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
Hello,
i am contemplating over a new pair of Beolabs to support my new Avant 55. They should also work for stereo music listening, beeing fed by Spotify via the Avant or even from my NAS and/or my Beosound 5.
Has anybody here some experience with the two speakers head to head and can tell about the differences in sound signatures?
Would be great if somebody could help out with some advise.
BR
Tom
1.) Use your own ears to decide! That's the best advice. Go to your dealer, take YOUR music with you and listen to both of them (without any sound adjustment of course!)
2.) Where do you plan to install the speakers? Beside your TV? If your focus is on design, too, you should go for the 12-3 as they simply look great on the wall. Here's a photo from Beoworld http://www.beoworld.com/itemimages/slider/beolab125.jpg
3.) I've never heard both of them but according to some users here in the forum the Beolab 17 have a more powerful sound compared to the 12-3. Maybe you should use/add a subwoofer with them.No matter how you decide: Enjoy it! :-)
Hi
I have BL 12.3
High freq. are perfect the rest i think it's better with BL 17.
if you go dor wall spekars ..and design ..go for 12.3
if you look for sound..go for BL17
Hi Tom,
As others have said, you should listen to them both (under similar conditions) and decide which one you like more.
However, I would remind you to not just audition them at "normal" listening levels. Turn them up for a while to find out whether your preference changes at higher listening levels.
Please don't read anything into this. It's just easy to forget that B&O speakers have a lot of dynamic processing, particularly at higher listening levels - and this processing may influence your preferences.
Cheers
-geoff
i guess it's time to needle my neighbors a little bit with my beautiful and beloved 12-3's 😙
Wohnzimmer: BeoVision Avant 55", BeoLab 11, 12-2 und 12-3 für 5.1-Sound + appleTV 4K und Philips BluRay-Player; BeoSound 2, BeoSound 3000 (fast nur noch Deko)////Schlafzimmer: BeoEssence MkII, BeoLab 4000 + Samsung 46"-TV////Büro: BLC NL/ML, BeoSound 35, Thorens TD320MkII, Samsung 32"-TV, WesternDigital 4TB-Server////Bad: BeoLab 2000; alles CAT7 verkabelt////Küche: M5 (drahtlos) plus diverse apple-Geräte (imac, macbook, ipads, iphones, timecapsule, watch)
Many thanks for your replies so far
I listened to a pair of Beolab 17 in one of these cabinets here in Berlin and it always makes we wonder why they are built so poorly concerning the acoustics ... no damping, no solid walls/materials, shallow, hollow with tons of resonance. So we had to make another attempt moving the gear into the open space of the shop with lots of surrounding noise.
But nevertheless, the BL17 impressed me. It sounded different from the speakers i have or had. My main speaker is a Beolab 5, but i also use BL8000, BL6000, BL3 and Beoplay A9. The BL5 has to be taken out here, but regarding the others the BL17 were much more detailed over all, but felt kind of fragile when played at lower volume levels ... i had to turn them louder to enjoy them and then they appeared bigger in soundstage and with a good "weight" ... bass was very decent for the size of the cabinet and control was very good and better than my BL3. I liked it, the longer i listened to it and don't quite understand how people felt they are similar to BL4000?
I felt, that i had to "free" my hearing memory, that is biased by the acoustic lenses of BL5 and BL3 and also the BL10 on my BV 7-55. The BL17 obviously sounded different to me. At first i missed the crispness of the ALT. After some time i enjoyed the relaxed but detailed composure of the BL17 and listened without fatigue but also without the "darker" and "softened" sound signature i felt with my BL6000 and BL8000.
And this the point, why i was asking for some listening experience with BL12-3, as it is a much newer development, than BL3, although sharing ALT. Design is not a key factor here for me, i maybe would even prefer the lesser optical "footprint" of the BL17 over the panel like BL12-3.
I even liked the BL17 better, than the BL18 soundwise.
What do you think? Please describe how you experienced the BL12-3 regarding its sound characteristics, if possible.
Best regards