Beolab 5 - advice for purchase of used pair needed

Hi all,

I am contemplating buying a pair of BL5's. Currently I'm using BL9's as my main speakers hooked to a BV10 and masterlinked with a BS3200 and a couple of BL speakers and BL passive amplifiers throughout the house. 

What should I watch out for when buying the BL5's? Any SW versions to be avoided or favoured? Will the BL cables used with the BL9's work with the BL5's, too? I currently stream music via a Hifiberry as a V.AUX input to the BV10 - that way streamed music is available on ML and can be listened to from everywhere in the house. I suppose this should work fine with the BL5's, right?

Any tipps, hints or piece of advice highly appreciated.

thanks

Torsten

Hi tb59427,

There have been some good recent threads about buying these speakers second hand. I also would love to own a pair one day :-). Have a look here: https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/44985.aspx?PageIndex=2 (check Lee's youtube video) and here https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/42322.aspx?PageIndex=5.

Steve at Sounds Heavenly made a good overview of the PowerLink cables you would need: http://www.soundsheavenly.com/faq/guide-various-types-powerlink-cable-bang-olufsen-use/ - you would need Mk2 cables, where you might currently have Mk3 for your 9s. You can also feed the BL5s with a digital spdif signal, but try and find a manual: I think you will need an extra minijack cable between the speakers to synchronize the volume then.

When you will connect the 5s with PL to the BV10, I cannot see that your MasterLink V.AUX distribution of the streamed music will be affected.

I trust some BL5 owners will help you out here, once you bought a pair.

Let us know what you will do! (+ photos :-))

Johan

I used a pair of 9s in an average sized living room and really liked them. They were the first pair of speakers I guess a novice like me would call professional. I replaced them with some 5s and didn’t really appreciate a big difference in quality to be honest.

I’m sure in a big room where they could have been played louder I’d have appreciated the difference in available power etc, but in hindsight I should have kept the 9s. Each to their own bu5 if you don’t have too much space, worth thinking about.