Analogue out on the CDX and £1000 machine. Must confess to not being sure about the CD555 - it is £14000 so it didn't detain me too long!

Peter :

Analogue out on the CDX and £1000 machine. Must confess to not being sure about the CD555 - it is £14000 so it didn't detain me too long!

I would recommend using the CDX, and then adding an Audiolense, or DEQX signal processing with calibration and room adaptation, giving you full control of the frequency response in your listening room. Will blow the world's most expensive passive CD-player out of the water.

There may be issues with older players, with electronics that are not 100% any longer, due to years of use. But as long as people can be conned into believing that a DVD-player which costs USD 16 from the OEM manufacturer is worth USD 9000 as a CD-player (the internal board has an HDMI-OUT (!)), there's a lot of opportunity for reexamining what we actually need to get the best possible signal.

 

soundproof:

wonderfulelectric:

I mean the Beosound 9000 was not even advanced in it's time and I am afraid it is even more so now. 

Good thing is that soon maybe even normal 16bit cds can sound like vinyl minus the noise.  

 Wonderfulelectric, I would like to challenge your assumptions about the quality of the BeoSound 9000.

In fact, I would defy you to hear a difference between the digital s/pdif coax out on a Beogram CD 6500/7000, the BeoSound 9000, a dCS Puccini and a TEAC Esoteric transport. And I'd like to toss in a Wadia while we're at it.

Case in point. The Absolute Sound has waxed lyrical about the amazing sound quality of the Edge G-series CD-player - ranking it top of class, and way above its price category. That may change now that people have had a look inside - they took a regular OEM DVD-player and repackaged it - knowing full well that today's digital transports are fully capable of delivering the signal they should deliver.

What you want to do with that signal is then up to you, whether you want to stream it as directly as possible to your speakers, or modify it on its way. Some CD-players modify the signal, thus actually distorting it, but in the case of the Edge, the analog OUT delivers a little bump in the bass that some found very "analog vinyl tasty."

Go figure. But I really think you shouldn't slag the BeoSound 9000 - it's very good. Ask the architect Daniel Libeskind - before settling on architecture, he played Bach at performance level. He uses his BS9000 to compare different piano recordings, and is astonished at its fidelity (and he's tried numerous cd-players.)

The interior of a USD 9000 CD-player which is described in lyrical terms by "audiophile" reviewers. Harry Pearson of TAS gave it the Editor's Choice Award ... when I asked him about it, via e-mail, the answer I received was not very enlightening. "It appears that Edge have saved a lot of space ... I stand by my evaluation."

 

Excuse me..I don't think this is the right way to judge the quality of a transport. Anyways I was commenting on the digital processing of Beosound 9000s and not just the digital output. If you really want to compare the digital output of Beosound 9000 with other transports then I suggest you to connect the Beosound 9000 to a cheap D/A converter and not to a top end one cos then most of the sound quality will be determined by the state of the art reclocking systems that most high end converters have wouldn't it? Anyways Beosound 9000 is definitely not one of those transport that has the digital clocking device done right, it was just in these recent years that they have created very refined methods of rebuffering the digital signals using rams and sophisticated softwares. Also please do note that I have been referring to the current superiority of affordable cd players as compared to the Besound 9000. So the article you read might have just proved my point. Being that affordable cd players are able to perform at levels never before imagined. 

There's two ways to extract the optimum performance out of Cds. Using a cheap transport and pair it with sophisticated buffering stages to rip a good price to performance ratio and then there's the way which employs expensive vibration free transport and also pair it with superior buffering stages. Needless to say the difference in sound quality can be very small. But of course there's those cd players that have pushed sound performance to a whole new different realm such as the latest top end offerings from Meridian and Chord.  

PS. I am not saying that B&O is low-fi in anyway. Just simply pointing out an observation. One thing that I truly dislike about the Beosound 9000 isn't the sound performance but it's the fragility of the cd mechanism which is inherent to its design. 

Puncher:

wonderfulelectric:

Oh no... not upsampling. Some of the methods have not changed but the techniques sure did improve. Anyways go www.stereophile.com..............

That'll be the site that advocates replacing your current CD player with a Playstation 1 then!

No. If you read the review and looked at the measurements, they were trying to say why it might sound good - apparently some audiophiles thought that PS1 is a good source. They reasoned that maybe the insane quantity of distortions made it smear the nasties of digital sound. Anyways all I am telling you is to compare the measurements from a cd player that was produced just half a decade ago to the current ones. Big Big difference. You don't need a science degree to judge which measurement is better.  

wonderfulelectric:

Puncher:

wonderfulelectric:

Oh no... not upsampling. Some of the methods have not changed but the techniques sure did improve. Anyways go www.stereophile.com..............

That'll be the site that advocates replacing your current CD player with a Playstation 1 then!

No. If you read the review and looked at the measurements, they were trying to say why it might sound good - apparently some audiophiles thought that PS1 is a good source. They reasoned that maybe the insane quantity of distortions made it smear the nasties of digital sound. Anyways all I am telling you is to compare the measurements from a cd player that was produced just half a decade ago to the current ones. Big Big difference. You don't need a science degree to judge which measurement is better.  

It may well be that steroewhatsit.com believe what they print but I thought that the science of psychoacoustics and what sounds "good" and "bad" was pretty much understood these days (hence the development, acceptance and widespread use of compressed music).

btw - I've just revisted the site and began reading a review of a Linn CD player but gave up when I got to "Pacing and momentum were excellent..............." -  WTH does that mean in the contect of playing back an off the shelf CD???

