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
Hi all,
In week 20 we can expect the update for the A9 2nd Gen and the Moment to include Multiroom support. There has been talk about a 2nd Gen BeoSound Essence too. Any news on availability/pricing/other updates apart from the Multiroom-function?
I expect that we will see an Essence 2nd Gen - but can't confirm it.
It would be a logical step after the A9 has been upgraded to 2nd Gen - and the Essence Remote works on the new A9.
If it will be available from week 20? You never know
There is a tv - and there is a BV
The Essence 2nd gen is coming early this summer. There will be an add-on device for 1st gen to make it multi-room capable, but I have heard a rumor that 1st gen owners that buy a Moment will be offered a free trade-up to the 2nd gen - but not confirmed.
Roger
Thanks Roger.
You are the man - as always
MM
Roger:The Essence 2nd gen is coming early this summer. There will be an add-on device for 1st gen to make it multi-room capable, but I have heard a rumor that 1st gen owners that buy a Moment will be offered a free trade-up to the 2nd gen - but not confirmed. Roger
BeoNut since '75
Would be cool if Essence MkII brings WISA capability. Just sayin'. :)
AnalogPlanet: Would be cool if Essence MkII brings WISA capability. Just sayin'. :)
I'd expect that!
elephant:@Roger I guess in practical and economic sense a separate black box makes better sense than chip upgrades or buyback programs.
I guess in practical and economic sense a separate black box makes better sense than chip upgrades or buyback programs.
If you can connect a 'black box' to the Essence in order to make it multiroom compatible, it should be possible to connect a 'black box' to other not-mutiroom components too - shouldn't it
My first thought was to the Playmaker - would be nice, eh!
But then again - what does this 'black box' do, how would it work???
Millemissen: AnalogPlanet: Would be cool if Essence MkII brings WISA capability. Just sayin'. :) I'd expect that!
If they are slowly abandoning AirPlay (as they seem doing on other devices) it could well be possible.
Beoworld app with direct photo upload and emoticons.
...ummm, (I forgot, Santa) please add 802.11n and Deezer support via BeoMusic app. :D
PhilLondon: Millemissen: AnalogPlanet: Would be cool if Essence MkII brings WISA capability. Just sayin'. :) I'd expect that! If they are slowly abandoning AirPlay (as they seem doing on other devices) it could well be possible.
I don't see the connection!
Why should they abandon AirPlay because of the wireless (WiSA) connection of the speakers?
Good point MM, but I am still somehow scared this might happen (I would regret it a bit, personally).
PhilLondon:If they are slowly abandoning AirPlay (as they seem doing on other devices) it could well be possible. Beoworld app with direct photo upload and emoticons. Other apps: The Story Mouse . Grignan guide .
Millemissen:I don't see the connection! Why should they abandon AirPlay because of the wireless (WiSA) connection of the speakers? MM There is a tv - and there is a BV.
vlohjr1: I think Apple doesn't like wisa which is a no bad thing I would prefer wisa anyday
I think Apple doesn't like wisa which is a no bad thing I would prefer wisa anyday
Airplay is a streaming protocol for audio and video in a home network.
WiSA is a wireless audio transfer protocol from a sender (in or connected to a tv, audio system...) to a speaker (or rather to the receiver in the speaker or connected to the speaker).
There is no reason for Apple not to like WiSA - AirPlay and WiSA are two different technologies for different purposes.
mawheele:Only the Beolit 15 so far right. Lots of misunderstanding on AirPlay on this forum and wrongly blaming of performance due to poor OEM selection of wifi controllers.
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
Chris Townsend:My new Beolit 15 has never dropped its signal.
We started recommending customers to have less than 8 meters between the airplay product and the router, and less than that if (dry) walls are obstructing the signal - not to mention concrete walls. Most had to buy two additional AirPort Express devices set up as range extenders to have reliable coverage at home.
This sorted out most of the issues for most of customers... but AirPlay remains a challenge for quite a few people.
For me airplay has been just great easy setup and good sound, bluetooth however is an headache with direct lock on handshake to one reciever of the stream. Take many users and cases i guess.
