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 recently moved into a home that appears to have an MCL Beolink system installed. Throughout various rooms in the house, I see about 4-6 panels like the one pictured at this link:
http://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=974
Based on the reading I have done, I understand that these are MCL transceivers.
In the living room, there are also cables coming out of the wall. There is a pair of two-pin DINs that are connected to speakers in the living room. There is also a pair of three-pin DINs, which I believe make up the MCL cable that runs to each linked room.
There is no other visible B&O equipment in the house, and I own none. With that background, here are my questions:
1) What is the best, most cost-effective way for me to hook up non-B&O stereo equipment (which uses RCA plugs and/or 3.5 mm stereo mini-plugs) to the existing Beolink system? I believe that the Beolink system was probably installed in the late 1980s. Based on that timeline, it seems that the Beolink system was probably originally connected to a Beomaster 5500 receiver.
1a) Do I need to acquire a Beomaster 5500 and then run a signal from my existing equipment into the auxiliary port of the 5500? Would I need any adapters to do this, again keeping in mind that my existing equipment uses RCA plugs and/or stereo mini-plugs? I don't think a acquiring a Beomaster 5500 would be ideal for me because I would prefer to use equipment that is a little more current, if possible.
1b) As I don't really plan on acquiring other B&O equipment to plug into a 5500 receiver, would it be cheaper to acquire an ML/MCL converter box instead? My plan would be to plug the three-pin DINs from the Beolink system into the ML/MCL converter. Then I would get an RCA adapter to plug in my audio source at the powerlink connector on the converter box. Would this work?
Are there any other alternatives that besides 1a and 1b?
2) How can I tell if the visible MCL transceivers installed in the various linked rooms are connected to MCL 2A relay boxes or MCL 2AV relay boxes? I don't see any relay boxes at all. I assume they are mounted inside the walls?
3) Assuming that I can get the Beolink system up and running, do I need any kind of remote control to operate the transceivers that are located throughout the house? I don't know how to tell if the transceivers can be operated by remote or not. If I need a remote, which one exactly do I need?
4) The only buttons available on the transceivers are "mute" and "timer." Is there any way to be able to adjust the volume independently in each linked room? My understanding is that this would depend on whether I have MCL 2A or MCL 2AV relay boxes, but, again, I don't know how to tell.
In summary, I would like the most cost-effective way be able to enjoy the installed Beolink system using my existing non-B&O audio devices. Ideally, I would like to be able to adjust volume independently in each room.
Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer. I am a complete newb when it comes to stereo systems in general, and especially B&O systems.