Sandyb
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same from my listening experiences too – spent a fair bit of time flicking between 2 speaker groups : (A) Theatre with rear 28s (the triangle), and (B) Theatre, rear 28s, and front 18s (triangle plus front l/r)…..and while there is little doubt that the triangle on its own (A) is really really good, and will be plenty immersive for many modest living rooms, when it changed to (B) with the added front l/r’s, I did prefer the wider soundstage.
Adding the front 18s to the triangle was not a binary, black / white, night and day difference though, and hence I can see why B&O are suggesting the triangle (with 28s rears) as a more than enough immersive setup for many.
But for those a bit soundstage width sensitive (I’m in that camp), adding fronts does make an appreciable width improvement.
Thanks – and that pretty much fits what my dealer told me, and what others have said.
So, the official line is that it doesn’t work, but we know it does but just not with proper sync’ing. And not an issue of environmental delay – its a shame, as it used to work well enough in the previous generation of BV’s.
isn’t this going to be down just as much to looks / ease of placement than it is by sound?
The rears, even with the Theatre, are only going to be doing so much work a lot of the time.
One could very easily argue that both 18s and 9s as rears are already well into overkill territory as it is.
If it were me, I’d be much more driven by looks / ease of placement considerations. I’ll be using 17s as rears with my Theatre (and Bl50s fronts) setup.
Think this all comes down to how many 5ghz networks are in / around your space in question.
As Mike I think has said numerous times, lots of such congestion and WISA may be sketchy, very few of them and it seems all fine.
Thanks Simon, thats pretty reassuring.
Guessing I will be all good – my dealer generally tells me that it’s only really SKY Q (when involving multiple boxes and its mesh networking), that WISA can be a bit problematic. In my case, no mesh network, so hopefully ok.
I would just have my 17s hard wired Powerlink, but the PL cable (under the floor) to my BL3’s (being swapped for 17s) has somehow gone bad. The power connection is fine, so when the 3s go, the 17s will just have to work on WISA. Hopefully all will be fine.
are your 17s wired to WISA to your Theatre?
just checking how reliable or flaky the WISA 17S to Theatre connection is – as I will be going down that route.
oh no, and oh really?!
Part of my upcoming instal involves swapping my wired BL3s for BL17s to e used wirelessly (the hidden PL cable to my BL3 has gone bad).
I am assuming the 17s will work happily with the Theatre over WISA.
will be very unhappy if they dont.
bit concerned that the Theatre is having issues with BL17s connected wirelessly, as I am planning on doing exactly the same!
Do keep us posted if they start playing nice coin forward though.
And thanks for the write up.
There is very little difference in “ease of use” between the services.
If you’re really interested in Hi-Res / MQA quality, as opposed to just CD quality streams, then Tidal or Qobuz. (though to be honest, unless you have invested big money in BL50s/90s setup, I’d forget about HiRes music). Remember, Spotify dont do CD quality streams, the others do, including Apple Music.
Again, Spotify’s 320k streams are more than enough more many people.
With Spotify connect in so many products, B&O and other brands, why not just stick with Spotify?
To me this is a question that periodically gets asked, but there isn’t really a clear answer.
At least Deezer is integrated in the B&O app, and thats enough for many B&O users to stick with Deezer.
the guys in Selfridges only know so much though (I’ve been there a number of times, and much prefer my local dealer in Islington tbh). That aside, I wouldn’t expect the Mozart as surrounds functionality for 1 year at least.
B&O will spend much of the next few months ironing out the initial software kinks and glitches, and likely only then turn their attention to Mozart surround. I also dont think its a very simple task at all.
Wrapped up in all this is “BeoLink Multiroom”, the spec for more recent speakers – and I dont really understand the exact differences between that and the previous Network Link.
Given all the problems people seem to have with pairing Levels etc, or with wireless connectivity issues on BL28s, I’m very sceptical that B&O will get this Mozart surround issue sorted any time soon.
Its definitely far more capable on paper – though the Harmony is no slouch, and remember many of those who proclaim the power / capability of the Theatre (and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree) also said the Harmony (at launch time) was way more capable than the Eclipse and super impressive sound wise.
If I had a Harmony, and presumably part of that would be because I really liked / lived the design, then I very much doubt I’d be changing to a Theatre setup. A Harmony with decent surround speakers is already more than enough / very impressive for most living rooms.
The Theatre in my living room setup, with BL50s fronts and BL17s as rears is way way over the line of overkill. But B&O made something (not criticising) far more than just a centre speaker, which is really what I really only need. But it is what it is, and its time for me to move on from my 12-65 to OLEDs, and I’ll swallow the price of the Theatre – especially as I expect it to last long into the future.
Indeed, though thats not very surprising to me.
