What do you think about 4 speakers to play music (without a dolby digital, just four speakers)

 Beolab 8000 in front

Beolab 4 rear (I know beolab 4 are "cheap" but I have not enough money right now for something bigger...) 

My room is 3x12 meters

thank you in advance!

Massimo

p.s. I would like to post some pictures... but I don't know how to... 

 

 

I'd never listen in speaker 4. The engineers/musicians mixed it on two speakers, let it stay that way...

Hi,

I've always had four speakers. And the sound is better than if you only have two, in general. But that's only my opinion... And all my four speakers was always the same, so there's no difference in front and rear speakers in the room. But if you already have BeoLab 8000s I would not buy anything else than another pair of 8000s. When you're only gonna use them for music anyways... For movies the rear speakers does not have to be as powerful as the front speakers, but for music, please let all four speakers be the same, if you want the best sound experience...

You just have to save your money a bit longer It wil be worth the waiting!!

regards

 

Ruivar

I always have 4 speakers on, faded to the fronts. Much better.

Ciao Massimo, spero che tutto va bene!

As Alex has mentioned, I would personally prefer only having 2 speakers playing while listening to music. This is because with a good pair of speakers, you really can create a sound stage infront of you through 2 speakers. You cannot do this with 4 speakers, however if you are already using 4 speakers in some form of surrond sound, then using 4 speakers might help to produce a stronger sound.

Taking the size of your room into consideration, I would say your BL8000s and perhaps a BL2 would sound great.

I have to join Alex: You don't need 4 speakers for music. You lose a lot of quality (stereo effect) when playing music in double stereo. The only time I use 4 speakers for music is when I want to have background music. Then 4 speakers are somehow better to listen to, as you don't need to turn the music that loud as if you had just 2 speakers. But if you actively listen to music, you won't have any advantages of the second pair of speakers.

I prefer stereo for music instead of surround. Only surround with dvd concerts and movies etc.

This topic always always provokes a good bar brawl. 

 

Thank you guys for all you reply! So... I am more confused now about 4 speakers music!

The real reason for my answer is that... I WANT to buy some new B&O stuff... and I am not so reach right now!!! 

 

Your right. You need four BeoLab 5's.

Most people have no idea what they're missing out on when it comes to the whole 'stereo imaging' thing.

If you've never heard a pair of speakers do imaging correctly, then you're missing out on what I consider to be the best part of the sound - the ability to sit/lie down and swear that David Gilmour is singing right in front of you, rather than just singing 'somewhere in the room'.

For ambient music, 4 speakers is great. I had Brian Eno's 'Thursday Afternoon' playing through the BeoLab 4s and my Bowers & Wilkins DM7s this afternoon, and it really did something very special to the music.

However, play any other kinds of well recorded music on a pair of well-set-up decent speakers, and you'll be amazed how you could almost reach out and touch what's playing.

Alex is, of course right. However, I have Classic FM on all day with 4 speakers in the lounge and two more in the dining area.
I like the way the sound stage alters as I move about the house.
If I was sitting down to seriously listen to music in depth, I would probably just use my fronts (Pentas).
At the end of the day, you bought B&O because you like, it so listen to it the way YOU like it, sod everyone elses opinion!

Andy T.

There is always (for those still on passive speakers) the Bang and Olufsen Ambio Unit.  A pair of Red Line 140s at the front with P45s as ambiophonic speakers to the rear adds a small amount of rear presence without distracting from the main stereo image.

Not sure how this would work with my active speakers though!

scognamiglio:

Thank you guys for all you reply! So... I am more confused now about 4 speakers music!

The real reason for my answer is that... I WANT to buy some new B&O stuff... and I am not so reach right now!!! 

 

 

Lets face it we all want to buy more B&O.... I think you would be better off buying BL4's or BL4000's (if you can spend a little more) and put them on a link in another room. This was you are starting to really take advantage of another benefit of the B&O products.

Putting some rear speakers on an audio only system is a waste of money. Terrible confused sound.

jazz

Here here to that!

Get some second hand 4000's for another room, or buy a nice beocom or sere' phone if you want more B&O! 

For background listening, particularly if you're moving about the room, four speakers (or more) is very nice.

If you want to deep dive into your music, and discover what your speakers can do, then you want to play the perspective that's been placed in your source - whether stereo, multi-channel, SACD with back acoustics added, etc.

BTW - to have a really good stereo image, you should also use the center speaker! Yes, B&O were right about that, too -- the Beolab 5000 amplifier came with L/C/R speaker connections, and a special center speaker. In classic stereo theory, grounding the image with a center source is considered ideal. (It was just too complicated to create three channels with analog sets, the WAF was extremely low and producers didn't want to issue 3-channel music.)

The BeoSystem 3 does a very good 3-channel stereo mix, due to the new algorithms available for performing such mixes.

I just bought the full set of Mozart operas from the 2006 Salzburg cycle (22 operas) on DVD, with 2-channel PCM and DTS multi-channel. Will be listening to the latter through the winter, and smiling.

And here's a fun trick, to really create concert sound. I shouldn't be revealing it, but we're all BeoWorlders.
I have found that I get a very interesting concert perspective on the sound if I play it in my main room, but also have a pair of speakers playing simultaneously in an adjacent room (the sound really grows on me).
Guess it's a variation on "you can only tell if a pair of speakers are any good by listening to them playing in another room."

thanks for the tips, soundproof.

