General Forum

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

kawo — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:45:30 GMT

Unfortunately not perfect if you have a room like mine! I think (and hope :-) ) the calibration will work if you have an "OK" room from the acustic point of view.

On Thursday I have an appointment with the acustic expert who know my room from a previous visit 3 years ago. We will decide what we can do and I expect that the room is in an better shape in 4 weeks.

Karsten

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Alex — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:19:10 GMT

Generally yes, although it's not always perfect. I thought it was up to 300 Hz anyway?

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

koning — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 14:35:27 GMT

The frequens above 400hz you can change. Below the Adaptive Bass Control takes care of that!!

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Alex — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:56:18 GMT

Yeh I'm an electronica listener too. I find BeoLab 9s much more detailed than the BL2, which often seems very vague and slow with fast basslines. Phat Planet shows this up fantastically, it just becomes a big rumble on the BL2, wheras on the BL9s the tiniest details in the bassline come through well.

As for more control over the sound of the BeoLab 5s, a good digital EQ will allow this such as the Behringer DEQ1024.

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Reox — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:10:17 GMT

>Not if using a digital conection, as the tone controls do not modify the digital output in any way.

Aah, I see.

>Also, the tone controls are incredibly basic in comparison to the BeoLab 5's built in EQ.

So is there a way to access some kind of built in graphic equaliser for the Lab 5's?

I listen to a lot of bass heavy electronica, amongst many other things, and I'm pretty happy
with the 8000/BeoLab 2 set up for this purpose. Once the BeoLab 2 is positioned correctly
I've found I have quite a lot of control over the prominence of lower frequencies in a given track
via the switch at the back of the BeoLab 2 and the tone controls. It would be nice to have
a similar amount of control with BeoLab 5's.

Cheers

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Alex — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:54:40 GMT

Reox:
Hi again,
Pardon the naive question but, as a temporary measure, doesn't just turning down
the bass using the tone controls on your system cut out almost all of the bass?
Surely the BeoLab 5's, with the tone control for bass set to the lowest minus setting,
don't make a sizeable room rumble with low frequencies?

Not if using a digital conection, as the tone controls do not modify the digital output in any way. Also, the tone controls are incredibly basic in comparison to the BeoLab 5's built in EQ. The tone controls just adjust overall bass level below a certain frequency, which isn't what is needed. A bassy room will generally show a huge boost around a specific frequency, and often a lack of bass in other frequencies.

I've auditioned the BeoLab 5's and they sounded less bassy, in some respects,
than my BeoLab 8000/BeoLab 2 set up although I realise the actual specifications
would care to differ and I was in two different spaces.
Cheers

I've generally found that the BeoLab 2 makes too much bass when used with the older speakers such as the BeoLab 8000s. It always seems so boomy unless used with BeoLab 1s/BeoLab 3s.

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Reox — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:45:34 GMT

Hi again,

Pardon the naive question but, as a temporary measure, doesn't just turning down
the bass using the tone controls on your system cut out almost all of the bass?

Surely the BeoLab 5's, with the tone control for bass set to the lowest minus setting,
don't make a sizeable room rumble with low frequencies?

I've auditioned the BeoLab 5's and they sounded less bassy, in some respects,
than my BeoLab 8000/BeoLab 2 set up although I realise the actual specifications
would care to differ and I was in two different spaces.

Cheers

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

koning — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:07:34 GMT

That's a very good one

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

fridsten — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:26:47 GMT

If I remember correctly, Geoffrey Martin, Tonmeister at B&O, said that you should have the rear wall covered with teddybears.

That ought to take care of some of the reflexions. And you'd still be able to live there. At least if you have small children.

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Jez — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:20:42 GMT

Yes, I get the picture, I've been in many studios in my life but at the end of the day it's your living room and still has to be livable. Unless you have room for a dedicated listening room, that would be great! By the way great info.

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

soundproof — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:47:04 GMT

Jez:
Carpet or hardfloor surfaces shouldn't make a big difference.

Actually, the purpose of a carpet would be to absorb primary, secondary and tertiary (etc) reflections, as the sound bounces around your room.

Here's a sound recordist studio, untreated:

What's shown are just the primary and secondary reflections (red and blue), but the sound bounces around - and sound moves in all four dimensions, so it's quite a potential soup. (In later years, B&O have consistently photographed their products in environments that can only be called audio nightmares, with concrete floors and walls and large plate-glass windows - totally useless for any focused listening as such rooms are reverb generators).

Reverb occurs to the extent that the sound waves are not dampened by the physics of the room they are propagating in.

Here's how that studio would be treated, in order to ensure that the sound engineer hears what's being played through the monitors:

However, in a studio you want to kill "all" reflections, in order to lift the original signal so that it can be evaluated analytically. At home you don't have to be that extreme - in fact, you would find it tiring to listen to the clinical sound reproduction needed to hear flaws in the recording.

Do however remember that the resonance in the performance is already in the recording, and you don't want your room to add or subtract from that. You want it to be as neutral as possible - that doesn't have to be expensive, or ugly. Just requires a little forethought.

Some info on reverb and reflections, from the point of view of digitally creating it.

http://www.headwize.com/tech/lake2_tech.htm

And here's a good 5-part article from Sound on Sound on treating one's listening room:

http://www.soundonsound.com/search?section=%2F&Keyword=room+for+improvement

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

koning — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:14:21 GMT

Tones between 2000/4000 giving the most troubles (echo/delay) on a hard floor

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Jez — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:20:38 GMT

Carpet or hardfloor surfaces shouldn't make a big difference. Obviousley carpet would be better but the reason the the Beolab 5's have such big discs is so the sound envelopes out 90 degrees but doesn't hit the floor. The sub driver on BeoLab 5's face the ground because sub bass below 50 Hz is omni directional, therefore not being effected by it's placement. The calibration is simply so the sub doesn't over power the upper bass, mid and tweeters.

I use BL5's in a room that is 4m deep x 7m width , not very big at all.

Jez.

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

soundproof — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 17:31:38 GMT

Place them as you would a pair of audiophile "traditional" speakers, with care and attention to potential unwanted reflections and standing waves -- then you'll end up with a pair of speakers that will outgun most other speakers on the planet.

Follow the "recommendation" that you can place them anywhere, and you end up with speakers that won't outgun most other speakers on the planet.

Re: Why you should keep some money if you buy a Beolab 5....

Alex — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 17:19:46 GMT

koning:
In the folder they say 'you can place them everywhere'. Big house small house,much furniture or less,it's make no difference!
you can place them in a corner if you want too!

To a degree. It's not perfect, there is no way they can do it perfectly. However you can place them with much more freedom than other speakers...