ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
I'm relatively new to the B&O audio world by getting first exposed to the high fidelity found in my Audi S8, which I'm told leverages the B&O BeoLab 5 reference architecture.
This has finally prompted me to upgrade the audio in my living room. While the BeoLab 5 would be ideal it's a bit too pricey at this point.
Currently our living room has a Bose Acoustimass Cinemates (yes, I'm hearing the laughter from you!) which had been decent but no longer.
8000's have a timeless design and are a great value second hand and are priced about the same as a new S8. I also like the way the 8000's look much better than the BeoLab 3.
The plan is to get either one of these and connect them into our Samsung TV audio in 3.5mm jack to simplify TV volume up & down controls for the rest of the family. Seems like adding in a DAC might complicate things for folks in our household? As you can tell our audio needs are pretty straightforward. Everything pretty much drives off of our TV or off of Apple AirPlay/AirPort.
Currently I'm leaning towards the 8000's but then I have also seen some people complain about there not being enough bass which then leans me now a bit towards the S8's. My guess is that most everyone here will steer me towards an 8000 since the S8 is so new/entry level and it likely will be half the price a year from now?
Part of me considered the BeoLab 3's but then it also felt a little incomplete with out the BeoLab 2's and it doesn't look nearly as good as the 8000's. The one thing the S8 has in the looks department is that it feels directionally similar to the BeoLab 5, which is a good thing in my mind too especially if i eventually want to get that.
Would love to hear how folks would think through these possibilities with all your relevant experience.
Thanks,
Humphrey
"You think we can slap some oak on this thing?"
Hello and welcome to the forum
You have a dilemma of a good kind and they are 3 different speakers.
It seems that you would gain more from a subwoofer going from what you are saying and perhaps the S8 would be a better solution for you. You could also consider the BL14 with 5.1 especially if you're considering that subwoofer solution. I'm not laughing with the Bose, I actually think it's a good solution but the B&O is a better solution. I believe the Cinemate is 2.1, but if you had 5.1 then that would give you a lot more especially for movies. They are surprisingly excellent speakers for movies, etc . I loved them when i listened in store.
I have the Lab 3s and I think they are fantastic and once they are in your home they actually match so well with decor.
When using the 3.5mm jack for either Lab 3 or 8000s you want to make sure your TV actually controls the headphone volume with the remote... a lot of TV's don't actually do this. Yes the volume goes up and down but if it is the headphone jack you're referring to... just check that.
But don't go on my recommendation, trust you're own ears. Pop down to your local store and give em a listen :-)
Good luck.
I just researched the specifics to remind me what I currently have which is a Bose Cinemate 321 GS II which is a 2.1 channel setup (circa 2005) so I wouldn't be downgrading from a 5.1, I believe since it just has two satellite speakers also. While the Bose includes a standard DVD player we shifted over to the sony BluRay player a while back but nowadays physical media is very rarely utilized.
thanks Michael, i didn't even realize that there is a BL14 which is great to add to my radar. While the brochure installs all look so clean I'm guessing that they actually have a few wires for power and connectivity back to the subwoofer which means it looks great when done professionally but otherwise it doesn't.
Having a rear channel would be great but it's admittedly falling a bit into the nice to have zone unless it's wireless except for the power. So now the top two contenders are the S8 vs. the BeoLab 3's with a BeoLab 2.
I did verify that the 3.5mm jack going into my Samsung 8XXX flatscreen does actually go up & down via the remote too.
thanks,
BeoNut since '75
@humphreyc
In order to benefit from a 5.1 speaker system you would need some kind of multichannel/surround processor in your system.
Since you intend to use the headphone output on your tv, you don't even need to consider the BL14 set.
A BeoPlay S8 (2.1) would be a good and easy-to-install addition to you recent tv.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
thanks very much everyone! i've gone ahead and ordered my new S8, funny now I will have one in the driveway (the Audi S8) and one in the living room too and I shall move the Bose into my home office
Thanks again!
humphreyc:thanks very much everyone! i've gone ahead and ordered my new S8, funny now I will have one in the driveway (the Audi S8) and one in the living room too and I shall move the Bose into my home office Thanks again! Humphrey
Hi All,
I have a very similar setup to what you are after (Samsung UE65D8000) and the Beoplay S8, my intension when I purchased the S8 was to plug it directly into the TV via the headphone jack however when I tried I got a rather annoyed buzzing noise coming from the S8, this was using just the included audio adaptor to 3.5mm directly into the Samsung headphone slot.
Of course I wasn't going to leave it like this so a few days ago bought a Yamaha RXV-645 Amplifier thinking I could plug the stereo leads directing into the output of the amp and then hook all my peripherals up to the amp via HDMI (TV, Apple TV, PS4, Sky HD etc.) however I cannot get anything to come out of the S8 at all - I know everything is plug in correctly, there are hundreds of settings on the amp but I don't think any of them are precluding the sound coming through. Today I've gone out and bought a phono lead to plug in the phono port on the front of the amp, from here I've bought a lead from the B&O 3.5mm adaptor into this - nice again, I'm back to the buzzing noise when the S8 plays anything.
I know the S8 works fine because when I plug it into my Mac, iPhone or iPad it works perfectly - I would be very wary based on this, I've spent almost over £1500 so far and have got a system that doesn't work. I'd love to hear your experience and if anyone has any ideas or tips, I've spoken to people at B&O, Richer Sounds, Tandy, Maplin and no one seems to have the technical knowledge to be able to advise...
Thanks, Jack
Hi Jack, having recently setup my S8 successfully I am happy to assist you here
originally I had thought incorrectly that my samsung 8000 series TV had a variable audio output but I found out afterwards that Samsung is notorious for choosing to only have Fixed audio out options only which unfortunately has alienated the headphone jack connecting market segment for Samsung which with products like the S8 is only growing. Therein lays the crux of the issue for you since the S8 is optimized for headphone jack implementations
i happen to have two legacy amplifiers in my household, one an ADS CC4 and another a Sony, also a low profile one but unfortunately I'm not in front of it and don't have the model number handy. The key with both of these amplifiers is that they both have a headphone jack in the front of them. The ADS a large headphone jack while the Sony one has a 3.5mm jack. While the ADS amp is much much better than the Sony one, I ended up using the Sony one since very few of the cable TV universal remotes have the ADS remote control codes preloaded, which ended up being essential to keep things simple for our media controlling household (my wife especially). Multiple big remotes are not tolerated in our household (apple and Amazon fire are ok). My Verizon FIOS remote was no exception and hence the Sony one ended up working perfectly.
Ideally your Yamaha amp has a headphone jack in the front of it for you to plug the S8 into and if it doesn't you should then return / exchange it for one that does and that should get the buzz out of your system. I hope this is helpful, good luck!
Michael, i just saw this. i'll take a photo of the interim setup which i can only describe as a bit Mickey Mouse'ish which you'll see why, but so far I love the high clarity and detail with just the right amount of meaty clear low-end, which is exactly what i was hoping for. The eventual setup in our new home will end up looking much better but that's a few months away.