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I am very glad I ordered my Theatre early. My dealer told me that the gold Theatres would probably arrive in late November but I got mine shortly after the release. My theatre has 18’s up front and 17’s in the rear along with a 19. I couldn’t be more happy with the sound of the entire system. I have a Beogram 8002 connected and it has been a joy to listen to vinyl with it. I haven’t experienced any real problems with it, it seems to switch sources seamlessly. When I watch tv it is only with the Theatre, so when I want to listen to music via AppleTV or watch a 4k blu-ray movie, both of which are connected to the tv, I have to switch the listening position to the full system. Every other source uses the entire system. That’s typically my only interaction with the Theatre not counting volume control. I am not a complicated user so for me it’s been perfect.
I didn’t even think that my 4K players have DTS! I bought a Panasonic 4k player out of fear that when my Oppo 203 dies, there wouldn’t be any good players left.
Since some of the BeoVisions support DTS, is it really a licensing issue for the Theatre?
What’s interesting is that the Harmony and Eclipse supports DTS but the Contour does not. DTS is not that big of a deal for me since I have an LG G2 that does not support DTS, but it would be nice to have it on the Theatre. I could plug the device directly into the Theatre which is a really nice option.
Sadly, the cable I was waiting on did not arrive on time for the Beogram so I ended up buying some cheapo stuff from Amazon. The Line-in volume is significanlty lower than streamed music, I have the volume way past 50. It sounds alright but I little muddy to my ears.
I have a Beogram 8002 connected to a SoundSmith phono preamp connected to the Theatre with the USB adapter from Sounds Heavenly. I have no complaints at all with the sound, it sounds fantastic and at the proper volume. The only issue I “might” have is once I was playing a record and it suddenly became silent. I think what happened is the Theatre changed sources, possibly on it’s own. I didn’t do the proper troubleshooting steps (because of panic) to determine if this was the case, I just restarted the Theatre and all was well again.
I had the migration option on my Beosound 2 and dismissed it. I would like to go back and migrate to B&O Radio but I no longer see the option to migrate. Is there a way to migrate now?
What I did was I visited the web site of the internet radio stations that were not on B&O Radio, in my case j-popprojectradio.com. They had a tab “Listen” which had all the ways you could listen to their stations including streaming URLs. On the B&O website I used their Contact Us option in Support and told them my request to see if they could add a couple of stations. I provided the name of the stations, J-PopProjectRadio and J-IdolsProjectRadio, the streaming URLs from the website, the website URL, and location information where the channels originated them. I tried to provide as much information to B&O as I could that was available, so they could do whatever rights research they needed to do. I can’t say how long it took to have them added to B&O Radio because I didn’t have a system on the Mozart platform at the time, but I don’t think it took too long. I believe they also added a similar station for me as a bonus, Kawaii Music – laut.fm, as I don’t remember it being there before.
I hope this helps and good luck!
I have the Theatre with the 18’s up front and a 19.
My impressions between listening to just the Theatre and all 5 external speakers:
With the Theatre and treble and bass set to 0.
Theatre only: Bass was more apparent and the treble was slightly diminished when compared to the 18’s and 19. The sound for me was more pleasant with the 18’s and 19.
I then took Steve’s original suggestion and set the Theatre: Bass -1, Treble +1
On my system this removed pretty much all the difference between the Theatre and the Theatre with the 18’s and 19. Both options now have a similar sound and both pleasant. But I listen to more music than movies. The movie I did watch was Top Gun Maverick and switching between the 2 listening positions wasn’t very noticable.
I hope this helps!
Edit: I’m still glad I bought the BL 19 though!
Before my channels were on B&O Radio, I listened to them on TuneIn which was fine because all of my B&O at the time had TuneIn. There were a times when I would turn on the station and here a message that the radio station couldn’t be streamed to my area. It turns out there was a dispute between record labels and the station that had to be sorted out, which somehow included my country. Things were worked out and everything has been fine for a long time, but be mindful that B&O will have to consider rights issues that affect countries differently.
