General Forum

Re: Surround with B&O

bsantini — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:54:16 GMT

i have a custom, rca-input/out box, with long pwrlinks on either end, to use for a subw with a crossover, for sale $65 takes all. located in NY

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:08:10 GMT

System is working an very well. Integration is as transparent as it can get. The IRTrans is the real deal and allow control of anything thrown at it... I am extremely pleased...

I recently auditioned a pair of Beolab5.. These speakers will be acquired soon. When that's done, I'll move the BL 8000 as surround back for a 7.1 system.

Next on my list is to integarte the system with an HTPC or a Kaledeiscape ...

One criticism... I haven't yet used the beo6 remote control but frankly the Beo4 is dated... I prefer the Harmony 900 remote (not my favorite either in term of programmability but the form factor is very good and YES, it controlS B&O stuff and looks quite modern in a Beo-environment.. B&O needs to lead in remote control .. They are sorely lagging witht he beo4 ...

Any questions? Feel free to PM me .. It was an interesting and worthwhile experience.. Again, Thanks to All

Lesly

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:26:23 GMT

I thought I should post my progress to the collective.

It does work and very well . I am at the finishing stage, i-e cleaning up the mess, routing cables, positioning speaker .. REPAIRING DRYWALL and programming.

The system performance is very good. I ended up using a Yamaha AVR (RX-V2067) with:

2 Pairs of Beolab 8000 and a Beolab 4000 as center channel. I use Velodyne subwoofers.

IR Trans was used for IR conversion duties and this product is a superior performer. Unassuming... Weirdly small. It does transform your Beo4 or ANY remote into a truly universal remote. It takes some time getting used to but after that it becomes easy to configure. Use is completely transparent. You do what you are used with the Beo4 on your bang and Olufsen. The only giveaway in my case is that the Yamha receiver shows the volume on the screen and when nothing is present at the video input, shows some Yamaha (without the name) wallpaper …

It is quite transparent to the user. You press TV and the TV comes on, you change channels and raise volume on the TV without paying attention...

Then you go to DVD and your surround system comes alive. Receiver is on. The Beolab speakers, very nicely power on with the nice "click" sound we all know and love, LED turning green. When volume is pressed then Beosound 9000 does show on its face that volume is up :) .. A very B&O experience.. Yet it is the Yamaha doing most of the work , with its immense flexibility of crossovers, its superior processing and switching capabilities. And of course it is priced very reasonably. It will run circles around he BS3 and I am thinking to get a higher end processor maybe The top of the line Yamaha or yet, the Integra, Emotiva or a Lexicon .. All IMHO superior in all aspects to the BS3

Sound-wise: The Velodyne are amongst the best commercial subwoofers around. Combining their strengths with the Beolab 8000 and 4000 makes for a very interesting performance. Relieved of the duty of reproducing big bass, the 8000 sounds effortless and much louder... I would assume at least 3 dB in SPL increase. I will measure but I do think it is likely 4 to 5 dB higher ... That is a lot ... smoother.. Good midrange..Etc...

I will come back to the thread and maybe, just maybe post some photos. I will thank these people who have taken their time to help or to provide products that will help anyone that would entertain such project.

Marcus Muller of IR Trans. His little box does the conversion of IR codes from what the Beo4 send to what any and I mean ANY remotes from ANY manufacturer sends. It has a learning curve, albeit to me an IT person by trade, a very, very smooth one. It is immensely flexible. IRTrans makes other products that allow a degree of House Automation that is uncanny. They are IP based for the most part but IR Trans does have RS-232 products. I will look into their other products too. Very Good products.

Peter Pan who posts here and at HiFi4all. If you are a DIY-kind of person, ALL , I repeat ALL the cables pin-outs and how to are in the link he posted earlier. He also sells the cables so you can buy them there. I repeat ALL the cables I am using and I am a DIY came from his posts. ALL and they work and his cables do also work.
Steve at Sounds Heavenly. ALL the cables needed for such project can be found there. Steve is also very easy to reach and answers his e-mail quickly.

Michael at Lintronics. Another good product similar to the IR Trans. It is more rooted in B&O than the IR Trans and could be easier t integrate I do however prefer the IR Trans product. Let’s say it is personal and I think that the IR Trans is more flexible although not as easy to set up.

