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
BV 11 46 Avant 32 VCR
HI
Is there an conclusion regarding using them as speakers for a ex. Beosound 4 via some sort of cable connecting powerlink to line in?
Mogens
They are still £149. How can there be such a HUGE price difference on a new product??? Just shows the profit on these. Now you can se why B&O don't make anything in Denmark anymore :( Kind of shows how silly people are to buy this brand at full RRP.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/B-O-BeoPlay-S3-PLAY-Wireless-Speaker-White-/281866997055?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
eglobalcentral germany sells them for 230-240€ (depending of the color) while the same site but .fr asks 100€ more! It's like entering in a carpet shop...
I'm glad I found this thread here.
I just bought my first S3 three days ago, and bought another pair (yes I have three of them now) today. Needless to say, I'm very happy with the sound of this little guy. I like the B&O brand as well.
One question: if you pair two S3 using true wireless, do you need to pair them again if you switch input, say, from iPhone to PC bluetooth? I tried several times before successfully pair my two S3, enjoyed the amazing stereo sound, and then decided to listen to ape on my laptop. The pair broke when I switch to PC and I can no longer pair them again. Still trying to read the user manual but would like to see if anyone here have experienced similar issue. 3rd day update: the issue is mainly caused by my laptop. I can switch between different phones without any needs to re-pair.
I care about this since my wife and I will be streaming audio to the system in turn. she'll be mad if she needs to pair them again whenever I've used them. I'll have to buy four if that's the case!
Update after one day's crazy testing:
1. I've become so frustrated about the wireless paring. Still, when I switch input device I'll need to pair them again but the pair no longer work. Both the speakers will flash white light endlessly with nothing happening. I have 3 S3 in hand now, tried to pair them in turn but the success seems to be random.
3rd day update: 1.1 I can switch input device without paring S3 again. my previous problem was mainly caused by the laptop (or by my own confusion). If I only use iPhone to stream music, I have no problem switching among different phones at all.1.2 paring has no problem. However, when I paired two S3 (eg. my two white pair), then try to replace one of them with the 3rd one, the paring won't work unless I perform factory reset on the paired one. (press - and B&O button). General users won't have my previous problem at all because most of the users won't have more than two S3 at the same time.
2. Still testing, but I suspect that whenever I put them into deep sleep (light off, or disconnect the power plug), then wake them up again, I'll need to pair them. I haven't tested this yet because so far I haven't been able to successfully pair them up for hours... Beoplay website has a video showing how to pair: push the button on master speaker for 5s until white light flash and beep, then wait for 20s until hearing double beep. However, I've never been able to hear that double beep without turning slave speaker on. In fact, previously I only heard the double beep when I put slave speaker to paring mode immediately after the master speaker flash white, when they pair there will be double beep.
3rd day update: I was partly wrong on this point. If I put any of the paired S3 into deep sleep, or unplug them, they would still stay paired once I wake them up. Once paired, they always stay paired. I do believe they should correct official paring instruction video. The double beep only comes after the speakers are successfully paired, not before.
3. Even when they pair in true wireless, one of them will lose sound constantly when playing music. I've experienced this mainly when I stream music from laptop. Not sure whether it's because the connection between master and slave is unstable, or because my laptop bluetooth output is unstable. I left the two speakers 1 meter apart when I experience this issue. Haven't seen much of this when streaming with iPhone, but I'll need to test iPhone with higher bit rate songs.
3rd day update: This issue was caused by my laptop. I've been streaming flac files with iPhone for an entire night without losing any channel. I did experience some hiccups using my mom's cheap phone. This made me believe that somehow laptops are not really built to stream audio via bluetooth. Laptop bluetooth transmission distance is shorter and quality is much worse than iPhone. I'll just use my phone as the audio center from now on.
Now things become complicated: my wife and I love the sound and look of S3 so much, but the fundamental function of this product doesn't seem to be reliable. I'll still test more because we really don't want to return them. 3rd day update: I ended up keeping two black S3 in stereo set up in living room, and my entire family are enjoying the beautiful sound.
