General Forum

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

ReneB — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:41:52 GMT

Just to let you know, after listening and being quite impressed by the BeoLab 3 -vs 4- I've bought BeoLab 3, and two simple Y-splitters. The BeoLab 3 are so good, and easy to turn 180 degrees, they in fact could also replace my 8000's, which might then move to our bedroom!

Next week the dealer will come and install it (standard ervice, although I just as well wanted to pack them with me).

ps: my wife, for the first time, heard BeoLab 5's : and now we should start saving money for a year or 3.....

thanks again for your help,

Rene

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ReneB — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:00:44 GMT

ok, today i went to the other store of the same dealer, and outlined exactly my situation.

apart from that they suggested to go for Beolab 3, more expensive but far better they, regardless what speakers I'd choose I needed two things:

T1611 (170 Euro's) and T1636 (290 euro), where the latter should be placed as far as possible from the MX7000 TV.

For the 3500 the T163 in not needed.

I could they said, in theory, also just go for a powerlink splitter, but a) this wasn't much cheaper -they said!! and b) as you guys also suggested, the lack of independent volume control will be irritating if not really destroying all pleasure,

Still, 460 euro's just to get a connection to other speakers....grrr, sometimes I hate it that I love B&O ! But are the T1611 and 1636 indeed the items I need??

thanks and cheers,

Rene

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

Peter — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:46:11 GMT

Very odd suggestion! I would also not get the Beolab 4s. I think for the set up you want I would either decide to keep your Bose speakers and use a Beolink passive to power them or would get a Beolab 3500 as suggested above. These set ups would allow independent control of the speaker in the dining area and full remote control - if your barrier muffles the 8000s then it could block the remote signals as well. If not then the two systems can be set to option 4 which will allow you to control them using the link command.

However I would suggest having a listen to the speakers for yourself when the dealer re-opens. Have a listen to the 8000s, 4s and 3500 as you will be able to compare the last two with a speaker you already know. If you are just using the dining area as an area where backgound music is played, the Bose speakers are probably fine. If you want better sound, consider one of the other options. The Beolab 4000s are another option if you look at second hand ones. I am afraid I think the Beolab 4s are not really much better than the Bose ones and are very expensive.

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

joeyboygolf — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:16:30 GMT

You're quite correct Craig although I don't remember using the Powerlink socket at all.

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

Craig — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:07:38 GMT

The one I had did. It had a Materlink connection, a Datalink Connection and a Powerlink connection. Still dont see why you would need one though. Or how it would work in this set up.

Craig

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

joeyboygolf — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:49:27 GMT

But the post says "beolink converter", as far as I remember when I last had one this does not have powerlink at all!!

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

Craig — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:35:35 GMT

joeyboygolf:
I don't understand their recommendation. The beolink converter changes MCL which your 2300 has into ML to enable it to interface with more modern say video devices such as an Avant or similar. As far as I am aware it has no outputs for powerlink speakers! It would enable you to ML a beolab 3500 but they don't recommend this???
In fact, I just don't understand at all. Is it me or what?

That has got me baffled too Graham, I thought the ML/MCl converter only had a Powerlink in connection. So you can power Passive speakers of it.

Craig

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

joeyboygolf — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:18:33 GMT

I don't understand their recommendation. The beolink converter changes MCL which your 2300 has into ML to enable it to interface with more modern say video devices such as an Avant or similar. As far as I am aware it has no outputs for powerlink speakers! It would enable you to ML a beolab 3500 but they don't recommend this???

In fact, I just don't understand at all. Is it me or what?

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

Toubro — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 12:12:03 GMT

The idea of adding the BL4's is an okay idea, but as PL212 mentions, you will have some problem, when the equipment is in the same room, as you will turn on all speakers when turning on the stereo. And if I remember right, you would actually get the commands double, as both the IR eye and the 2300 both recieves the signal.

Actually as I'm writing this I come to think of my old setup, where I had my BL1's connected to my AV5 through a Beolink active box, which was setup so it only responded when I chose Link from the Beo4 list and then pressed the desired command, so maybe it is not that impossible after all, although you'll have to use the list->link command when you want to use the extra set of speakers with the BL8000 switched of.

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500: now: beolab 4 !

ReneB — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:09:30 GMT

Hi again,

armed with your info I went to my B&O dealer (who were closed due to refurnishing, but did let me in for advice), and they strongly recommended not to go for Beolab's 2500 nor 3500, but instead choose Beolab 4. The only thing I needed in addition, they said, was a beolink converter/kit.

is this good advice for my situation (see description earlier: 2300 system with 8000's serving "left" part of 14 m long room; new ones to serve the "right").

cheers, Rene

ps: they gave my the B&O book for free!!

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500

PL212 — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:54:23 GMT

Looping is indeed possible on the 3000, 4000, 4500, 6000 and Penta II/III because they have 2 PowerLink sockets. In the case of the original poster, there's nothing wrong with looping via PowerLink Y-splitters. It's a little ironic he ended up with the two speakers in the BeoLab range without dual PowerLinks :) , but Y-splitters will work just fine. In this scenario all the speakers come on at the same time and the volumes are the same. Note that because the 8000s are much more powerful, they will probably sound louder than the 2500s. The other option for your setup would be a BL3500 or BL2000. These can be set to respond to Link codes only, so that you can control them independently of the main system's speakers. This allows for a bit more of control. The status of the room as basically one large space means that a separate BeoLink Active would be a problematic setup, I believe. Unless you used range-reduced remotes.

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500

Tom — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:15:32 GMT

ok, so i was wrong. sorry for the wrong info.

but is looping is possible on BL6000?

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500

joeyboygolf — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:12:03 GMT

PL212 is indeed correct, the system will reqire 2 Y splitters for the powerlink cables.

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500

ReneB — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:29:50 GMT

sorry if I've been unclear, but all I want is to have in our joint living/dining room, which is 15 meter long x 4.5 m wide, divided into 2 sections by means of a 1.5 m tall lowboard full of some 2000 good old LP's, to have the beolab 8000 serve the sitting room part and other new speakers to serve the dining room part.

So I either buy Beolab 2500's or Bose's I already owe, to serve the dining room part. Currently the 8000 serve the sitting room part but we often sit at our 3 m dining table and the 8000 hence sound muffled (?, i.e. guite poor), because they are positioned to serve the living room part oposite to the dining room part.

hope this helps and explains why I want two sets of speakers connected to my 2300 system.

thanks a lot,

Rene!

Re: adding a pair of beolab 2500

Tom — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:59:39 GMT

you could be right, PL212. i'm sure peter can clear this out!?