[Ur25V]

My setup will be multichannel, i.e. at least 4.0. This is for several reasons.

1 I have multichannel hires audio material for instance from 2L. It is simply beautiful.

2 I prefer to play even stereo material in multichannel. For me it simply opens up the room much more. Typical track to explore this is the track Zapateado by Pepe Romero from the cd This is K2 HD sound!

3 I want to play video (Amazon prime/Netflix, Blu-ray etc.) and use the Beolabs for the audiopart. Obviously, that needs to be in multichannel.

 

So the audio part of the hometheater needs to be able to handle input from a tv or setup box (preferably over HDMI eARC as Toslink is limited), from the Roon core (preferably over ethernet, I,.e. RJ-45) and from a Blu-Ray player (HDMI).

 

For a system in this price range, use should be simple both for me and the less nerdy people in my house. Also, it should support all the highres audio streams that a simple 200 Euro set-top box or 2000 Euro tv can output.

I will do a complete overhaul of the system, so replace all equipment and speakers. Important are flexibility for the future (a Beolab powered system is not exactly cheap 😉 and support for the above use cases. Absolutely stunning audio performance and looks don’t require mentioning ;).

So USB might work. Hopefully that is an asynchronous USB-solution then. Would this support multichannel high-res? Again the question on how to daisy-chain or input the audio to 2 sets of speakers is on the table.

The current NUC has HDMI, USB (including USB-C) and ethernet connections. Not sure if all those are active/supported by Roon Rock (which is what I run on the NUC: it is completely dedicated to Roon).

 

So much hoping that there is a good and simple solution because the Beolabs look stunning.

[Ur25V]

I have more or less the same question. My point of view is that one of the attractive sides of B&O is that it is simple to use and only few devices and a minimum of cables is needed next to the absolutely beautiful design.

I am rather hooked up on Roon because of the ease of use to select tracks/albums as well as the extreme quality. Additionally, I like to have the option for MQA.

Having to fiddle around with a DIY Raspberry pi feels like taking away much of the high end luxury experience. Integration would be much more preferred.

Also, this would be rather complicated:

I am considering Beolab 28 or 50 speakers in a 4.0 or 4.1 configuration (so 4x the active).

I do not necessarily have a B&O TV: don’t have it yet.

Can someone confirm if it would even work for multichannel? When using a S/PDIF input on a master Beolab, there is only 1 digital power link output. I am not sure if the save can be daisy chained to a further set to have a fully digital audio distribution to each Beolab.

By the way, I found that Airplay is audibly less than having a HDMI connection between my Roon core (NUC) and streamer. (I can’t test this for Airplay 2). Similarly, playing the same albums/tracks from Qobuz in 44.1/16 bit or any higher res (for instance 44.1/24 or 96/24) is audibly different (this is when playing over the HDMI connection from the NUC). So, I very much want a solution that supports high res multichannel.

Is there any info on B&O coming with some kind of central device that can distribute the digital info per channel via Digital Power Link to a multichannel setup?

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