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Hey!
I'm new here, love the atmosphere in the forum :) I'm planning to buy a pair of Beolab 9 speakers and get rid of cables and amplifiers. I have a problem that I can't really figure out:
I would like to airplay music to the speakers (Apple TV will recieve the audio) but also be able to watch movies on my Samsung TV (only through apple TV) and get the sound to the speakers.
At first I thought that I could buy the "Transmitter 1" and connect my apple TV straight to the box's Optical In which would be a perfect solution, but how about volume control then...?
My second solution would be to buy the "B&O essence" to connect my apple tv to (optical out from ATV -> DAC -> RCA in to the essence box) and stream my audio to the speakers but as it turns out the essence box needs wires to connect to speakers. But I guess this solution works if I use cables since the essences have a remote volume control?
Just to clarify: Apple TV is connected to the TV through hdmi and I plan to use an optical audio cable to solve my sound problem but I'm not sure how to do it wirelessly and with volume control.
Any solutions or am I missing something obvious? I would not like to use audio directly from the television to the Transmitter since that would force me to have the TV on every time I would like to listen to music. I also prefer not to buy both the Transmitter and the Essence if that's possible.
Best regard,
Just realized that the Beolab 9 doesn't even have a wireless reciever, or am I wrong? In that case maybe it's best to go with the Essence solution. What do you think?
True, Lab 9s don't have wireless capability inherent in their design, but you could easily add the wireless receivers to them and make them wireless and use them with the transmitter. Depends on how much you need wireless, if they would be a bear to run PL cables to, that'd make sense. If you can easily run and hide thin PL cables, then maybe the Essence would make more sense.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Thanks for a quick reply! Yeah I can hide the cables pretty easily which would make the Essence a pretty good choice.
Is it true that it would cause volume problems if I chose to go with the Transmitter only (and use wires to speakers) and connect the Apple TV or can I adjust the volume in some way?
Hi tobtil and welcome to the Boworld forum,
You have a couple of things cooking there.
One: if you want a wireless connection from your Samsung, you'll need a Transmitter 1 and - as Jeff noted - a receiver for the BL9's.
You will have to connect the audio-output of your Samsung to the Transmitter to get the sound from the tv.
The output must be a volume-regulated output, which - since the tv probably only has a digital sound-output - will be a problem.
Theoretically you could use the headphones-output (if available), but that would be a rather bad solution speaking of sound quality.
Note: the Transmitter has analog and digital input connections, but can only handle one of them (it has no preamp function with switching possibilities).
Two: you want sound from from your ATV for 1: music and 2: film. This means that you will have to connect the ATV to the tv, and you will have to turn on the tv just to hear sound/music.
You could connect the digital output of the ATV to the Transmitter (and the HDMI to the tv), and manage the volumen via the iDevice, that AirPlay's.
But - that way - you would have sound, but you would not be able to manage the volumen, if you use the ATV for movies directly :-(
And you wouldn't have sound from the tv-tuner (or other sources connected to the tv) either.
If you want to use a set of BL9 with an ATV for both music and movie (independently) - and you want to connect the BL9's wireless - you WILL NEED some kind of pre-amp with at least one HDMI-connection in (and out to the tv) for the ATV/movies and one digital-in for the ATV/music, and with a volumen-regulated line-output. You could then connect the Transmitter 1 to this output, - and control the volumen with the remote of the pre-amp as well as choose the input (for ATV/HDMI or ATV/digital-out).
But I guess that is not the simplicity, that you wish for.
There are reasons why a B&O tv is made the way it is!
It has an inbuilt pre-amp with switching function (via the remote) and it has the volumen regulated outputs (with trigger function) to the BeoLabs for all connected (and in-build) sources. And the newer BV's even have the Transmitter built-in :-)
You could use the BeSound Essence (with a small DAC from the digital-out of the tv) for the sound from the ATV/movies and use the AirPlay function of the Essence for music only.
But you will need the Transmitter 1, if you want to go wireless.
And please don't forget, that you'll need power cables anyway for the speakers....and for the wireless receiver-box.
Not of much help, but it probably/hopefully helps a bit to understand 'how things works'.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
I've used my beolab 14s with a loewe tv and after learning a wealth of knowledge I feel pretty confident in using beolabs in non B&O setups.
in your case there is one dac that i would consider and that's the cyp AU-D250 unfortunately i can't add the link on this site from my iPad for some reason.
The site is cypeurope.com.
it has an hdmi in and out aswell as optical in and out, with audio outs for use of active speakers and plays audio in various sample rates and also comes with a remote control. I would then purchase some RCA to bang-olufsen 7- pin DIN cables either from Steve from sounds heavenly or a shop on eBay which makes those exact cables in various lengths.
All it would then require is for you to connect the RCA ends of the cables to the left and right outs on the dac ive suggested with the 7-pin DIN connector ends going into the lab 9s making sure that you set both speakers switches to "LINE". Be sure that you have long enough power cables for both speakers.
I'm actually looking to get one of these myself and plan to hook up my beolab 14s to it.
Beoplay A2
The AU-D250 Advanced Digital Audio Converter is an example of what I called 'some kind of pre-amp' - and It even has it's own remote.
However it accepts/supports only LPCM stereo - so there might be a problem with playing (AC3) movies on the ATV.
The AU-D250 is an example of, what I called 'some kind of pre-amp' - it even has it's own remote.
However it only accepts/supports PCM sound, which might be a problem when using the ATV for playing (AC3-encoded) movies.
Thank you so much for taking your time making an extensive reply! I think the best way to solve this is to do as you mentioned:
"You could use the BeSound Essence (with a small DAC from the digital-out of the tv) for the sound from the ATV/movies and use the AirPlay function of the Essence for music only. "
I'm a little worried about the delay as you mentioned. Another solution would be to use the dac directly from the apple TV to the Essence box. Would that make any difference in terms of sound delay?
Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it! I think this solution kind of takes away the simplicity I was looking for with B&O products. But I'll keep that in mind as I'm trying to figure this out in the best way possible.
tobtil: I'm a little worried about the delay as you mentioned. Another solution would be to use the dac directly from the apple TV to the Essence box. Would that make any difference in terms of sound delay?
The problem by converting any sound from a video source with a DAC will always be the possible delay.
Some tv's (have look in the userguide of your Samsung) have a setting for lipsync - you'll have to test if that works with an actual setup.
Alright. Thank you so much for your inputs and thoughts! :) I'll go with the Essence solution then and hope that works good.
A final thought: Is it possible to do this:
Apple TV ->HDMI -> TV
Apple TV ->Optical out -> DAC -> Speaker
Then adjust the volume through the iphone. Or would the volume thing be a problem?