When S3 was launched I was surprised to see so few marketing materials available online (user guide, review on amazon, documents, youtube review, etc.) and thought B&O didn't spend much resource on launching this little guy. However, now I'm thinking maybe there's other reason inside the company: someone from above pushed the launch without thorough user testing, while the engineers/marketing team know there's defect on this product and they want to hold it back. They aren't doing well in controlling sales channel as well, it's the first time I see a product to be discounted to less than half the price one month after it's launched. Seriously? Who dare to buy any new Beoplay product in future when facing such a huge price uncertainty?3rd day update: Radioshack in US is running a promotion of buy two S3 with $299 (last week it was selling single S3 for $179). This price is a steal and I can't think of getting other B&O stuff lower than this. I'm not sure whether Radioshack will have other crazy promotion because I can see it is trying hard to clear its inventory before year end. My point is: people are not buying S3 because they have never heard of B&O or Beoplay at all. Bose, HK & JBL or even UE have much better brand awareness on this continent, while Sonos clearly has a good digital marketing team for selling online/offline and driving adoption with their expendable/multi-room solution. These competitors are all selling their major products in the $100 to $200 price range, while I do believe the $200 S3 is superior in sound quality and far better in design than other speakers. Hopefully Beoplay will be able to allocate better marketing resource on S3 and make it a good introductory product for general consumers. S3 is my first Beoplay product, and I know it won't be the last. I may go to target and grab one Sonos and record a video to compare it with S3. Hopefully that can be of little help to S3 users if I put review and video on amazon.
"However, hook up a pair (I am playing a pair in True wireless mode - i.e. wirelessly connected to each other and streaming Bluetooth from my iPhone 6) and they are a completely, completely, totally different sound - not just twice as good, ten times as good!"
Hi, I got two S3's for Christmas (in a really cheap bundle) and I have been unable to hook up 2 together, and use them with my Iphone. I have followed the instructions about making one the master and one the secondary speaker, but only one will play at a time. Any suggestions? I contacted my local retailer and he couldn't figure it out either. thanks.
Do this:
1. Press 'B&O' and '-' buttons together for more than 5s, red light will be on and the S3 will be reset to factory default. Do this for both speakers.
2. Connect master speaker to your iPhone via bluetooth
3. Then press B&O button on master speaker till white light flash
4. Press B&O button on slave speaker till white light flash. You can do this step right after step 3, no need to wait for 20s
5. Wait till you hear double beep sound on both speakers, and white light turns solid. This means they are paired.
You are all set!
Thanks for your response. Just curious, why is this a "secret" way to get them to work together, when the method in the instruction booklet doesn't work?
Will I be voiding my warranty by resetting to factory default using your method? (I'm not super tech-savvy). Especially if this doesn't work for some reason? Just a little leery....
Hi,
Just bought the S3 looking for a airplay solution. Your method is great !
After I googling I found that I can use a apple airport express with 3.5mm audio output for airplay but I don't know the DAC with one is better ?
Its confusing how to connevt a pair stereo. So you need a cable for bl4pc ( stereo 3.5 to left and right 3.5mm cable) and if you set the volume on one speaker will it regulated simultaneously on the other speaker? Or can you connect a stereo signal at theleft speaker and connect the output from the left speaker (stereo 3.5mm-3.5mm) to the input from the right speaker. And set both on master mode ( orange). And can you set the volime on either the left or right speajer? The explanation is very confusing. I want to use it as a stereo wired setup with either stereo or usb input.
Hope you could help me..
Does anyone know how to overcome the problem of the following:
I have 2 BeoPlay S3 speakers and whether I pair them via Bluetooth or line lead between the 2 speakers (whether playing using my iPhone or MacBook Pro) one speaker deactivates are 15 minutes.
Is there any way to get both speakers playing all the time. Without one switching off?
I feel your pain, my response was basically return it to amazon and they had not heard of this issue. The standby mode is annoying! Even cuts out in the middle of audio when using an aux cable. This product has been out for a while now and this is my first venture into b&o and whilst the sound is brilliant, it seems to be very picky as to when it wants to cooperate. If it continues behaving like this, it'll be returned.
The Beoplay app has been updated to work with the S3. And there's a software update for the S3 itself. And I thought B&O had forgotten about the S3.
