General Forum

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

KingStreet — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 01:27:45 GMT

peacha:
also will the both link to my laptop to play music stored on there or music DVDs via the DVD player or an external DVD player connected to my plasma?

Subject to room size, musical preference and visual appeal, I suggest you consider BeoCentre 2 and a pair of BeoLab 4000, with a Beoport for your laptop / PC.

From your posts you are after a combined AV set up, so whilst there are always alternatives, you may find this combination addresses more of your needs.

It would give you CD/DAB/DVD and a good visual / remote controleable interface with a PC. Because the DVD can supply your panel, you are also freeing up the line in ( for your other TV sources ) and you have a visually stunning system. If you have a DVD you are happy with, there is an audio only version for c£300 less, but the DVD option would reduce the number of compnents you have, and it has the wow factor missing from most other dvd players.

Beolab 4000 are a (relatively ) overlooked gem, imo, and are fine for general music and video use - put them either side of your panel, and take a line out from your AV kit into the A.Aux, so you hear whatever is on screen via the Beolabs.

Either way, you should listen to the speakers in store with some CD's you know, and maybe then try your preffered choice at home.

Hope you like whatever you choose.

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

Dave — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:49:07 GMT

Gotcha hehe, sort of...

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

The Stig - ver. 1.7 — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:40:33 GMT

Here is the power of the BL5 or what it's limited to, for not blowing the speaker

per amplifier	Lower bass: 1000 watts/4ohm
	Upper bass: 650 watts/8ohm
	Midrange: 180 watts/8ohm
	Treble: 180 watts/8ohm

I think the reason that BL9 has Class AB amp is because thy use the chassis from BL1 in it

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

Peter — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:25:29 GMT

Sort of!! There is an amplifier capable of producing 250W which is attached to the tweeter in the BL5. If it produces more than 2W at any particular moment, I would be very surprised. Producing sound is all about moving air and the amopunt of air moved in high frequencies is very small. the amount moved in low frequencies is much greater. This is why the BL9 for instance uses a Class D amplifier with lots of power as it is used a lot to move the large bass drivers. The top end has a dome tweeter , the surface of which moves a tiny amount using a very small amount of power. The headline power rating of the amplifiers, particularly those for the tweeters is all about sales - mine is bigger than yours! A good valve amplifier will often produce only 10W per channel and yet still sound most impressive.

As stated before, most music in a domestic enviroment will actually use about 1W of power in total. The lower the frequencies reproduced, the more power that is required though to maintain an even frequency balance.

In practical terms, almost all the B&O range have plenty of power. The advantage of excess power is that plenty is in reserve for parts of the music which have a sudden burst of sound - dynamics. If an amplifier is already playing at full volume, it will not cope. To manage this, a good power supply is needed. If you lift up a Beolab 5000 amplifier, you will feel how heavy it is, the same goes for the Beomaster 8000. Both have very large and heavy power transformers.

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

soundproof — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:10:39 GMT

Peter:
Actually it does mean each speaker has two modules, one for the woofers and one for the tweeter. Two things though:
1. This is again power in rather than power to the drivers - think nearer 60 to 70W per module.
2. Try putting even 60W through a 1.8cm tweeter and see what happens!

On an other hifi thread I follow the owner of a pair of B&W top-end speakers ran white noise through them, blowing all tweeters in a minute. (White noise means that the same energy is transferred across the entire frequency range. Not a good thing for tweeters - they melted). Peter's right -- and people should be aware that for instance the extreme power available to the bass drivers in BL5 is not used continuously, but to apply short and precise bursts when needed.

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

Dave — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:04:11 GMT

Wow now i'm confused.

Doesn't the BL5 throw 250W at it's 3/4 inch tweeter?

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

Peter — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:08:04 GMT

Actually it does mean each speaker has two modules, one for the woofers and one for the tweeter. Two things though:

1. This is again power in rather than power to the drivers - think nearer 60 to 70W per module.

2. Try putting even 60W through a 1.8cm tweeter and see what happens!

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

Dave — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 03:19:34 GMT

Hang on, module means channel really, and there is 143w in one BL8000 speaker, it would only be 286w if you added the power between a pair of BL8000, someone correct me if i'm wrong!

BL3 : Has 2 X 125 W in 8 Ohm, but the bass is 4 Ohm so it plays with a max of 220 W - this doesn't make sense to me!

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

mbee — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:33:28 GMT

Those magazines often forget to say that for the price of a pair of B&O speakers, you get a pair of speaker, but also the best amplifier possible for those speakers. If you have a golden hear and a lot of time to try everything, you can get a better sound with two speakers and a stereo amplifier that matches well, but it's not so cheaper and it's really complicated if you doesn't have enough capacity and time.

And concerning B&O : the BL3 is the most natural of the speakers mentioned above (8000, 4000, 3), it is way clearer than the bl8000 while bl4000 sounds like an entry level speaker in another good hifi brand (b&w for instance) in my opinion. (a french audiophile forum has accepted to try some B&O stuff and the bl3's just fascinated them!)