I doubt the BV7 (not MKIII) has the proper scaling algorithms, and I don't know whether the Beosys3 in the MKIII has what was demonstrated to me with a Beosystem 3 running two BeoLab 5s and 1 BeoLab 7-4. The center channel should not overpower the L/R, but is there to fix the soundstage better.

I'll see if I can come up with some links, it's an interesting field. I started out thinking that stereo meant two speakers, but that's not the case, and the "father of stereo" tried long to get it working with three ...

Interestingly, stereo does not mean "two" as is commonly assumed, but solid!

From Wikipedia (who shouldn't write phonic sound, but that's another matter). 

STEREOPHONIC SOUND, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of sound, using two or more independent audio channels, through a symmetrical configuration of loudspeakers, in such a way as to create a pleasant and natural impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing. It is often contrasted with monophonic (or "monaural", or just mono) sound, where audio is in the form of one channel, often centered in the sound field (analogous to a visual field).

The word "stereophonic" — derived from Greek stereos = "solid" and phōnē = "sound" — was coined by Western Electric, by analogy with the word "stereoscopic".

 

I agree with Soundproof to a point, but when BeoLab 5s, 9s or maybe 3s are used, there is no need IMO! I find the extra speaker just creates 'lumps' in the soundstage and tends to reduce depth (how far a sound can appear to come from behind the speakers, or right in front of your face).

I'll take this chance to point out that more speakers does not equal better sound, it just means more sound (assuming each speaker is adequate to perform to a good standard in the room. If a speaker needs support from others excluding subs to sound good, then it's really not a capable speaker for your needs).

Let's not mix pants and skirts, Alex. Don't know if you have an AES account, but you can buy this anyway:

http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=9182

And this recaps a bit of the theory:

http://www.stereotimes.com/ambiophonicsch8.shtml

Do remember that when you're at the location of a live performance, the sound sources are NOT bunched up to the left and right of you, up on the stage. Having a speaker array recreating a faithful distribution of sources would make sense - and with modern processing algorithms this is perfectly possible.
In addition, you are exposed to extensive room reflections, designed purposefully in an acoustically balanced venue. Two speakers in front of you do not reveal that.
Setting up just two speakers isn't faithful to reality, but it does create a very good illusion.

However, SPEAKER 4 or SPEAKER 3 does not recreate the ambiophonic environment, unless taken  into account during recording and embedded in the source. Using multi-speaker in that way creates more soundstage distortion than anything else, but it can be good for background listening and it's a nice way of immersing oneself in the music.

Get a proper, multi-channel SACD or DTS recording, where the back channels provide ambience reflections, and you're somewhere else entirely if your processor can deal with it. Then you'll want both 5.1 and 7.2 (with bass panoramic effects) -- and you can't have enough of it.

 

 

It definitely sounds better in most situations. However, a truly exceptional pair of speakers like the BeoLab 5s or 9s or some of the other speakers on the market with special imaging attributes don't need a centre channel at all IMO, the 'phantom image' is more solid than you could possibly want.

You'll be a better judge than me though, I don't own BeoLab 5s

Hi Massimo,

I personally like listening in Speaker 4 mode, even though I trained as a sound engineer and know all the reasons not to!

However, getting a BeoLab 2 is definately the next thing you should do in my opinion, not a pair of BL4's. 

You won't really hear any quality of sound on the BL4's compared with the BL8000's, so I just wouldn't bother.

If in doubt, get your local dealer to set them up like that in the store - then you can hear the difference.  Or ask for a home demonstration.

I think they would fall short of your expectations!

BeoLab 4000's are way way better, and a used pair wouldn't be much extra cash.

Martin

I'm joining this debate very late on... but (and to use a common BeoWorld phrase!) I thought I'd "add my two cents".....

We listen to MP3 all day long through a set of BeoLab 8000's as fronts with BeoLab 2, and a set of BeoLab 3 as rears. When the 3's were added the sound improved massively (in my own opinion). Maybe it just works best in a retail environment, or just bigger rooms... but Snow Patrol is sounding pretty decent right now!

I very often use Speaker 4 mode for music. I think it get the room filled with music much better and you don't have one end of the room with loud music and another end with low music.

From own experience you need however to have 4 speakers of the same type or very close to. 6 months back I had Penta III as fron and BL3 as rear, and they are both very good speakers with very good sound, BUT the sound is very different. The Pentas are kind of soft and round in sound (80's style) and the the BL3's are crisp clear and very detailed. In Speaker 4 mode you get a very stange experience. You hear some thing from the front and others from the rear. Mainly due to this I changed my front Pentas to BL9's. In terms of mid and high end the BL3's are are very close to the 9's. In the low end the 3's cannot match the 9's in any way, but low end is not a big issue.

I'm very happy with my current set-up with ALT speakers all over (7.4 as center). This set-up is, in my opinion, perfect for music in both Speaker 2 and 4 mode and of cause for movies in full surround.

Ken

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned here is that when you select the SPEAKER 4 option, the processor in the TV (BeoVision range I am sure of, not sure on other models) actually plays the music in what B&O describe as 'Enhanced Stereo' mode.

I can't explain in detail what the processing does, but if you change between SPEAKER 2 and SPEAKER 4 you will hear the enhanced bass etc as well as the rear speakers coming on.

Martin