So how do we get that software update? Can anyone explain what I have to do? :)
Go to Beoplay.com/support and download the software update program for Mac or Windows. Then connect your S3 via USB to your computer and follow the instructions. For some reason, the update program is not on the S3 support page, but you can download it from the H8 support page, for example. It's exactly the same program.
What is the improvement after the update?
Kind regards
For a start, the speakers now work with the Beoplay app. Also, it seems the Bluetooth delay is no longer present. I've not had a chance to pair up the speakers as a stereo pair yet, but I'm hoping that will now be easier (through the app) and more reliable.
good to know. I'll try updating my S3 as asap.
I also thought B&O has completely forgot S3 and did not put any resource to it. I'm glad I was wrong.
I'm rather late to the S3 party, having only bought a pair this week. Before setting them up I updated the software.
Holy crap - they are phenomenal for the price I paid. £250. For a Pair.
I paired them through the Beoplay app with absolutely no problems and I have had any connection or drop out issues at all.
I'm very, very happy with them.
Has anyone had trouble updating the S3s via the beoplay updater (i'm using it on a Mac, FWIW)? I'm banging my head against the wall trying to get these things to be recognized by the software. I followed the instructions in the video and after powering down (really just standby i guess), plugging in the USB, and holding all 3 buttons down, only once in a while do I get a red flash of the LED. Even when I do get the flash, the software never starts the update automatically. I should add: this is the same issue on the 2 speakers I have.
I used the software earlier this week to update my h7s with no problem...reinstalling it doesn't help.
Since I didn't buy directly from the the beoplay website, I can't use their support either. This is so frustrating. hopefully I can just send them back if I can't resolve this.
So to those who have successfully updated their software, how did you do it?
Robbub, I have the same exact issue. I have tried updating using both a Mac and Windows without success.
The speaker is turned off, and when I press all three buttons the LED first turns white, then flashes red one time and then goes back to solid white. The software doesn't recognize the speaker during this procedure and the update doesn't start. I also have two speakers and I have tried it on both without any luck.
Am I doing something wrong?
Did you guys get the software update to work via the Mac at all? I follow the instructions, the red light appears and then the speaker just turns off! I have to reconnect the power cable for it to function again.
No luck yet, but I started reading more about updating beoplay products over lunch. When I get home this evening, i'm going to give this a try:
http://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/16469/158969.aspx#158969
I was able to successfully update both my S3s to software 9.3.5. All I did was use a different USB cable, so am quite confused. I didn't have to hold all 3 buttons down like the instructions implied - just turning the speaker off was enough to kick-start the update process.
However, the whole reason I wanted to update them was to use the equaliser via the Beoplay app, but the app can't find either speaker!
are you using android or ios? I have android 4.4 and it doesnt work with that, only from versioon 5.0...
I'm using Android 6.0, on a Nexus 5X. No joy at all!
<double post>
strange, did you contact B&O directly for that issue?
Hi Dave and all Beoplay S3 owners,
Have you tried connecting an S3 via Bluetooth and then linking an S3 via its Line-out to another powered/active secondary non-S3 speaker's Line-in (Aux) via cable.
Wanted to know if you can hard wire other powered speakers or add a subwoofer to an S3 for more powerful sound.
This is what I got from B&O....
"Thank you for your request. Below is a summary of your request and our response.
Subject
Can the Beoplay S3 be connected to a source device (smartphote / iPod / computer...
Response By Email (Thomas Roswalld Andersen) (05/09/2016 01.41 PM)
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Bang & Olufsen Customer Service regarding your BeoPlay S3.
It can connect to other BeoPlay S3 speakers that way. However, due to the different hardware as well as softwares on the market, we can't assure that it will work with other speakers too.
The recommended setup is using two BeoPlay S3 instead of mixing the models. But the setup with Bluetooth to master then line in to secondary is a possible setup.
Have a great day!
Kind regards,
Thomas Roswalld Andersen (Mr) | Customer Service
Bang & Olufsen A/S | Peter Bangs Vej 15 | DK-7600 Struer | Denmark
www.bang-olufsen.com| www.beoplay.com
Customer By CSS Web (Brian Lancelot) (03/09/2016 02.25 PM)
Can the Beoplay S3 be connected to a source device (smartphone / iPod / computer etc) via Bluetooth and then connected via its Line-out to any other speaker or subwoofer?