While bl3 are well positioned in price for their sound, even if you compare with other brands, B&O sound sytems are more overpriced, you can connect something as good as a Beosound2/4/3200 in terms of audio quality (it is possible and even simple if you have a variable line level output in your CD player), but you will loose some ease of use, and more important : you will not get the full B&O magic!

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

The Stig - ver. 1.7 — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:27:14 GMT

David:
The Stig - ver. 1.26:
peacha:

thanks, does the beo port use the aux or would that still be free to allow for connecting DVD?

what would the BL3s give more than the BL4000s for the extra £800 or so they are?

Beoport use a special B&O connection so the AUX is free.
BL3 is between BL4000 and BL8000, BL3 has a disk on the top that makes it possible to be any where between the two speakers and still have stereo. There is going to be hot in here for saying this but IMO BL4000 and 8000 has the best sound picture from top to bottom. also BL4000 and BL3 has a better "Adaptive Bass Linearization", wish use the potential of the speaker better when you play at low levels (more bass).
Power:
BL4000 Mrk2: 56 W Ice Power
BL3: 360 W Ice Power
BL8000: 286 W class AB
Oh, i thought BL8000 was 143W per module, and BL3 250W per module? BL4000 are compact and really good value, with surprisingly powerful sound when placed / installed correctly. I believe all of the above speakers work exceptionally well without a subwoofer.

BL8000: yes but it has two module so 143 W X 2

BL3 : Has 2 X 125 W in 8 Ohm, but the bass is 4 Ohm so it plays with a max of 220 W

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

Alex — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 05:06:47 GMT

I agree with others, BeoLab 8000s and a BeoSound 4 are a fantastic match. You can sure go for other systems from other brands, but they won't give you the same level of satisfaction overall and in the long run as B&O (at least, that's in my experience).

Either BeoLab 3s, or BeoLab 8000s. 8000s can need support from a sub at times, while BL3s tend to sound more rounded in the low end IMO.

And yes, BeoLab 3s are definitely a big departure from 4000s or 6000s.

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

soundproof — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:27:10 GMT

peacha:
thanks all,

any reason why B&O dont seem to get 5 stars i what hifi reviews? the BL3s look good, have you heard then?

B&O lose out in the final analysis in such reviews, due to the price of the units. You'll read quite a few reviews that declare "xxx is one of the best --- I have heard, but at that price it better be."
It is a luxury item.

BL3s are very good speakers - in fact so good that audiophiles are discovering them now (took them some years). But all three speakers mentioned above have a fine, natural sound reproduction. In your place, I would get the BL3s, due to their flexibility of placement. You can use them in many different ways (as nearfield monitors, on a wall, on the rubber rings, pc-speakers, etc).

As Peter says, listen to an audio setup in a store - your budget will get you far, and you may want to comparison shop.

The BS4 has the connections you need to attach iPod/other sources, you'll just need the proper cable, but your dealer can help you with that.

(And don't get us started on the merits of buying a classic B&O setup ...)

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

Dave — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:58:02 GMT

The Stig - ver. 1.26:
peacha:

thanks, does the beo port use the aux or would that still be free to allow for connecting DVD?

what would the BL3s give more than the BL4000s for the extra £800 or so they are?

Beoport use a special B&O connection so the AUX is free.
BL3 is between BL4000 and BL8000, BL3 has a disk on the top that makes it possible to be any where between the two speakers and still have stereo. There is going to be hot in here for saying this but IMO BL4000 and 8000 has the best sound picture from top to bottom. also BL4000 and BL3 has a better "Adaptive Bass Linearization", wish use the potential of the speaker better when you play at low levels (more bass).
Power:
BL4000 Mrk2: 56 W Ice Power
BL3: 360 W Ice Power
BL8000: 286 W class AB

Oh, i thought BL8000 was 143W per module, and BL3 250W per module? BL4000 are compact and really good value, with surprisingly powerful sound when placed / installed correctly. I believe all of the above speakers work exceptionally well without a subwoofer.

Re: is B&O best choice for £4,000?

The Stig - ver. 1.7 — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:36:28 GMT

peacha:

thanks, does the beo port use the aux or would that still be free to allow for connecting DVD?

what would the BL3s give more than the BL4000s for the extra £800 or so they are?

Beoport use a special B&O connection so the AUX is free.

BL3 is between BL4000 and BL8000, BL3 has a disk on the top that makes it possible to be any where between the two speakers and still have stereo. There is going to be hot in here for saying this but IMO BL4000 and 8000 has the best sound picture from top to bottom. also BL4000 and BL3 has a better "Adaptive Bass Linearization", wish use the potential of the speaker better when you play at low levels (more bass).

Power:

BL4000 Mrk2: 56 W Ice Power

BL3: 360 W Ice Power

BL8000: 286 W class AB