General Forum

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

thavn — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 06:16:31 GMT

When I first got my BL5 I too was a little bit disappointed.

But I previously had a separate Subwoofer. When I changed the settings in the setup menu to "off" in the subwoofer question, they came to life!

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

hotknife — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 04:13:40 GMT

BL9 and you do not have such problems.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

bsantini — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 05:16:41 GMT

What i really want ( and find most objectionable) is to have a way to attenuate the mid-bass peaks that speaker placement/room configurations create. "suck - outs" as dips are called, cannot be rectifies through equalization. This should be simple for B&O to implement. And i don't want to automated, a la BL5.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Medogsfat — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:57:06 GMT

Razlaw:

Dealer also brought a Beolab 2 to try with my Beolab 1s. That made a huge difference and I will be considering one of those.

That doesn't surprise me at all. I find Beolab 1's remarkably bass light given thier size - Penta's (which BL1's were supposed to directly replace) outperform them easily in that area IMO.

Chris.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Razlaw — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:47:19 GMT

Had the 5s in my home today. I will be staying with my current 9s. The 5s sound different, but I like the 9s just as well, or perhaps better. Dealer also brought a Beolab 2 to try with my Beolab 1s. That made a huge difference and I will be considering one of those.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Razlaw — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:43:06 GMT

Beolab 5s coming to my house for an in home demo. Also a Beolab 2 to try with my Beolab 1s in another room. Am very eager to see how the 5s sound compared to my Beolab 9s.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Puncher — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:19:36 GMT

That's better!

The nulls are position dependant in the room and are set by room dimensions and surfaces. If you are going to be measuring while moving speaker position then the mic should be located at your intended listening position (as should you, ideally).

Don't expect a flat bass response throughout your room, the best you can achieve is to minimise frequency related amplitude variations at your listening point of choice.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

kimchr — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:05:13 GMT

Did alot of testing today, flipping mains. Conclusion is clear: No effect at all.

I have measured hundreds of sweeps in option 0 and 4 each with the four possible combinations of plugs directions. I was fooled a couple of times to believe I got a different result, but in the end of the day I was able to dismiss the odd measurements. So my measurements are very consistent, like the last graph posted.

So in the present setup it seems I have some really nasty dips ( or "nulls" I think is the right term) below 400hz. I'm really not an expert, but I'll experiment with speaker placement tomorrow. Hopefully I can improve on the measurements with alternative speaker positions.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Razlaw — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:04:18 GMT

I have an in home demo of the 5s scheduled later this month. I am very curious how they will sound.

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Alex — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 14:33:26 GMT

Hmm, a sudden drop-off below 400 Hz? This would suggest something to do with the calibration system, which I believe functions up-to around 400 Hz. Very strange!

The difference in the measurements between the polarity-flipped mains is quite interesting. Not that I don't trust you, but is there any possibility you could do maybe 3 or 4 measurements of normal, then immediately flipped, and post each graph up here?

I really don't see how this could make any difference...

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Razlaw — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 10:09:23 GMT

Sorry for my lack of technical expertise. What exactly does the graph show? I understand it is showing two different results but in general what are those results showing?

Thanks!

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

kimchr — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 07:45:51 GMT

Yes, my measurements are consistent and repeatable. Just ran it again with same results.

I have the mic pointing straigt up on a tripod in my normal listening position. Height like the tweeters.

Speakers are in option 0, Beovision 7 volume at 52, Overture audio source on cd, thus the Beolab 5s are prefering the spdif signal from the minimac.

The only factor I change is turning one of the mains around. The overall magnitude is very different. In the other scenario the baseline is approx. -15db, so it is a much weaker signal.

I have the FuzzMeasures on another computer, If I can edit this post from the other machine i'll insert the other scenario into this post shortly.

EDIT: image inserted ( two measurements with same setup overlay)

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Blackrix — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:32:27 GMT

Has someone already done a blind test (I actually mean blindfolded) between BeoLab 9 and BeoLab 5 in the same room with the same music connected to the same system? Comparing BeoLab 9 at home with BeoLab 5 somewhere else is never a good test! It is like comparing for instance an Audi A4 with an Audi A8 and saying that the A4 has a better drive, but not saying that you drove the A4 on a smooth road and the A8 on a cobblestone road......

What also is important and what B&O does not say is that BeoLab 5 can be calibrated in ALMOST every room, in some conditions you simply cannot get the optimal result. But in those cases you will also not get the optimal result with any other speaker!

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

Puncher — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:12:36 GMT

kimchr:

Sorry Folks, I feel really stupid to ask this question. Is it important how the BL5 mains are connected? I'm thinking, if the direction of the socket influence the fase of the drivers? My instinct says of course... But then again, if really so, I think the first advice to someone experiencing low bass output would be. "Do a 180 on one of the mains sockets!"

I'm one of those who have been experiencing bass output less than desired on my BL5s. Today I finally got some measurements with my Behringer ECM8000 mic and FuzzMeasure Pro 3 and I must say, that the results of the first measurements done with both speakers doing a sinesweep simultanously showed a result much to my expectations. Really low bass below 400hz. Result inserted below.

After doing this I got the idea to change the mains socket direction on one of the speakers. The result was very different, indeed! It's overall linear though it has significant dips and highs, but probably nothing you wouldn't expect from a livingroom with no acoustic treament at all. Measurements where similar to what a measured on each speaker sweeping individually.

I have not seen this discussed before and not mentioned in the Belab 5 user manual, so I look forward to your comments. If it's left up to chance to turn both mains sockets in the same direction, I have been among the unlucky 50% until now!

Btw. My measurements was done from a mac mini connected to the bl5s with spdif through a tc eectronics firewire interface.

I can't think of a single potential reason why this would be true - the first thing that happens in the mains path after entering the BL5 is that it is converted to DC.

How repeatable are your measurements - if you repeat the test how much variation do you get, test to test? Were you standing in exactly the same position for each test?

Re: Beolab 5 disappointed

kimchr — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 05:47:37 GMT

Sorry Folks, I feel really stupid to ask this question. Is it important how the BL5 mains are connected? I'm thinking, if the direction of the socket influence the fase of the drivers? My instinct says of course... But then again, if really so, I think the first advice to someone experiencing low bass output would be. "Do a 180 on one of the mains sockets!"

I'm one of those who have been experiencing bass output less than desired on my BL5s. Today I finally got some measurements with my Behringer ECM8000 mic and FuzzMeasure Pro 3 and I must say, that the results of the first measurements done with both speakers doing a sinesweep simultanously showed a result much to my expectations. Really low bass below 400hz. Result inserted below.

After doing this I got the idea to change the mains socket direction on one of the speakers. The result was very different, indeed! It's overall linear though it has significant dips and highs, but probably nothing you wouldn't expect from a livingroom with no acoustic treament at all. Measurements where similar to what a measured on each speaker sweeping individually.

I have not seen this discussed before and not mentioned in the Belab 5 user manual, so I look forward to your comments. If it's left up to chance to turn both mains sockets in the same direction, I have been among the unlucky 50% until now!

Btw. My measurements was done from a mac mini connected to the bl5s with spdif through a tc eectronics firewire interface.