Hello Dave, thank you for a detailed description. I have 2 S3 , could you please let me know if we can connect a sub into stereo
Thanks
This might (?) be possible, if the used sub is connected to your source and has an output for 'satelite speakers'. From there you could (?) go to the first and then to the second S3.
But how well that would work in reality, is hard to say - a sub is not a sub, is not a sub.
Maybe if you really need more, than the two S3's can bring, you should start looking for e.g. a S8 set!?
That is something that works out of the box.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
Hello MM, thanks for a quick reply. I am not technically educated in this world, so please bare with me on the subsequent question. Would it be possible to connect computer(source of my music's) to S3 master via usb and then audio Jack from master to Subwoofer
You can connect several S3's in a row - see the User Guide.
When you speak of a 'S3 master', I assume that you want to use more than one S3?
Do you want to go from the second one to the sub?
Theoretically you might use the sub as an additional/hardwired speaker, but I am not sure how well that will work - and according to the Guide you would not get stereo, but 3 times 'mono'.
Using a minijack splitter (one into two = for the second S3 and the sub) after the first S3 might be a possibility?
But - as I wrote above - there are different subs and the sub must fit with the other speaker/s.
Only advice I can give you, is to try it out with your available gea.....to see how it works.
Dave Farr:I just received this from the tech developer at B&O Dave.
Dave.
For all the people wo find this on the internet. It is outdated. The newest firmware for the Beoplay S3 is 9.3.6. In this firmware the wired Stereo setup is with normal daisy chain selection instead of the de dubble master setup. However it seems that you need to be fast enough otherwise you have 2 mono speakers. You get then one orange led and one white led during setup. After the setup the both leds are white.
I tried to connect the S3 to my tv.
I found the delay before the speaker senses the incoming signal as too long (others may not) - the picture was on before the sound began.
For use with an AudioMaster/AudioSystem (Essence or alike) this probably would be ok.
It is a good option for a small inexpensive audio setup.
If I did not already have speakers connected to my stationary MacMini, I would not hesitate to pick two of these for that.
I picked up a pair of these a couple of weeks ago ($121 each on Amazon, gotta love it). Connecting one was a piece of cake, and the sound, as described many times, was rather amazing from such a small speaker. My dad actually used to work in a B&O store many decades ago so I am very familiar with the brand and am glad to finally start my own collection :)
Setting up the second speaker and connecting them through True Wireless was also a snap, the instructions are really quite clear so no issues there at all. The way these two speakers fill my room(s) is quite astounding, whether it's rock or new age or classical, amazing B&O sound. 2 things have happened since then.
1. Software update. During the upgrade of the master speaker (the video that is part of the software installation process is extremely helpful), I received an error, and the indicator light on the speaker just went dark. No matter what combinations of keys I pressed, unplugging the speaker from the power, etc. No change, so I was freaking out a little bit. However, I just acted as if the lights were on, did the sequence of updating the software, and the upgrade succeeded just fine, and the light came back on as soon as the new software was installed.
2. I'm not sure if this is related to the speakers or my phone, I usually stream via Bluetooth from an Android phone using Google Music/Play. The slave speaker cuts out on a regular basis, for a second or so, sometimes less than a second, sometimes 2 seconds, and then starts playing again. I haven't experienced the 15 minute standby issue yet, but the stereo experience is less than ideal with one speaker cutting in and out. Now, I am fairly certain this is related to my phone, and I will have to test it with another bluetooth device to be sure, since I've also experienced music stuttering, and then playing very fast for a few seconds while it 'catches up', so maybe some kind of buffering issue.
However, if anyone else has been experiencing this kind of behavior and has some other ideas, please let me know. The speakers are about 3.5 meters apart, the phone is less than 5m away from the master speaker, most of the time less than 3.
Hello Dave....I have a pair of s3 speakers...I had updated the firmware and using with new beoplay mobile App. Everything was perfect. Recently I updated the firmware though there are no new updates. After this, my speakers max volume is reduced drastically..any idea about this pleasr