Roger:We started recommending customers to have less than 8 meters between the airplay product and the router, and less than that if (dry) walls are obstructing the signal - not to mention concrete walls. Most had to buy two additional AirPort Express devices set up as range extenders to have reliable coverage at home. This sorted out most of the issues for most of customers... but AirPlay remains a challenge for quite a few people. Roger
Aussie Michael:I havent had any issues with my BL12 but i prefer the Bluetooth because if i want to use it in a spot where there is no network, BT is much easier. There is also direct connection too but i dont want to connect it as it drains the battery by charging the device.
That I do not understand. How do you connect via Bluetooth without network?
I guess you meant without WiFi network? If so, why is Bluetooth easier than WiFi? At least WiFi you can easily extend (I currently use half a dozen WiFi transmitters at our place, connected to each other by – believe it or not – ethernet cables) for having the Internet everywhere, so that AirPlay etc. are even working in the garden. However, Bluetooth as a comparison works just around the computer. There seem to exist Bluetooth extenders but I never had the ambition to support or extend more wireless protocols at my home than absolutely necessary.
Bluetooth streaming is nice, but no substitute for in-house streaming technologies like AirPlay and Google Cast - and the SQ is due to low bandwith much lower.
The biggest advantage is, that no wireless network is needed.
This makes it very usefull for mobile use cases (cars, garden, adhoc connections, lowcost audio equipment, compressed audio files...).
Aussie Michael:I love my BL12 but I like the connectivity of the A2 better, so perhaps its time to change to the BL15 (or the 90 edition A9) lol
David Andel:That I do not understand. How do you connect via Bluetooth without network? I guess you meant without WiFi network ? If so, why is Bluetooth easier than WiFi? At least WiFi you can easily extend (I currently use half a dozen WiFi transmitters at our place, connected to each other by – believe it or not – ethernet cables) for having the Internet everywhere, so that AirPlay etc. are even working in the garden. However, Bluetooth as a comparison works just around the computer. There seem to exist Bluetooth extenders but I never had the ambition to support or extend more wireless protocols at my home than absolutely necessary.
Chris Townsend:There is no misunderstanding on my part, or armies of people complaining about the Beolit 12 and in my case the A9 too. I changed my router, and my dealer generously came and analysed my network. Still constant drop outs. My new Beolit 15 has never dropped its signal. Beovision 7-55 Mk2, Beovision 8-32, Avant RF 28, Beolab 8000, Beolit 12, Beoplay A2, Beocom 2, Beotime, H6, Form 2.
elephant:Out of interest @David which wifi extenders are you using ?
None as a matter of fact. Every base station is working independently but emitting the exact same wireless network data and connected to the same switch (well two actually as there are two separate floors involved). I was suffering under wireless network troubles since around the Millennium and finally came to the conclusion that wiring the base stations to a switch would be the best approach. So forget about wirelessly extending your network (you might do what you want of course, but for me that’s finished business) – at least in my case it never worked as expected. I hate everything wireless as it’s usually not more than a nice theory working well in a very limited scenario (one emitter, one client, one room etc.)
Well, just try as I did, but you mileage may vary (and please stay nice if it doesn’t). Connect your base stations (I use Apple as well as AVM equipment) to one or more switches (managed or not) within the same network. Let them transmit under the same wireless network name and the same password – you might, however, use different channels per base (and let them keep their proper IP addresses etc. of course). Here at our place this works perfectly well, including the handover from one station to another during Facetime video calls. I’m using Bluetooth only for keyboards, mice and trackpads and it already ceases to function conveniently after 2,5-3 meters, version 4.0 included.
Millemissen:Bluetooth streaming is nice, but no substitute for in-house streaming technologies like AirPlay and Google Cast - and the SQ is due to low bandwith much lower. The biggest advantage is, that no wireless network is needed. This makes it very usefull for mobile use cases (cars, garden, adhoc connections, lowcost audio equipment, compressed audio files...). MM There is a tv - and there is a BV.
I'm no expert on this but it does say "CD-like quality", not "CD quality". I suspect some cheeky use of language here.
