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 have mine in true wireless 9.5 meters apart. Only seldom i get any real stutter but not sure if this is due to my source or the wireless connection. I have an iPhone so don't want them connected with Bluetooth as the iPhone does not have aptx=lack of sound quality. To solve this I bought a raspberry pi and programmed this one to act as an airplay server (30£)(airplay is wifi losses audio, compared to aptx not a major benifit else than that airplay buffers two seconds sound in the network, but compared to regular Bluetooth audio this is a real big sound quality improvement for iphoje/Ipad etc.). The trick is here that one can connect the raspberry pi to the left speaker with the USB in. Hence it is possible to run them in true wireless with airplay. This is not possible for example with an airport as this only has audio like out, and the s3 does not support true wireless with line in!
This works very good.
And after 1 week I am very happy with them. My living room is close to 50m2 and the sound is still very good for ambience and soft listening to music, even with having them put the speaker pair this far away which is far from optimal.
Very happy buy, and works well with the USB in jack!
Today in DK you can buy the s3 from Telia, they will sell it almost 500 DKR cheaper than Beoplay.http://tilbehoer.telia.dk/cgi/frontend.cgi?func=catalog.show&func_id=25543&table=PRODUCT
I bought 2 b&o units on a deal, for my own christmas gift. The idea was to use this linked up, with a chrome cast audio, so i can lissen to my music collection with out having to use bluetooth. Should this solution work ? i keep reading that linked units dosent work proberly when you use line in? also are there still problems with the unit not going into standby mode? will the unit wake up automatic when it gets a input on inline?
This is the device i had in mind:
https://store.google.com/product/chromecast_audio
either i want to run them wireless togerther, where one of them (the master??) gets the input from the chromecast audio, or let them be wired togerther, if that makes them run more stable? can they be wired togerther when you need to use the line in?
i hope some one can shed some light on this, as i need to return them with in a week, if they dont work as intended.
Hi Dave,
is this, what you mean?
'Press and hold for 8 seconds until you hear the third sound prompt and the indicator flashes orange. Repeat the sequence on the rest of the speakers. Lastly, select the first speaker to become Master by pressing shortly, and all indicators turn solid orange.'
From the S3 Guide.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
Millemissen: Hi Dave, is this, what you mean? 'Press and hold for 8 seconds until you hear the third sound prompt and the indicator flashes orange. Repeat the sequence on the rest of the speakers. Lastly, select the first speaker to become Master by pressing shortly, and all indicators turn solid orange.' From the S3 Guide. MM
Aha! Bugger, I misssed that. Thanks for re-educating me before I sent a message to Ina on the service desk. I was only referring to the technical guide from the S3 Tech guy previously posted and hadn't re-read the user guide. However, they don't stay orange, they revert back to white again - I don't think it tells you that which then makes it more difficult to tell which mode they are in if say someone unplugs them behind your back!
There's too much to read! Thanks MM. But at least they do work properly now at least.
Dave.
Hi, the answer is no. You can't play them in true wireless mode with line in.
The best option with line is is to use the usb line in. Then they work in true wireless.
I run them in true wireless with usb in.
thats an odd limitation to put on the speakers, when the compitsion delivers products who offer that, at a less price. I dont think chrome cast audio has usb connection..
Dave Farr:OK, I've just done some testing at last. To play a pair wired together via the mini jacks you first have to put them in multi speaker mode. That means you have to press the B&O logo continuously for about 8 seconds until the LED is orange - note, it is flashing orange which B&O don't tell you. Do that on both speakers. If you try to play music now you get nothing. To get the music, you actually have to press the B&O logo briefly again until the orange LED is lit constantly - now the music appears in stereo. Then, after a few seconds, both LED's revert to solid white which again B&O don't tell you! When they are like this, Bluetooth is not available. So yes, they do work wired if only B&O would give customers the correct and full information. I can't comment on what you wish to use as your source. Dave. As a further comment - yes, the auto sense works in this situation.
To play a pair wired together via the mini jacks you first have to put them in multi speaker mode. That means you have to press the B&O logo continuously for about 8 seconds until the LED is orange - note, it is flashing orange which B&O don't tell you. Do that on both speakers. If you try to play music now you get nothing. To get the music, you actually have to press the B&O logo briefly again until the orange LED is lit constantly - now the music appears in stereo. Then, after a few seconds, both LED's revert to solid white which again B&O don't tell you!
When they are like this, Bluetooth is not available.
So yes, they do work wired if only B&O would give customers the correct and full information.
