Lack of user diagnostics an issue for BL90

My car lets you know when it has developed a fault and needs attention with a variety of warning lights requesting a trip to the garage for further diagnostics. The Beolab 90 is the most complicated and advanced speaker ever made with 36 drivers, amps, DSP etc. Recent talk of failed drivers or problems with internal wiring only discovered after careful listening to the simpler B&O speakers from an incomplete soundscape. With 18 drivers per speaker how would you ever know which one had failed or was performing under par? You might notice once a handful failed. Shouldn't the BL90 and any smaller version have a simple way of checking that it's firing on all cylinders (drivers) and is as fresh as the day it left the factory? Perhaps a plug in microphone on a cable or automated sounds playing in a designated order or an iPhone app accessing your phones microphone.

BeoTool already gives a number of diagnostic feedback on the BL90

However, this is mostly related to software applications.

Its also great in that you can hear the little fat man inside each unit flick the circuit breaker on or off. (All the skinny people are in the Avants)

I would also expect that you will quickly hear the difference as well. Remember when I had noticed the BL5's not as bright as they should be. Pumped some test tones through each speaker and found the upper treble response on one side not as loud as the other. Replaced the driver.

Repeated this and ended up replacing the other upper treble as the "image" pulled more to the stronger, newer side.

seethroughyou:

My car lets you know when it has developed a fault and needs attention with a variety of warning lights requesting a trip to the garage for further diagnostics. The Beolab 90 is the most complicated and advanced speaker ever made with 36 drivers, amps, DSP etc. Recent talk of failed drivers or problems with internal wiring only discovered after careful listening to the simpler B&O speakers from an incomplete soundscape. With 18 drivers per speaker how would you ever know which one had failed or was performing under par? You might notice once a handful failed. Shouldn't the BL90 and any smaller version have a simple way of checking that it's firing on all cylinders (drivers) and is as fresh as the day it left the factory? Perhaps a plug in microphone on a cable or automated sounds playing in a designated order or an iPhone app accessing your phones microphone.

your car isn't a beolab 90. It's supposed to be served by mechanics on the road easily and quick. It's expensive to serve and a car can easily get damaged in many ways. That's why the multi billion industry has a bus system for diagnostics in them.

However the Bl90 is also not stupid. I'm sure it can be diagnosed to some extent directly by service personnel. Using microphones to diagnose is a no go since many faults can be the reason for audible issues.

May I ask, how did you come up with the fact beolab 90 isn't possible to diagnose?

I am aware of the fact the BL90 can be diagnosable but my point was how would you know as a user if it had developed a fault and needed a service visit.

With 3 drivers it's easy to hear a faulty driver but with 18 one would imagine it's quite hard.

Hi,

Could you please include more information about the discussions regarding the problems  you're talking about?

I have heard of some persons being slightly confused about the different roles of the drivers in the different modes in BeoLab 90. The normal behaviour of the loudspeaker can be mistaken for incorrect operation in some cases. However, it would be an incorrect conclusion...

So, I'd like to find out the details of exactly what you're describing - in case it's easily explainable...

Thanks,

-geoff

I bet that the Beolab 90 is servicable by B&O tools with ease. It has a reason that B&O tools are used.

An iPhone App for that? That would be a dumb decision as you don't want to rely your diagnostic tools on a disposable gimmick like an iPhone as the life span of the Beolab 90 should be measured in years or even decades (like all the old good stuff from B&O).

I don't know how the Beolab 90 reacts if there are technical problems. An easy indicator would be a color changing logo on the front and auto shut down if there's a failure. If the logo on the front changes to red you would imediately know that s.th. is wrong.

Otherwise: The normal user shouldn't play doctor on electronics. That should be left to the professionals like Geoff and his stuff as they 110% know what they do.

True TWG and also BL90 has several drivers to compensate/adjust for/to your rooms specifik "signature". If you notice that something is lacking or sounds weird it wouldn't necessarily be harder to realise than on any other speakers. Not all of the drivers are necessarily used in all situations either.

I can't say for sure how BL90 works but a BL9 (as I have) will go orange when a failure is detected inside the chassis. And, if I would notice a lack of sound, I would have someone look at the speakers too. Some issues won't be possible for the speaker itself to detect (just like you wouldn't necessarily notice that you have caught a flu or whatever).  

Man, this takes me back to the whole concept of Built In Test (BIT) in my design days. Usually you implement it with a first level of BIT that basically tells the user there's an issue (the orange light on a BL9 for example). The second level is designed to track the failure mode to the smallest line replaceable unit (LRU), a particular assembly or board. I'd expect the BeoTool to be used to tell service folks what board or module needs replacing. Then usually a test tool or jig is used at the depot level or manufacturer level shop to tell what in the board or module failed and what to repair at the lowest level.

The thing that always got us was the requirement for BIT, that it detect 95 or 98% of failures and identify 90 or 95 % o them to the exact LRUs involved. Figuring out how to do that was always a bear.