I imagine most Harmony owners will prefer the unified nature and movement of the more one piece Harmony, especially with its movement. And for all that the Theatre sound is a different animal to the Harmony, setup preferences / decisions are not just about sound alone.
The other factor I suspect dealers are reflecting is the “all app” control / setup / settings of the Theatre – there are no settings that can be brought up on the LG screen, and many have reflected that the setup / settings changing in the app is odd, flaky and not as intuitive as before.
So as upgrades go, the Theatre will clearly be a lot more compelling for those coming from older generation BV’s. I’m coming from a BV 12-65 and an Avant 55, so it’s a more obvious upgrade in my case. I have 2 Theatres coming in the next few weeks.
Some of my upgrade excites me – having a OLED screen etc, but some part makes me a bit sad. it will take me some time to get over the garish non-B&O UI on the TV, and secondly my wall mounted Theatre + G series LG will clearly not be Beovisions.
Oh well.
even the 55 Theatre has wings, though they’re very small / short, so many won’t see them as “wings” as such…..but even if you dont attach those very small / short pieces for the 55 inch version, the sides won’t be rounded.
You’re looking at it from a family situation perspective. For those with smaller households, or single person households like myself, its a much more obvious usage scenario.
And remember, it worked perfectly well (sync wise) before, so its not obvious what the issue now is. If there is a technical reason its likely in the Eclipse/Harmony/ Theatre – a BS2 cannot be in sync with those, but can be with a BV11, for example.
Anyway, its not a deal breaker for me, I can work around small sync issues. But that won’t be the case for all.
The one thing I would say is that we know they are working on allowing / making possible other standalone products as surround sound speakers i.e. with a Theatre.
As part of this. sync issues must be sorted by necessity.
What we dont know is whether older products (on the ASE platform – like BS1 / 2, A9, M3 etc etc) will gain this ability / benefit or whether its just the newer Mozart enabled speakers (Level, Balance etc).
I wouldn’t expect anything on this front for 9 months though.
Just been to my dealer to talk Theatre setup etc.
The option of expanding out the audio (from video sources) to other B&O speakers – lets say, A9 / BS1 / M3 etc etc) – works, with the Theatre as a starting viewing experience, but the joined speakers are not in sync. There is no option you can adjust the sync with either.
He is pretty confident that once Speaker Link (what effectively replaced Network Link for newer products) is built out – which I think it should – then yes, the streams should be in sync.
So a halfway house at the moment – and we tried (and got the same “yes, but out of sync” results) using (A) regular TV fed to the LG/Theatre using a aerial cable (B) Netflix internal to the LG and (C) and HDMI to the Theatre external source (XBOX)……all with the same result.
As I said before I think, the Eclipse generation BVs seemed to allow audio from video to be shared, but they were never brought into sync over time. All a bit different to the BS4 generation BVs (BV11 / 12 etc etc) where there was the clear option to “share audio from video” and they were all largely in sync.
Anyway, hope that helps. I guess if its a deal breaker for you, then you may want to wait for Speaker Link to be updated/ improved to bring things into line.
Thanks for that.
Yes, I already use a BR1 with my current BV’s, and pressing the Guide on the BR1 when watching SKY does indeed bring up the SKY planner/guide, as one would hope expect.
Sounds like that is indeed still the case with the Theatre setup, which is good news.
Not sure why my dealer told me otherwise.
Thanks for the write up, very informative.
Can I ask a quick question re controlling Sky Q. I am presuming you are using a PUC cable between the Theatre and the Q box to allow Beoremote 1 control.
When you have Sky Q selected as an input, and are watching, does the Guide button on the remote control actually bring up the Sky guide/planner? Or, as my dealer tells me, does pressing Guide actually pull up the internal tuner TV guide? and therefore, to access the Sky planner requires a few button presses (I think Home/Menu on the BR1 and then finding the guide function from a list of commands)
I ask as am thinking of moving to a Theatre setup, from an older BV12-65 setup – and in my current setup, if I am watching Sky pressing Guide on the BR1 works as it should, and brings up the Sky guide/planner.
What my dealer describes would seem like a backwards step integration wise, but am looking for someone to confirm.
Sorry for the question, but as someone with a Theatre and Sky, I was hoping to get some clarity.
Otherwise, congratulations on the set up.
Exciting stuff!
Just out of interest, what screen are you planning on using with your Theatre? And what is the mounting scenario / situation. (unless you are using a projector, I cant quite remember)
Yeah, that issue it seems can be overwritten once the profile is created from the mic calibration process. That said, its both highly bizarre and disappointing that the mic calibration (I was there when it was done) runs through its process ok, but then you’ll find (something like) a ceiling speaker allocated the centre front role, and so on and so on……all pretty basic stuff, so its puzzling why this is going wrong.