I can't comment on what you wish to use as your source.
As a further comment - yes, the auto sense works in this situation.
thank you, it seems there is hope to get the setup i had intended to work.
Madsholme
No as of this moment it is not possible to use line in in true wireless, if i understood Dave he now has them in wired mode.
It should be in the future maybe possible with a software update to enable line in in true wireless but this only BnO knows. I agree that this is a very strange limitation. I can just imagine that this has to do with the fact that both usb in sand bluetooth in are digital signals. Although off course the analog signal in line in is processed to digital signal i can just suspect this is the reason for why not line in works!
My guess is, that it has to do with bluetooth.
Both channels are seperated in the first speaker and only one is redistributed.
You (they) can't do that with an analog input.
Nice to hear, Martin.
Makes me want to buy a second one.
I am still impressed with the sound of mine - more impressed than ever expected.
How far apart are yours placed/how big is the room?
Pics, if possible - please ;-)
Millemissen:Nice to hear, Martin. Makes me want to buy a second one. I am still impressed with the sound of mine - more impressed than ever expected. How far apart are yours placed/how big is the room? Pics, if possible - please ;-) There is a tv - and there is a BV.
Hi guys.
I just registered here to comment in this thread. I got a pair of S3 at less than half price so I can't complain about that. For the S3 my expectations were: finally a true wireless speakers i could use with my computer, warm and detailed sound, a joy to use.
Pros: true wireless, small, kinda prettyish (maybe moreso in white with the custom covers), usb input.
Cons:I'd never say that they sound bad, but I don't think B&O got the tonality quite right. They are a little bright. I would prefer my Sonos Play 1 if I had to choose, and of course a pair of Genelecs at the same (original) price kinda smokes them. But that is alright, they all have their use.
USB connection is a little ackward because you can't change the master volume in Windows (dunnot about OS X and Linux). I do understand that this is because you are supposed to change the volume on the S3 itself, but it just doesn't feel right.
Both the wired pair mode with either bluetooth/line-in/usb and true wireless mode are unstable and really f.... up. True wireless also lags a lot, so not very usefull when streaming video, which again makes invalidates the S3 as wireless computer speaker.
The point of B&O is to have a certain standard, in craftmanship, sound quality, features, easy to use etc. Unfortunately I think the S3 falls short of this standard. In the end I returned them, even though I got them for less than half price. It just wasn't worth it.
Capitaine:The point of B&O is to have a certain standard, in craftmanship, sound quality, features, easy to use etc.
BeoNut since '75
This was at one weekend, only!
They (DustinHome) have probably bought a lot of these at very good conditions.
Shortly after they were sold at regular prices.
An special offer to 'catch' new costumers.
They may profit from that, but certainly not from selling the item.
My dealer told me, that he couldn't even buy them for that price.
Thanks. Well I don't own any BO at this time but I've been regularly exposed to a lot of BO stuff up through the years. As a student I worked at a store that had an own BO concept store, I just didn't work in the BO department. I did have good knowledge of BO and had to step in at times, and of course played around with BO stuff all the time. I don't think I bought any BO, even with dealer discount, as I used all my money on booze and regular hifi equipment;)
But as you get a little older, you sometimes have to make "sacrifices", and you want something that "just works", looks good, but also sound good (and looks good as in picture quality). That's where BO traditionally had their market. Also a lot of people are really satisfied with their old BO stuff and service of their BO dealer that they usually come again, BO has a lot of "value" to them even though the prices are premium.
I would probably buy the beolab 18 just for looks alone, but at this time I don't have space for it. But "value" is a personal preference, so I guess that's why BO needed the Play range to give more people access to their products. Some of the Play range are good, some less so (still good, but below par so to speak). The Play S3 is imho of the latter kind.
..Come to think of it, I actually own a BO TV furniture. I bought it without the TV :) and use it as my AV stand. Really satisfied with that one.
The store that sold the S3 for half price did have it as a weekend sale only, and the price went back up to normal. But I have a student account (that they don't do anymore) that automatically give me a little better price on most things, and when I logged on I saw that the student price was even lower than the weekend sale. A week later they started selling bundles of 2 S3 for half price as well. I think they still do, but the prices might have gone up a little.
As of today they charge 2999 danish kroner - that is even more than the B&O dealer sell it for.
Funny world, eh!
Dustinhome in Sweden still have 50% when you buy 2, looks like they have a big stock on them to
Living room: BeoVision 4-50 ACM, Beosystem 3 MK3 with samsung SP-H710AE projector, BeoLab 7-1, BeoLab 6000x3pair, BeoSound 3200, AV & CD cabinett & Beo4.
