlaw:

Too bad B and O does not make some sort of riser for them. :)

Simple solution, make (or get someone) a stand of what ever height you require.

I had two black polished granite stands made to put under my 8000's, it was for visual reason's. They were only 1centimeter wider than the base of the 8000's and I had the edge chamfered to mimic the foot . Of course you can make them from wood metal etc.

Razlaw,

why don`t you plug in your nice pair of BL1 from you other room? Great speaker, tall enough, good locking.

Simple answer: Lab5 in the front, Lab5 in the back... Looks stunning and you never think about speakers again!

Ultra

hotknife:

Razlaw,

why don`t you plug in your nice pair of BL1 from you other room? Great speaker, tall enough, good locking.

It may be a silly reason, but I want all my speakers to be the same color. The 1s, burgundy, and are in another room with a taller ceiling where they look better, with a matching burgundy cabinet, a BV10 with a speaker grill I recovered to match, and matching 6000s.

 

 

valve1:

Razlaw:

Too bad B and O does not make some sort of riser for them. :)

Simple solution, make (or get someone) a stand of what ever height you require.

I had two black polished granite stands made to put under my 8000's, it was for visual reason's. They were only 1centimeter wider than the base of the 8000's and I had the edge chamfered to mimic the foot . Of course you can make them from wood metal etc.

I have thought of that. My concerns/questions are 1. how high would I need to to raise the 9s? Just high enough to get the tweeter above the furniture level, the mids, or the entire speaker? 2. Depending on high I need to get the 9s to, a solid speaker base of granite, or even wood is going to get to be extremely heavy. If the base is not solid, I am afraid it might affect the sound quality?

 

Stephan:

Simple answer: Lab5 in the front, Lab5 in the back... Looks stunning and you never think about speakers again!

Ultra

Great idea, if money were no object, maybe. :)  I would, intellectually, very much like to get a pair of 5s for my fronts and then move the 9s to the rear and find a way to raise them. But, unfortunately I did not fall in love with the 5s when I have listened to them, both in my home and at two dealers. I am thinking perhaps my room does noes not lend itself well the the automatic bass correction. Maybe I will go to dealer and listen again.

 

I'd suggest that you don't have to let height be a problem.  You can buy or build stands on which to place BeoLab 9s in the rear at whatever height is appropriate.  This is what I have done with my rear BeoLab 5s and it works quite well.  

In general, I'd recommend using ALT for surround speakers because the tehnology does so much for the sensation of envelopment.  I like the BL1s a LOT, but I think BeoLab 9s would do really well in this application.  

Good luck, in any case!

Best regards,

Great! Thanks for your input. Very much appreciated. Do you mind if I ask you how much of the 9 should be above furniture height? Just the tweeter? Or more?

You need "line-of-sight" from the lenses to your ears, that's all.  

 

Good luck!

 

Best regards,