Hi Simon,

We have a BeoSound 1 in our master bedroom, and we love it.  We set it to wake us up to the radio or a CD every morning, and it is wonderful to awaken to nice, full, high-quality sound in the morning instead of the ugly beeping of most alarm clocks. The only few things more I could ask of this delicious product would be that the clock would stay on continuously instead of turning off after 10 seconds, and that the alarm clock function were a little more intuitive.  But we have a nice wall clock, so it's not like we're suffering without the clock display on BS1.  And the timer/alarm function isn't difficult, it's just not intuitive.

BeoSound 3 is a nice product, but it's not really intended to be a home music system for critical listening.  Portability is one of the main ideas behind that unit (in addition, of course to a stunningly beautiful design). And because it's mono instead of stereo, you're right, it isn't as rich as a bigger music system.

Anyway, the BeoSound 1 is truly simple to use, and there aren't a lot of "hidden tricks" I can think of.  We don't have a BeoSound 2, we've connected it to our iPod.  Haven't run across any issues with that. Just do like the manual says, and turn the BS1 to standby before plugging in the iPod or any other external sound source.  We always listen to our iPod at a quiet volume, but I've heard that if your iPod is up to full volume it can be really loud when you play it through BS1.

Speaking of volume, you'll see this in the manual, but you'll probably want to change the default volume, so that every time you turn it on after standby it will be at the volume you like.  I've set our default volume to 42, which is good for our room.

When I first brought the BS1 home, there was a quiet standby whining sound at around 10 kHz. I brought it back to my dealer, and they said that's a known issue for this product. Apparently some BS1s were shipped with faulty transformers. They replaced the transformer for me, (free of charge of course, since it's still under warranty) and everything is perfect.

Good luck!

Aj 

I can't really think of any don'ts on an almost faultless product, but Do enjoy it!

Also, I'd recommend getting some different covers, either from Lifestyle-AV, a dealer or eBay (although go careful when buying on eBay!). Changing the cover every few weeks really makes it much more pleasing to see.

Also play around with positioning a lot! If you prefer a 'rich, full' sound, placing it against a wall or near a corner may be what you want to do, but it all depends on the room and what you want to hear.

Run it in a bit! I suspect you'll find the sound improves after around 100 hours of play time.

Also, play with different placement options. It's very dependant on positioning.

How can I improve the radio performance? by using external aerial? is there any recommendation on this?

Also, thanks alex, You are forever a helpful guy. Till now, what I can hear from beosound 1 is a little bit more bass and a little bit richer sound compared with beosound 3. I will look forward to 100 hours later.

well.... also, may i ask how can we prevent BS1 from the attack of dust?

The sound quality that you get is dependent on the quality of the signal that the beosound is receiving. No amount of "running in" is going to improve that.

Sorry Alex, but you will not convince me that the aerial is going to improve after 100 hours use!!

If you live in an area with weak FM signal then other than positioning of the set for a marginal improvement, the best thing is an external FM aerial. Try connecting to your TV aerial, not the correct shape or configuration but works for me where I live. You could try a long piece of wire connected to the external aerial or best a dedicated external aerial on your roof!

I assume Alex is talking about the built in speakers and amps needing to be run-in. FM reception is location dependent - move it around, enjoy it's portability!

I'd truly love to own one, congratulations on a purchase that will grow on you until you love it more than you love your mum!

The only way you can compare Beosound 1 and Beosound 3 is when receiving FM radio!

The quality of the FM signal is going to be far more critical than any amount of so called "running in" if such a phenomenon actually exists. I am yet to see a difference between a fit and an unfit electron. Still, I am not too proud to learn!

Sorry I didn't mean the 100 hours run-in would affect the radio reception.

Nothing more than a light dust every week and a good-cleaning every few months should keep it nice and clean. Use an un-used paintbrush on the grille.

As for radio reception, it's merely a case of finding where reception is best if you are in the position I am! I can't get any reception with hand-held radios (or any other kind of radio) anywhere in the house!