I'm sorry, it may just be me, but I have no time for this type of publication, any facts they may quote are lost at the bottom of a sea of pretentious twaddle.

Timing is down to the amplifier and loudspeakers, not the CD player. Agreed, utter nonsense...

Back on to the original topic, saying "I have no need for a BeoSound 9000, I have 6 CD drives in my computer" would be the same as saying "I have no need for a BeoSound 5, I have iTunes". Even with CoverFlow, it's pretty hard to find listening to MP3s out of iTunes 'eventful' in any way. For me, listening to iTunes music has about as much 'event' as checking my emails...

Here, here!

i guess it depends at what bit rate you rip your cd's to itunes

i use lossless and it sounds ok to me 

the itms and it's 128k songs are a joke , they sound pretty awful on a real hi-fi 

I rip at 256k AAC which sounds fantastic to my ears. Then again, 256k MP3 doesn't sound as impressive, I'd want to rip at 320k to get the sound I want.

I haven't heard it yet, but the sound interface in the BeoSound 5 is of B&O's own design. They've taken it's sonic performance very, very seriously.

If I am not wrong, the Beosound 5 will allow you to rip at full quality, otherwise it will sorta defeat the purpose of a high end machine. 

wonderfulelectric:

If I am not wrong, the Beosound 5 will allow you to rip at full quality, otherwise it will sorta defeat the purpose of a high end machine. 

 How do you want to rip? There seems to be no disc drive at all... it´s just a digital jukebox.

Regards, beoberlin 

Well for me it's an easy choice, I'm about to buy a BS9000. Since I have an extensive CD collection, and enjoy listening to them.

 

Also for the reason that my current BC2300 doesn't have a S/PDIF out for the Lab5's... 

why not rip them all?? the cd is soooo old

That's the thing, I enjoy loading them, handling the cases, and looking at the booklets... 

 

I guess it's love  

You'll also enjoy using the BeoSound 5. It's not 'just a digital jukebox'. The BeoMedia was a digital jukebox, this is much more...

Alex, do you know more about BS5 than we do?

Stefan 

You rip CDs to the BeoSound 5 through an editing PC like the BeoMedia. The similarities, thankfully, end there.

You said that so smoothly I could have almost overlooked the fact that the umpty thousand pound BS5 needs a separate PC to be able to operate effectively.

I can understand the BS5 not having a CD drive but why on earth couldn't it be on the Beomaster - cost can't be the issue!

Does the additional PC need to run any special software (for tagging track, cover artwork etc)??

Puncher:

I can understand the BS5 not having a CD drive but why on earth couldn't it be on the Beomaster - cost can't be the issue!

It is a design problem as the Beomedia is integrated at the back of Beovision 9 for example. You could not access it. It is supposed to be a hidden box.

I would have liked to see a signgle CD player and an analog radio if the BS5.

Also, the most prominent keys of a Beo4 are becoming useless: TV (no more analog), CD, Radio...

But if you can combine 5 and 9000, that is excellent. This is choice! All digital or traditional Beosound or both!

p.

wtlc2zpx:

Puncher:

I can understand the BS5 not having a CD drive but why on earth couldn't it be on the Beomaster - cost can't be the issue!

It is a design problem as the Beomedia is integrated at the back of Beovision 9 for example. You could not access it. It is supposed to be a hidden box.

I would have liked to see a signgle CD player and an analog radio if the BS5.

Also, the most prominent keys of a Beo4 are becoming useless: TV (no more analog), CD, Radio...

But if you can combine 5 and 9000, that is excellent. This is choice! All digital or traditional Beosound or both!

p.

It just seems strange that they deem it important to have media players built into their TV's but not in their new, top-of-the-range, audio system - after all a "digitally aware" household is just as likely to stream video from a media server as it is audio.

beoberlin:

wonderfulelectric:

If I am not wrong, the Beosound 5 will allow you to rip at full quality, otherwise it will sorta defeat the purpose of a high end machine. 

 How do you want to rip? There seems to be no disc drive at all... it´s just a digital jukebox.

Regards, beoberlin 

OMG! I feel like a complete idiot now... How did I not know that the Beosound 5 has no cd drive? Can anyone confirm that? Is it just like a hard drive and a controller? Jeez.... No way am I gonna buy that... I have to say that it is a dumb dumb concept. It is a 2 box concept without even a cd/dvd drive? Is this meant to complicate life or what? And it can only stream music? What the deuce? Frankly, I am stunned! I just simply assumed that Beosound 5 is gonna be like all the hard disk music servers out there with built in cd player, internet radio and stuff. 

I would seriously retain judgement until you've actually seen/used it. It will all make sense then...

Alex:

I would seriously retain judgement until you've actually seen/used it. It will all make sense then...

You are right on this one.  We are all trying to figure out what the Beosound 5 is without a list of the specifications.  We only have a few pictures and the Beoconnect procedure for the Mac.  This is not much to go on.

I might add that other Media servers whether they have a CD player or not will still required editing from your PC.  Oftentimes the information and cover art from Gracenotes and others media services is wrong!  Using a PC to load music to Beosound 5 is not a deal breaker for me.  Its just one less CD drive that won't fail.

Not even talking about specs - the BeoSound 5 is simply the best B&O system as far as user interaction goes to date...

Alex:

the BeoSound 5 is simply the best B&O system as far as user interaction goes to date...

Alex, you seem to have tested the BS5 already. What made you so enthusiast? I mean: how different is it from Sooloos and Kaleidescape and why should one choose for BS5 instead? Cheers, Jean-Sebastien