General Forum

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

SWISS_2 — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:38:25 GMT

TWG;

Having very thick, solid masonry walls, I thought Beolink wireless was the right answer to a full B&O system in 8 rooms. With the exception of my local B&O store salesman who ordered all the units for us, it wasn't .

The problems mentioned above are very accurate. We also experienced " snap, crackle, and pop " on a regular basis. Turning on the microwave in the Kitchen generated a " Helicopter overhead " sound that would make Isao Tomita proud.

If we listened to Grunge it might not have been noticed, but with jazz or classical it always was. Alas, even with the wireless, you do pull line for video signal. Fortunately I found buyers for everything, and yes they still speak to us. But I would not do this again, even if the items were free.

Drill the holes, or add conduit. We are in the fun process of pulling ML for Cat. There is an expected adapter (ML to Cat ) I'm told, but it doesn't exist as yet.

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

kimhav — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:07:38 GMT

sodoi18:
I have a BW set-up connecting my BS1 to a BS4000. There seem to be a momentary gap in sound every couple of minutes...the gap is small enough not to be noticed..but if you pay attention you can catch it. The signal is not that problematic except with the gap mentioned above. However, I am about 20 feet below the transmitter in the basement. I do have a wireless router, becom 6000 and few other wireless devices in the system

While I don't have the any BW1 units yet. But, one source of interference can be that they're just to many wifi access points using the same channel. Typical if I scan my neighbourhood I will find that most if the wifi access points available are set to make use of channel 6 and which typical isn't the best situation. So changing channel on other access points could help. What is the default channel that BW1 uses?

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

sodoi18 — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:18:22 GMT

I have a BW set-up connecting my BS1 to a BS4000. There seem to be a momentary gap in sound every couple of minutes...the gap is small enough not to be noticed..but if you pay attention you can catch it.

The signal is not that problematic except with the gap mentioned above. However, I am about 20 feet below the transmitter in the basement. I do have a wireless router, becom 6000 and few other wireless devices in the system

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

elephant — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:52:37 GMT

kimhav:
Curious, but did you update the firmware on the BW1 yourself and yes, how?

I had mine updated by my dealer, he simply swapped the units for an already up to date device ... and presumably at his leisure did the upgrade of my older unit in his back office

I was lucky that the old and new units were fairly close in age so there was no inventory issue

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

kimhav — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:54:07 GMT

beobuff:
One last caveat: all of the BL Wireless 1s being shipped by BOA have the original buggy firmware version. Among other problems, the timer function does not, er, function at all. Neither the local B&O technician, the selling dealer, nor the tech support staff at BOA were of any help whatsoever in getting this problem resolved. I finally contacted Struer myself, and they suggested that I have the firmware upgraded to the second rev. That solved the problem very nicely, no thanks to any B&O personnel on this side of the ocean.

Curious, but did you update the firmware on the BW1 yourself and yes, how?

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

beobuff — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:38:50 GMT

A classic example of whistling in the dark.

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

TripEnglish — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:57:57 GMT

Housecleaning in North America? Heavens! Why would we need that? Everything is great! No problems here!

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

stotty1111 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:46:08 GMT

In response to Graham 1982 - i have a difficult open plan house with tiled floors etc so hard wire was not an option - i used a maplin wireless systen to tx tv to another 2 tvs both now work well had some probs with modem interference but the modem system i have is a little intelligent in that the tv system is installed and running first then the modem is activated , it selected a different frequency and so no interference - think the tx/rx kit cost about £30 and an extra rx £20 - hope the comments help

Tony

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

beobuff — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:41:52 GMT

Well, I came up with somewhat different numbers. Trip was right about the pricing, I was being gouged by the selling dealer on some of the items. In addition to being overcharged and lied to, I couldn't get any competent service from either the dealer or BOA or the local service tech. I have recently bought a BS3, BV7, and BV8, and none of them is wholly satisfactory. Needless to say, I have declared a moratorium on any further B&O purchases, much as I love the equipment. With all due respect to you and Trip, Struer has got a lot of housecleaning to do if it is to survive in the North American, not to mention the global, market. I have been a B&O customer for twenty years, and it has been truly painful to see a firm I once admired sink slowly into oblivion.

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

TWG — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:48:45 GMT

Good evening,

thank you for all your answers.
I'm surprised about the mainly negative feedback about this system and decided to install a cable - seems the way to go ;-)

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

Russ — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:09:58 GMT

beobuff:

I would, however beg to differ with TE on the matter of price. His contention that a wired solution is less expensive is simply untrue in most cases. I researched this issue extensively before deciding to gamble on using the problem-prone BL Wireless 1 for two of my three link room systems. Given the obscenely high cost of ML cable and connectors and the fact that the required link room ML interface costs exactly as much as a BL wireless 1, the bottom line is that a wired solution is almost always going to be more expensive, even if one does his own cable running and installation.

The only instance in which a wired solution would be cost-effective would be if one uses a current-vintage BL3500, which already has an IR receiver and a ML interface built into the unit, as a link system and keeps the cable runs very short. This is in fact the wired solution that I am using in my third link room system. The other two systems use Wireless 1s in receiver mode with pairs of BL4000s.