Lounge: BeoSound 3, BeoVision 7-32 mk5 & Beo4
Kitchen: BeoLab 2000 & Beo4
Master bedroom: BeoVision Avant-32, DVD1, BeoSound Ouverture & Beo4
Guest room: BeoVision 4002, DVD1, BeoSound 2000 & Beo4
....and at Dustinhome.dk it is 3999 Dkr - if you take two.
And they are some not-used for sale on the Blå Avis (Ebay kind-of) in DK for 2200 Dkr.
I would wish for a version of this little pearl with PL and R/L switch ;-))
For that I'd be willing to pay the full price at my B&O dealer!
For anyone in the states, Radio Shack is currently taking $200 off (50% discount!) with the purchase of $50 or more from their store. Time to buy the new Apple TV and save $200!
Additionally, does anyone have two S3's hooked up to their computer? Wondering if that is possible and how that sounds.
I bought two a while ago and hooked them up to my Macbook Pro Retina. The wireless connection is so bad it's impossible to use them. As others points out the signal lags quite a bit in all cases.
I thought something was wrong with them, so I contact B&O customer support asking if they perhaps already released a software update. They responded by asking where I bought the speakers and when I then replied that they where bought at Dustin, B&O refused to help, since I didn't buy them from their own distribution channel!
I should have sent them back right there, but the speakers are still standing on each side of my screen collecting dust. I tried a few times since to see if I could get a better connection, but sadly no...
So for me a really bad experience, in particular with customer support. They have me on record asking a few questions over many years on top of the line Beolabs and BVs, so just telling me to to piss off really made me consider putting all my stuff up for sale immediately. Not a happy camper...
/Kim
Thanks for the input. Did you try connecting them using a wired connection instead of wireless? I have an iMac so I plan on doing that.
@kimchr
which OS were you using?
Have you had any other USB-based speakers/DAC connected to the Mac before using the S3's?
The Mac is an "early 2015" running OS X (10.10.5). For the record it is also paired with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
This morning I tried with my Samsung 6S Edge I received a few days ago. It has now played audio from youtube through the two S3s for half an hour without a single hickup in true wireless. I can't just the sound quality but connection seems very good.
My previous Samsung S4 mini I was not able to connect at all. Same goes with my to Android based tabs. So it seems we now hav one device that connects to the speakers and that's a start.
As far as I can see all Macbook Pro models since mid-2012 have Bluetooth 4.0.
kimchr: As far as I can see all Macbook Pro models since mid-2012 have Bluetooth 4.0.
Does that mean, that you had it/the master speaker connected via Bluetooth from the Mac - and not hooked up via USB?
Yes, Bluetooth only. Everything within 1 meter. After my success with the Samsung S6 I listened alot more during the last couple of days. Samsung is still rock steady. MacBook is playing Spotify Premium with occasional hick-ups but alot better than my inital experience.
I heard from another Macbook Pro owner that his S3 were working very nicely.
Had the same problem with my Pro Retina. You should try resetting Pram, after I did that I have not had any problems with any bluetooth device. "Shut down your Mac, press the power button, and as soon as you hear the startup chime, hold down Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding down those keys until you hear a second startup chime. Then let go and allow your Mac to continue starting normally."
Hi guys, this is my first post. Really enjoyed reading this discussion thread last night and ended up staying way too long :) Let's bring back some life to this thread ;)
I was in a B&O Store yesterday and had a chance to listen to two wirelessly paired S3 speakers and left with a big smile on my face. I am about to buy the speakers but was wondering if you received any updates in terms of functionality or any statement from B&O as to the timeline of updates. In particular I am interested in having the optionality to have the speakers connected wirelessly while using the line in connection. Dave, are there any updates on this?
Also, I wanted to ask where best to buy the speakers. I am currently in Germany but generally live in the UK. Has anyone come across a deal/ price recently? The best deal I have come across is in the UK for GBP 200 per speaker. Should I go for this?
Thanks!!!
I brought a pair on ebay uk for £149 each, they arrived at argos yesterday and picked them up in the evening. They are factory sealed and a very quick test and they sound amazing for there size.
I was not going to buy any more speakers as not sure where they will go, but for halfthe price I could not resist. I do feel sorry for dealers who can not compete with this offer, The company (Foniacs) had sold over 50 speakers already.
wow! that's an amazing deal, thanks for sharing :)