BeoCom 1401
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Just to add here, as a 17 owner, I found the Node to be a vastly superior product to the Core. I don’t own it anymore (have a Theatre now) but I sold my Core for a Node and never missed the Core for a second. The Node has eARC HDMI that works flawlessly, supports way more streaming services, and costs far less. I also had no issues powering my 17s using the RCA outs. I know this merely one person’s anecdotal experience, but I felt compelled to share. Good luck.
I may be one of the few people who can answer this with significant experience. I owned a stereo pair of the Balance and sold them. Now I own a pair of 17s.
The Balance were great speakers, but I never loved the way they looked. That’s a personal preference thing, and shouldn’t affect anyone else’s decision. I had the natural oak/gold tone and I just never fell for them. Gold isn’t my thing, which was a significant factor. If the silver aluminum that’s available now were available back then I might still have Balances.
But the bigger reason I sold them was a lack of reliability. Stereo pairing, when Mozart first enabled it, was buggy. They consistently lost connection with each other and I was forced to factory reset them over and over again. They may have fixed this by now, but between the bugs and the design, it was an easy decision for me to move to the 17s when I was able to score a pair for a great price.
Some people find the 17s design to be bland by B&O standards, but I am not one of those people. I love the way the 17s look, and I love the way they sound even more. They are shockingly capable for their size, and really shouldn’t be compared to any other Beolab, as they’re quite unique in the range. No other Beolab bookshelf has a 6.5″ driver, and (more importantly) no other Beolab bookshelf was designed under Geoff Martin, who I think we all regard as a genius.
The Balance is known for having excellent bass, and it does. It produces a ton of bass from the 5.25″ woofers. But in my opinion the 17 produces better, more controlled bass. The Balance is probably the more bass heavy speaker overall, but I prefer the sound of the low end from the 17. Honestly, I prefer the sound of the 17 throughout the range. While the mid range is comparable between the two, the highs sound far more precise from the 17s. The Balance does win on scale and soundstage. They sound huge and wide, which makes sense given their omnidirectional design. But that comes at the cost of precision.
The best way I can describe the difference is that the 17s sound like incredible stereo speakers and the Balances sound like speakers from the future, which haven’t quite been perfected yet. I think the tech in the Balance will continue to evolve in future generations and create wonderful things for a long time. But in the here and now, I’ll take the 17s 10/10 times.
One last thought – if I were going to use them as front L/R with a Theatre, I might consider the Balance in that situation, as the Theatre will handle the center channel precision, placing vocals exactly where they should be, and allowing the Balances to provide a very wide soundstage. Perhaps that will be my future, and I’ll move the 17s to rear channels. But since the Theatre doesn’t yet support Mozart, that’s something to consider down the road.
Hope this helps.
I’m not 100% sold on the aesthetics, but this is the most exciting new product from B&O… maybe ever. The ability to build a proper atmos system with speakers going back 20+ years and add any TV you want – that’s not a game changer, that’s the whole ballgame.
This is what I’ve been waiting for. Now they just need to make some better color options. I definitely need to see the smoked oak in better images.
I think they have to build it. If they continue to force their customers to buy their insanely overpriced TVs in order to fashion a proper home theater system with B&O speakers it will kill the brand.
The best move B&O could make would be to get out of the TV business entirely and sell center channel options based on the Stage, Eclipse, and Harmony. Let us buy any display we want, and put B&O speakers on it.
Thanks for linking to that. I’m a bit sad to be giving up the B&O ecosystem with the switch to the Node, but honestly, Bluesound’s app is much, much better. The sheer number of supported music services is vast, and I might end up making the switch from Deezer to Tidal. My car has Tidal built in, but not Deezer, so that’s a nice perk.
Also, Bluesound makes it really, really easy to add a sub, unlike B&O. They really want you buying their TVs, and I will never do that. Their TVs are the absolute worst value of anything they make. I have a 77″ Sony OLED and I don’t want to sacrifice quality with the switch to LG (I know the panels are the same, but Sony still improves the image) and pay 80% more in the process. I’m sure the center channel performance in the Harmony is amazing, but it’s not $15K amazing. Phantom center with the Node and my 17s sounds great.
Thanks for the reply. I spent a lot of time today going back and forth between the Core and the Node. My findings are that I can’t tell a difference. I listened to the same track back to back with both devices, and if there is magic with the Core, I can’t find it.
What it really comes down to is that these speakers are far more room dependent than I thought. In a small space they deliver prodigious bass, but in a larger room they really struggle to fill the low end. It’s understandable given their small size, but it was jarring given what I was used to hearing from them in the past. I’ll need to add a sub to my setup, but that’s OK.
I’m still in love with these speakers. Bravo again to Geoff and his team; they are remarkable. They just need a sub when your room approaches 500 square feet.
There is definitely a problem because I’m getting significant ground hum, to the point where I don’t want to use the table as is. I also don’t like the idea of having inferior cables on this table that are not original. If they’re not original they should be better, not worse.
I personally will not do the soldering, but I have a local shop that does B&O repair (one of the only such places in the US). I’m in Los Angeles, so perks of living in a big city. I’m not sure what they would charge for such a thing.
Potentially I can have someone do it for me for free, just depends on how big of a job it is.
Big question is this – where do I acquire a cable to replace this one with, DIN or no DIN? I asked Steve at Sounds Heavenly and he doesn’t offer one.
Any ideas?
Thanks again.
Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling this had been altered. I plan to replace the current wire as it’s extremely low quality.
Any ideas of where to get an original cable, or a modern substitute?
This is someone else’s table with a DIN coming out of the back. I didn’t take the photo, I grabbed it from Craigslist. I’ll put a picture of mine next.
I’m curious about this topic as well. I just purchased a 4002 in pristine condition and I love it, but I’d be interested in getting a 2nd unit, maybe one that’s not in as great of shape, and sending it to B&O using this program. Has anyone on the forum purchased the Upgrade Kit?