When I made the request to B&O I included the URL’s to the stations and other information I could get about location and web site information. I assume that B&O will have to contact them to find out if it is ok for them to include their channel in B&O radio.
It is my understanding the only way to update the software of the Beolab 17 is with the wireless transmitter? It would be nice if you could do it through the Theatre.
Do you know what setting that is? When I use the app to control my Beosound 2, go to Radio and select the B&O Radio tab, and then a B&O Radio station I get:
Action not supported by the selected product.
I did not adjust the bass and treble on the Theatre but I did turn loudness off. With this setting the addition of the 18’s and 19 in the front are much more noticable, and pleasing.
My speakers are now all wired to the Theatre and I feel like I can now give it a serious listen.
I like it… a lot!
While I said before, the Theatre sounds fine on it’s own, the addition of the 18’s and 19 up front improves the bass and treble and gives it a more enveloping 3 dimensional feel to it. I watched the first hour of Top Gun Maverick from the 4K blu-ray and it sounds fantastic! While I did not notice the rear 17’s activity on their own I did feel like I was in the center of it all. Dialog was crisp and clear as was everything else. I stopped the movie short because it was getting late and I wanted to move on to some music.
It was a little problematic going from TV to Airplay. While my iPad showed that the song was being Airplayed to the Theatre no sound was coming out. I had to reboot the Theatre in order to Airplay to it. This is not the first time this happened, switching sources on its own can be an issue. I really wish you could change the source on the B&O app. I know Airplay is a different beast but I shouldn’t have to reboot between sources. I can change the source easily on the Halo and I had to do so many times.
All the music I played sounded wonderful. The system provides a beautiful soundstage with the 18’s. The bass is strong but not overpowering and the treble is nice and crisp. It will be a joy to listen to music! I can hardly wait until I get my usb adapter from Steve so I can listen to some records. Tomorrow maybe?
I fretted a little in purchasing the 18’s and 19 over the BL28. My reasoning was since they are being used with the Theatre I didn’t need another very complex system, and that I might be better served in the long-term with basic speakers that don’t need software updates and there are no moving parts! I also prefer the looks of the BL 18’s. It turned out to be a good decision as I really like the 18’s and 19.
There are still bumps in the road with the software especially when changing sources I hope are worked out quickly. I also had to calibrate my speakers twice with a reboot in between because something didn’t go right the first time and without the reboot there was no sound when doing the calibration.
Now for the BIG job of doing cable management and cleaning up the cable mess.
Do the 18’s up front widen the width of the soundstage?
Yes they do. Now I don’t have them that far from the Theatre, probably about 18″ away, but it does improve the soundstage, and along with the BL 19 I think the bass is more pleasing. The bass is definately noticable coming from the Theatre alone, but I think it blends better and not so noticable with the 19’s. All settings are from the calibration.
Edit: Loudness on the Theatre is turned off.
I have two listening positions, one with just the Theatre and the other with all 5 connected speakers. While listening to music I have been switching between the 2 positions. There is a 2 to 3 second gap when selecting the new position, but I prefer the sound with the 18’s acting as front left and right. It “feels” slightly more bassy with just the Theatre. Not a huge difference, but just a subtle difference as it feels more open with the 18’s, which would make sense. Once the music is playing just on the Theatre after a little while I forget which position it is in and does sound very pleasing. I am glad I have the 18’s up front though!
Tunein had some internet radio stations that I listen to that B&O Radio didn’t initially have. I made a request to B&O to see if they could add them and they did shortly after.
I guess I am not one of the lucky ones that can use my BL 17’s wirelessly. My test started out well and they played for about an hour, then I had to go somewhere. When I got back they played for about 10 seconds and then shutdown. The BL18’s are more stable wirelessly but not 100%. It’s dissapointing that I can’t benefit from the wireless features of the Theatre.