And of course , All of you who have helped in this thread:

First in line: Soren Mexico and Tournedos. People! Your help was invaluable in getting this to work.

kallasr, thanks for the IRTRans and Lintronic references. On this The IRTrans allow you to press a button and to send repeat commands. So you don’t have to press the button several times. It can be configured to send the command almost as many times and for however long that you wish… I suppose the same can be done with Lintronic.

Tomvdw and all who have participated in the thread. I thank you all

I will come back to the thread. All that I can say is that mixing non_B&O with Beo CAN WORK and very well thank you. My next project could be to replace the Yamaha AVR with an Emotiva or similarly flexible Pre/Processor. I wouldn’t mind equalizing the bass from the Velodyne subwoofers to have a flatter in-room response. I also am thinking loudly : 7.1 with something like the Beolab 5 and the Beolab center channel. I see a very large screen in my horizon … Not a B&O one ...

Thanks again to all.

Lesly

Re: Surround with B&O

Peter Pan — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:23:58 GMT

BeoLab without other B & O.

Click Here.

/ Peter Pan

Re: Surround with B&O

Søren Mexico — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:56:26 GMT

tournedos:
It won't save you from running an extra wire, though. I would probably rather go the other way and equip the alien receiver with fake Powerlink outputs (buy some 8-pin DIN sockets and wire the audio outputs and your power signal there), then use a single neat and thin Powerlink cable over to the speaker. As the 6000s have both Powerlink in & out, you could then even daisy chain those speakers if that is physically more convenient.

Why didn't I think of that, a small connector box with powerlink outs, the trigger line build in, simple and useable wherever you need it, could even add some 2 pin DIN outs to it, will be my next project before I, again, move everything around.

Good thread, it got me thinking again, sometimes you just stare yourself blind on things, this thread got my eyes open for new posibilities.

Thank you to all.

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 08:34:32 GMT

I wanted to take some time to post these impressions:

B&O makes startling and beautiful products. No doubt about it. I am in awe of their aesthetics. I also believe in cost effectiveness. If the only available product for a particular task is at a given price, I don't see it as 'expensive”, if there are alternatives and they perform better and are less dear, then the epithet of expensive may apply. In my quest for a surround sound system based on B&O products. I did come to the conclusion that the BS3 was too expensive. For what it does, I can't see any rationale in acquiring it.

On the other hand, the ways to integrate B&O with other brands, require research, determination and some technical knowledge. This forum and a few others, notably the posts by” Peter Pan” at hifi4all.dk , provided most of the answers. There are in addition also some extremely knowledgeable people that need to be consulted before embarking in such a project: Steve at Sounds Heavenly and Michael at Lintronic. These people hold most of the solutions to making B&) speakers work with the more evolved Pre/Processor on the market and there are several, many IMHO superior in processing power, flexibility, performance and features than anything that B&O currently offers… anything.

I am a fan of B&O in general and their remotes in particular… but their functionality can be emulated by Remote from Logitech, Universal Remotes (URC brand), Philips and many others. The Logitech Harmony lines, which I don't really like because of the lack of programmability, works surprisingly well with B&O components.

The current system does work and well. No pops and click . I turn on the Pre/Pro and speakers just turn on with no noise. Surround decoding from the Yamaha AVR is excellent. I am currently doing 5 channels but am thinking going the full 7 channels. I have 3 subwoofers hooked o the system and I cross over al B&O speakers at 80 Hz. Crossover slope is steep so that below 80 Hz, the speakers don't have to bother with bass.. Believe me this makes a world of difference. The active speakers from B&O when relieved from the task of reproducing loud bass take a dimension that may satisfy many audiophiles. They really are better than many would think. The 8000 for example have a very exquisite midrange which becomes even cleaner when the drivers (and the amps) do not have to cope with below frequencies below80 Hz which tend to favor larger drivers … Laws of Physics and all that…

I will document my set-up in a subsequent post. I am waiting the arrival of the Lintronic TTRTT455-RT-238 (whew that is a mouthful for a model name ) gear and will let you know how it works. I don't anticipate any problems . There is really more flexibility with this approach than what one can get with the walled-garden approach of a pure B&O solution.