One last caveat: all of the BL Wireless 1s being shipped by BOA have the original buggy firmware version. Among other problems, the timer function does not, er, function at all. Neither the local B&O technician, the selling dealer, nor the tech support staff at BOA were of any help whatsoever in getting this problem resolved. I finally contacted Struer myself, and they suggested that I have the firmware upgraded to the second rev. That solved the problem very nicely, no thanks to any B&O personnel on this side of the ocean.

I have to disagree with you here Buff...loathe though I am to stick up for Trip. Remember that in order for the Wireless to work one needs to purchase a pair of them...so, let's say in my case that I want to add a link room upstairs in my Townhouse running from my BeoSound 9000 and Avant in the living room. I'll need a 10m ML cable and one small junction box (a bit under $100USD) and an ML-Active kit ($400 or so). In the case of the BL-1 Wireless I'll need one for a Transmitter ($500) and one with an IR eye as a receiver ($600). If I do the work myself, as you suggest, then I get away for roughly half the cost in equipment. The key is to not forget the 'transmitter' when doing the math.

As to your support issue, it is a shame that you couldn't get the proper help here in the US. I have found it odd that BOA didn't bother to update the units in the warehouse when they could have; they always seem to manage to update the TV products. On a positive note, from this month, all products in the US are being 'built to order' in DK and shipped when ordered, so perhaps the issue with 'old New Stock' is a thing of the past.

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

TripEnglish — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:02:08 GMT

beobuff:

I would, however beg to differ with TE on the matter of price. His contention that a wired solution is less expensive is simply untrue in most cases. I researched this issue extensively before deciding to gamble on using the problem-prone BL Wireless 1 for two of my three link room systems. Given the obscenely high cost of ML cable and connectors and the fact that the required link room ML interface costs exactly as much as a BL wireless 1, the bottom line is that a wired solution is almost always going to be more expensive, even if one does his own cable running and installation.

The only instance in which a wired solution would be cost-effective would be if one uses a current-vintage BL3500, which already has an IR receiver and a ML interface built into the unit, as a link system and keeps the cable runs very short. This is in fact the wired solution that I am using in my third link room system. The other two systems use Wireless 1s in receiver mode with pairs of BL4000s.

Beobuff, perhaps in your particular case, the wireless kits made financial sense. In general, however, they do not. Unless your dealer is gouging you, ML is not very expensive. Labor is also around $100/hr, so you can have 5 hours of labor for the cost of a single kit. There is also no need for a transmitter, and most link systems do include at least one 3500. Active kits are $150 less than wireless kits. I'm certainly not saying this is always the case, but my experience selling it is that more often then not, the wireless kits do not make financial sense. If their prices were halved we may have another story, but that's not likely to happen.

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

Russ — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:58:46 GMT

Hi Graham,just to be clear, ML doesn' handle video at all. In the scenario you describe, you'd be pulling ML cable and RF cable between the 2 Avants. Picture is supposed to be pretty good though.

Russ

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

Graham1982 — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:15:25 GMT

Hi:

I have a related question:

I want to get my mother-in-law a couple of Avants - one for her lounge, one for her bedroom. Reason being, I am hoping to get these cheap - as presents, convincing and coercing her into not to get a Bose sound system (the small ones that are seen in the supplements). My plan was to master link the two televisions so she can watch cable (which would be connected to the television downstairs) upstairs.

As I understand it, Beolink wireless is an audio only carrier so the only options available to me are ML cable between the TVs or a non b&o video sending device.

My question is, is there any noticeable difference in picture quality between using ML or a (decent) wireless video sender? I will get one which uses a different frequency range to her wireless router. I really don't want the hassle (if I can avoid it) of either drilling holes through the ceiling or running and tacking cables up staircases and round doorways so is there any extra functionality to be had from a ML system My guess is at the present time no, but if I got her to save her money and buy either a new b&o sound system or the Ouerture with the HD (I know that is not how you spell Ouerture, and that it is not one anyway) the options of extra speakers in multipe rooms would be easy to add and the sound quality would be better carried through the cable than wirelessly?

Am I correct?

Thanks

Graham

Re: Beolink wireless: Does it come as a pair or do I need to buy it twice!? Experiences from you?

beo4me — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:25:11 GMT

It also depends in what kind of neighbourhood you live. If you see many WLAN routers there might be issues. In my case I had relativly good conditions, just one other router aside from ours to be seen. There were two annoying things even in these good conditions: sometimes if you walk between the signal it would stop and the speakers would switch off and soon after switch on again; the other thing was not related to B&O but to wireless in general: about 200m away there is a tower of a pt-to-pt microwave link that was interfering with the signal (one could hear a regular pulse). In the end I drilled two hole to bring a cable two rooms down the hallway.

That was v1 of the software, there's supposed to be a later version that is a bit more stable. All in all I would agree with the others: Try to get a cable and only if that's not at all possbile try out the wireless.

Cheers,
Frank