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've had a BS5 Encore on dem for a week but I've sent it back to the dealer... I thought I'd share my experiences although I'm sure it's old news to most of you....
I have been an early adopter of wireless music since 2004 with SlimDevices - in fact I still have the excellent Transporter on the hi-fi rack and I've yet to find a device to replace it. I have around 400GB of music on hard disk, which equates to 7000 songs, including many of the 24/96 "hi-rez" downloads.
I'd noticed that I wasn't using the hi-fi as much as I used to and started to wonder why. Several component upgrades over recent years mean that I no longer sat and analysed the music, I no longer have doubts as to the quality of the acoustic reproduction.
I had found though that I was unsure as to what I wished to listen to and had started to turn more towards internet radio as a source of casual listening on a day to day basis. Then I discovered MOTS....
Frustratingly this for me i now a must have feature, the hi-fi was on all the time the Encore was here and I enjoyed tracks I didn't even realise were on the system. But this enjoyment was made away from the listening chair.
Unfortunately the sound quality via the analogue Powerlink output fell a long way short of my expectation. From the chair I never felt involved or connected with the performance. The soundstaging was mediocre at best and the dynamic range somewhat lacking.
Of course this could have been rectified by a digital output form the Encore but sadly there isn't one. It could be done DIY by tapping the i2s stream from the Analog Devices codec on the small engine PCB but it's an expensive piece of kit to start drilling holes into and the aesthetics would be ruined by a series of DIY modules hanging off the back of the unit.
There is a better option though, and one I dearly wish B&O would consider taking. Through a firmware upgrade the second (rear) USB port could be reprogrammed with a digital audio output, software selectable via a set up menu to define this USB ports purpose. Select either HDD input or USB audio output - simples! No hardware mods, no aesthetic compromise, just a discrete menu option...
I have sent my suggestion for the attention of Tue Mantoni but I doubt it'll ever reach his inbox, such is the defensive efficiency of the Customer Support team...
If B&O can make some in-roads into the field of high end audio then I'm sure further sales would follow, especially if B&O produce wireless playback zones with their equivalent of the "BoomBox" and "Duet" devices... or reproduce the facility within their screens and soundbars.
Only NAIM so far seem to have twigged that whilst the hi-fi enthusiast will buy the top end gear for the rack, it's also nice to be able to stream from the same music collection to the kitchen, to the kids bedrooms etc with lower priced all in one devices. (If Meridian relaunch the M80 with a Soooloos facility then Meridian will sell a lot more high end Sooloos gear.)
Otherwise I loved the Encore. Yes, it needs a secondary control device via iPod Touch or iPad (Android too?) to make music selection form the chair easier. The user interface with the wheel and laser beam is fun and a little different - I have no objection to quirkiness, somehow it's more involving, like cueing up an LP on the turntable.
I didn't miss or want a touch screen on the unit itself although for dinner parties I'm sure that non techie guests would interact well with an iPad app to select their music accordingly - just like I found with the touchscreen Sooloos set up that I owned previously.
You may ask why not the BS5/BM5 combo to achieve a digital output? In my experience the digital outputs from computers are compromised by their power supplies and you'd need to reproduce the attention to detail found in the Aurender S10 before a satisfactory result can be achieved - and technically there's a million miles between the Aurender and BM5 devices....
So Mr Mantoni, please throw the USB digital output idea into the pool of eager to impress fresh faced coding post graduates and see what happens - you do your bit and I'll buy the Beosound Encore - sound fair enough?
I'm not sure about top 5... but here goes
Well Sooloos has evolved quite considerably since it's introduction and has overcome the initial criticisms regarding sound quality (it used to use a standard PC soundcard). Even the price point has dropped favorably, offering the all in one touchscreen Control 15 with 500GB storage for less than £5k (shop around and buy for £3.5k).
The user interface is excellent but it does rely on accurate music metadata to be in place in order for the "focus" and "swim" functions to work effectively. The touch screen of the Control 15 has now been duplicated on the iPad making it even more user friendly. The reaction of dinner party guests is wonderful to watch, and the evenings playlist builds itself as the iPad gets passed around the table!
Sound quality is also very good. Not the ultimate, but in that respect I refer to ultimate in regard to high end audio which has dizzy expectations - for 99.9% of users on the high street it would be a revelation.
Styling is far less effective, with the newer components reverting to the traditional box format with twinkling LED's, nothing that gives the B&O wow factor. The Control 15 is starting to look a little dated and the heat output it generates is certainly unwelcome in my Italian apartment during the summer period.
It doesn't have a MOTS or equivalent. Instead you chose the genre or mood and this "focuses" the album collection, producing a sub collection of maybe 20 albums which contain the type of music you'd like to hear. The "swim" function then generates a random playlist from the contents of this sub collection. The disadvantage comes from the inaccuracy of your metadata. So, if I had selected ROCK for example, I'd also unwittingly include the rock ballads that are naturally included in the genre but somewhat interrupt the mood in the headbanging mosh pit!!
MOTS of course ignores all of the data and instead samples the music itself - and does it very well in my opinion.
The radio function on the Beosound is superior, on a par with the Logitech Squeezecentre experience although finding the station involves a lot of wheel wizzing! The buffering function works well.
I don't consider the disk storage sizes to be a limiting factor as all hard drives can now be cloned quite easily using the stand alone devices available all over eBay.
So, for the Beosound Encore...
Pros: MOTS, radio, aesthetic styling
Cons: Poor sound quality, no digital output, no iOS/Android control apps, no PC playlist control, 5GHz only networking
Meridian Sooloos
Pros: User friendly GUI, iOS control apps, good sound quality, easy networking to other Sooloos devices, wide range of Sooloos devices
Cons: No MOTS! Dealer only software upgrades, expensive service costs, Meridian network components only (no NAS drives etc), Meridian slow to respond to software bug issues. Some sound quality issues from SMPS and RFI interference when compared with reference components (ie Aurender 10) given the cost of some of the products (808.3 £10k for the CD/Sooloos/Pre amp)
I hope that makes some sense, happy to answer specific questions... if I can! :)