Thanks to all

More later

Lesly

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 08:34:22 GMT

I wanted to take some time to post these impressions:

Thanks to all

More later

Lesly

Re: Surround with B&O

tournedos — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:34:49 GMT

Great! That's good to know for future reference, I never had a BS9000 to try it

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:29:33 GMT

tournedos

That did it !! . I had some 22 KOhms resistors laying around and it tuned on. So far, so good...

More later .. :D

lesly

Re: Surround with B&O

tournedos — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:58:12 GMT

misteUS:
How can I simulate a powerlink or make a dummy plug?

You're right the 9000 somehow senses the presence of speakers. It can't be the data connection, since most of the current Beolabs have nothing connected to it.

The service manual isn't too clear on this, as the Powerlink interface uses some custom IC. Anyway, it seems to sense the speakers from the load on the "Speaker ON" signal (PL pin 4). Try connecting a 33 kohm resistor from pin 4 to ground - it won't hurt anything, but probably will be enough to fool the 9000. Attaching this to only one of the sockets should be enough, as they are connected in parallel.

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:02:14 GMT

I think I have this figured out. One problem remains . How do I force the Beosystem 9000 to play when nothing is attached tit. At turn-on Option 1 works but if the 9000i loses power for any reason.. It goes back to not playing.

How can I simulate a powerlink or make a dummy plug?

I must also thank Sorenmexico for the very long but extremely informative thread at Hifi4all.dk.. I did found all the connectors I was looking for a more ..

I thank you

Iwill report back but so far I seem to be on the right track .. Thaks to you all

lesly

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:31:49 GMT

Update

The Beolab 8000 work extremely well with the Pre/Processor. They just work. You put the switch on "Line" and that's it ...
I haven't yet experienced the popping sound. If one mutes the receiver then the Beolab speakers remain on for a period of time . I measured the time they remain on on one speaker it was 3'09" and on the other 3'25"....then they go on standby ... If the signal comes back they simply turn back on .. There is a , a soft "click", a slight relay sound but no loud "pop".. and it it almost instaneous about .5 sec ...
The Beosound 9000 simply needs to be cnnected to an ML to work. If there is no Powerlink and Masterlink connected it goes dead, scary dead.. Not even reacts to the remote control... Since in my case the Beosoound is has to be connected to the rest of the house, which I did then .. Not much of a problem.

So far so good. Wil let you know how the Lintronic solution works ... I am very but very peased .. Thanks to all.

Lesly

P.S I fell in love with the Beo5 remote. Can I program it myself? .. Are there ways, software available to do so? Let me know people or should that be a new post or :( a search through the forum earlier posts? ;)

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 09:19:14 GMT

tournedos

I thank you.

@ everybody ...

I will work on this and report to you all.

Less

Re: Surround with B&O

tournedos — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:04:01 GMT

misteUS:
I am set on making this work. One last question: If I use the Line input on the Beolab Actives, Can I use Pin #4 on the Powerlink to turn the speaker on?

As far as I can see, yes - the power switching via Powerlink remains in operation even in Line mode.

misteUS:
I would think that the line input is in parallel with the Powerlink Jack. Am I correct?

Not quite. The L/R/line selector switch also switches the signal input around the source connectors. But you can switch the speakers to Line mode, use the RCA connector for audio and the Powerlink input just for the power on signal.

It won't save you from running an extra wire, though. I would probably rather go the other way and equip the alien receiver with fake Powerlink outputs (buy some 8-pin DIN sockets and wire the audio outputs and your power signal there), then use a single neat and thin Powerlink cable over to the speaker. As the 6000s have both Powerlink in & out, you could then even daisy chain those speakers if that is physically more convenient.

Re: Surround with B&O

misteUS — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:36:11 GMT

I am set on making this work. One last question: If I use the Line input on the Beolab Actives, Can I use Pin #4 on the Powerlink to turn the speaker on?

I would think that the line input is in parallel with the Powerlink Jack. Am I correct? That would make it easieras I already have several long audiophiles cables. It would be easier to use some long cables I already have.

Thanks

Lesly