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This is the first Archived Forum which was active between 17th April 2007 and 1st March February 2012

 

Latest post 06-21-2007 7:21 AM by Alex. 6 replies.
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  • 06-20-2007 7:57 AM

    • Sigmund
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    Stereo sound input on BV 7

    I won't buy a TV yet - for many good technical and personal reasons. Anyway, I'm dreaming about replacing the old BV 7100 with a BeoVision 7. In a home cinema setting the new BV7 would replace the old Beosound Ouverture as the room's media center.

    How good is BV 7 at playing non-visual old-fashioned stereo music? Especially, how are the sound input connections?

    Here is what we have:

    Beosound Ouverture - BeoLink
    The Ouverture will still need to open its doors at least for cassettes, probably also for CDs. I assume it's both easy and reasonable to connect it via analog BeoLink. I have no experience at all with BeoLink though and don't have the overview how it's going to work. Could the TV's DVD player possibly be a better CD player than the Ouverture?

    Apple Airport Express - optical
    Music from the Macs is streamed via the Airport Express. I'd prefer to use its digital output since the quality of its digital to analog converter (DAC) is rather poor. Will there be a problem to connect Airport Express digitally to BV 7?

    Turntable - analog
    My dear analog turntable outputs analog sound via an RIAA phono stage. Can I hook it up and access it via Beo4? Will this occupy the only line input port there is?

    Turntable - 78 RPM
    Shellacks are discs too. I have a separate turntable for these.

    Some of these questions surely come from my total ignorance of BeoLink. Basically I want to hook up the equipment and be able to choose a sound source, preferrably via the Beo4. Then I want the front speakers (BL3) and the sub (BL2) to sound, the other speakers be quiet. Easy?

    Sigmund
     

     

  • 06-20-2007 9:29 AM In reply to

    • Alex
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    Re: Stereo sound input on BV 7

    Overture - Yes this will work just fine. Connect the two via ML, and you will have complete control over the Overture as if it's part of the BeoVision. I doubt the BV7's DVD player is better than the Overture's though. Maybe you could do a comparison for us? I haven't done anything like that.

    Airport Express/optical. No, this will not work. The BeoVision 7 does not take stereo PCM digital signals, kind of irritatingly. You could always use an external DAC with the Airport Express though, and connect that to one of the BV7's inputs.

    Turntable - Yes, you can do this. No, there are loads of line in ports, you could even use a scart input as an audio input. My suggestion would be to use the Overture's AUX input though, as you'll still be able to get this up over BeoLink.


    As for choosing a source, it'll be V.AUX, SAT or whatever for stuff connected to the TV, and CD to choose the overture's CD player, Tape to choose its tape player, and A.AUX to choose its AUX input. It'll all be selectable via the Beo4 though, don't worry. It's perfectly integrated.

    Speakers - do you mean, when watching TV you want sound from all speakers, and when listening to CD you want it to automatically switch to speaker 2? This can be done, however when listening to a source connected directly into the TV (instead of part of the overture) you'll need to choose speaker 2 manually (speaker 2 is when only the left and right hand speakers play, and a subwoofer if you have one). You'll be able to choose which speakers sound easily, via the remote control without having to fiddle with menus - don't worry.

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  • 06-20-2007 9:41 AM In reply to

    Re: Stereo sound input on BV 7

    Essentially you can do just what you want. However there are a couple of provisos.

    1 I would connect the record players to the Ouverture and then connect the Ouverture to the TV by Masterlink. You will obviously have to start the records manually - I don't remember a Datalink equipped 78 machine anyway! When you select the audio source on the Beo4, the front speakers and BL2 will work and not the rears or centre.

    2. No idea about the Airport - I would actually suggest using a wired connection from your computer and a Beoport as you can then control the music using your Beo4.

  • 06-21-2007 4:36 AM In reply to

    • Sigmund
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    Re: Stereo sound input on BV 7

    Thanks for the clarification - I think I start to get the overview.

    I'm a little puzzled about the optical connections, though. Airport Express outputs TOSLINK. (At least that's what I believe. As my world is still mosty analog I currently use its built-in DAC and get a line output.) The specs for BV 7 state about Digital Audio Inputs: "4 x coax phono". I don't have a clue what's behind "4 x coax phono", but it seems strange that these two can't communicate.

    Sigmund
     

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  • 06-21-2007 5:26 AM In reply to

    • Alex
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    Re: Stereo sound input on BV 7

    TOSLink is a fibre optic cable, and COAX is an electrical connection, and the converters are very cheap (mine was GBP30). However, the issue is not the connection - it's that the Airport Express outputs stereo audio through it's digital connection, which the BeoVision 7 will not accept - it can ONLY take 5.1 audio (surround sound). You could, however, use an external DAC instead of the Airport's built-in one or the BeoVision 7's (rather limited) one...

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  • 06-21-2007 5:44 AM In reply to

    • Sigmund
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    Re: Stereo sound input on BV 7

    Thank you Alex, that explains it perfectly well. So an external DAC could be the best solution anyway.

    It's interesting that you call BeoVision 7's DAC "rather limited". For the price of the box I wold assume the DAC to be excellent! Just to get an idea, how would you compare it to the Ouverture (or similar)?

    Comparing to the Ouverture would give me an idea about the quality increase of a good DAC. I only now that the Ouverture's DAC is far better than any mediocre CD-player, Mac or PC that has been connected so far.

    Sigmund
     

  • 06-21-2007 7:21 AM In reply to

    • Alex
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    Re: Stereo sound input on BV 7

    Obviously I can't compare directly, as the BeoVision 7 uses a DVD mechanism instead of a dedicated CD mechanism and hence the signal the DAC is going to be fed isn't going to be as great as in the Overture. However, this effect is very small, so I'm going to say the Overture's DAC is better than the BeoVision 7's, but not massively.

    When I say limited though, this is only in the sense that the signals it can decode are rather limited. In terms of sound, it betters most other AV processors (I can tell you this as my Rotel AV processor just sounds a bit dull in comparison - compared with BeoLab 3s on both setups, although not directly). 

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