Chris Townsend: This is not true. The new Bluetooth aptX which the A9 can receive is as good as CD quality. http://www.aptx.com/howitworks2
This is not true. The new Bluetooth aptX which the A9 can receive is as good as CD quality.
http://www.aptx.com/howitworks2
There are some pretty smart people in the marketing department of CSR.(the company behind aptX), who have managed to give people the impression, that their codecs (aptX) gives you almost, near, like....CD-quality.
A quick look at the CSR homepage however reveals the facts:
And that is about all we can expect from streaming audio with the bluetooth 4.0 standart.
We see, that they talk about the audio format as being 'CD-Quality.
But this is even true about a 96 kpbs MP3 stream, if the source was a CD - they are both 16/44.1 then.
It is the bitrate, that matters!!!
CD-quality bitrate is 1411 (which is 4 times the aptX codecs).
As you would know 256 kbps can be comparable with the streams of Spotify and WiMP/Tidal (in the Premium versions).
How good the aptX codecs works is hard to test - I guess a MP3 stream with the same bitrate would offer pretty much the same quality.
Whether the convertion from one codecs (MP3/OGG) to another (aptX) is wise, I am not sure.
The guys from CSR surely have been very good at promoting their solution as the best.
elephant:Thank you @David that was most informative. I naively thought that if you wanted seamless jumping then they would need to know about one another.
I naively thought that if you wanted seamless jumping then they would need to know about one another.
The wired network behind is still the same. The usual problem is that you cannot successfully extend a network wirelessly when the station to extend is already transmitting a weak signal. The best option in my case was to use a cable and let them transmit the exact same wireless network data.
So I could insert a small wired router in front of Uno and then connect Dos and Zero (should Cero).
You can at least try. Channels might differ, I observed the noise in the various channels here for quite some time and adapted them afterwards.
I have small spare routers anyway, however do you have any particular recommendation(s) ?
Nope, I use standard Apple models from the last (not latest) generation in dual frequency range mode (2,4 and 5 GHz) together with an AVM FRITZ!Box 7490 doing the same.
HTH
Millemissen: Chris Townsend: This is not true. The new Bluetooth aptX which the A9 can receive is as good as CD quality. http://www.aptx.com/howitworks2 There are some pretty smart people in the marketing department of CSR.(the company behind aptX), who have managed to give people the impression, that their codecs (aptX) gives you almost, near, like....CD-quality. A quick look at the CSR homepage however reveals the facts
A quick look at the CSR homepage however reveals the facts
Totally! The streaming codecs remain the best solution. The problems, often cited on this board as at the door or Apple's Airplay are mostly to do with the WIFI controller and network configuration. And this stuff is hard folks. The move to a new AzureWave combined 2.4/5GHz and Bluetooth integrated chip in the A9 has improved things and that resolves most of the problems. In my experience, I'm getting a solid 300MBps on 5GHz and 144MBps on 2.4GHz. Even then, you may want to consider one of the more recent AC3200 routers with 2x 5GHz bands and 1x2.4Ghz band to separate out the traffic. I'm using an Apple Airport AC which is only dual band, so have forced the A9 onto the 2.4Ghz band.
Pretty happy with the A9 G2 now. As a result, I'm a ready buyer of the new Essence with this same controller the moment it lands. Its also THE key reason I've not rushed at the Moment. And wiring up over Ethernet would be a bit of a Faf for me and add 20% to the cost of the purchase. I'm not paying an extra 20% to make a product work - thats madness. If they offered a free 1/2 day install service, I might consider it.
Chris Townsend:But if you steam Deezer on AirPlay or aptX, it makes no difference as their bit rate is only 356 mb anyway.
Two things:
1: converting from one lossy codecs to another might not be the best (though you would probably never hear that on a A2/A15).
2: if you are using an iDevice as streaming device, you won't benefit from a codecs like aptX, since iDevices have no support for aptX.
(Means - no need for 'an iOS'er' to deal with the pros and cons of aptX).
Bumping this back up since its early summer now.
The Beosetup for IOS app got updated last week with support for new devices, not sure what that is though.
Am hoping for 5Ghz wifi and airplay
JK
Well I'm dreaming about WISA inclusion too. *fingerscrossed*