Sign in   |  Join   |  Help
Untitled Page

ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022
READ ONLY FORUM

This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022

 

Masterlink System on the cheap !

rated by 0 users
This post has 8 Replies | 5 Followers

ouverture
Top 500 Contributor
London
Posts 263
OFFLINE
Bronze Member
ouverture Posted: Fri, Jun 22 2012 6:46 PM

I have now pretty much sorted out all the Cat6 cabling in the house, so that I can have Masterlink in every room, the end goal being that in my home office is a Beovision 6, Beolink PC2 ( aka Beoport) and Apple Mac, running Linkplayer and using LinkRemote on my iPad ( wifi is now working in every room of the house) 

but, I am struggling with a few things, and hope anyone can help me

1) if I buy Beolink Passive amps ( 2 x 30W stereo) , then I can connect any speakers I fancy to them, some rooms may have Beovox, or possibly some speakers from other manufacturers. And this would be the perfect solution if the Beolink Passive also had a Aux input for an iPod dock or other source like a CD player.

2)  just in case this might be the right solution, has anyone also been able to add (retrofit) an Aux connector to a Beolink Passive amp, in such a way, that there is a switch you can toggle  between the Masterlink source ( Audiomaster in my office) and the local Aux connection in the bedroom ?

3) thinking that 2 is not easy to do, is there another small B&O amp with ML and an Aux connection that I should be buying so I can have multi-room N.RADIO or N.MUSIC in the whole house, but when Aux is selected it takes precedent over the ML source.

 

 

Guy
Top 50 Contributor
Warwickshire
Posts 2,590
OFFLINE
Gold Member
Guy replied on Fri, Jun 22 2012 8:33 PM

I have a passive set up as a stand alone amp for my computer - it's actually connected to an MCL2AV using one of the powerlink inputs - this enables me to chose either the CD or Tape input using SHIFT RADIO 6 or 7.

Of course this leaves the Passive's ML input empty - not sure what will happen if I connect masterlink as well.  If I have time I may try this over the weekend.  (By the way, in the stand alone mode the MCL2AV/passive works 2-way with an MCP5500.)

You could always use a cheap CRT (or LCD) Beovision as an ML component and use one of the scarts or the close up socket panel as an AUX input for audio.

ouverture
Top 500 Contributor
London
Posts 263
OFFLINE
Bronze Member
ouverture replied on Sat, Jun 23 2012 12:01 AM

aha, some good things for me to explore there, thank you. 

the Beovision LCD idea is good, and hang them on the walls around the house, probably cheaper than getting 3500's - maybe ! 

Vienna
Top 100 Contributor
make an educated guess
Posts 1,090
OFFLINE
Bronze Member
Vienna replied on Sat, Jun 23 2012 10:01 AM

ouverture:
... in such a way, that there is a switch you can toggle  between the Masterlink source ( Audiomaster in my office) and the local Aux connection in the bedroom ?

To solve exactly the same issue I connected:
 
 - a BeoLink Active + IR eye via ML to the ML system
 - a ML/MCL Converter (is identical to a BeoLink Passive but without an IR eye)
   via PL  cable to the PL-Out of the BeoLink Active

! The ML socket of the ML/MCL Converter  (or  BeoLink Passive) must not be used in this config
! A FULLY mounted PL  cable between BeoLink Active and ML/MCL (or Passive) is mandatory
! The PC (Aux) input of the BeoLink Passive has a very special pinout - answers here:

http://archivedarchivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/15997/282473.aspx#282473

Stan
Top 100 Contributor
Chicago-area USA
Posts 869
OFFLINE
Bronze Member
Stan replied on Sat, Jun 23 2012 3:28 PM

Vienna:

 

! The PC (Aux) input of the BeoLink Passive has a very special pinout - answers here

http://archivedarchivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/15997/282473.aspx#282473

I'm sure Vienna means Active in the above quote. If the Passive had a PC (Aux) input, there would be no need for the Active in this configuration.  

Stan

ouverture
Top 500 Contributor
London
Posts 263
OFFLINE
Bronze Member
ouverture replied on Sat, Jun 23 2012 7:36 PM

 

 

 

if I just buy Beolink Active's (the later ones with PC input) and use the picture above as my reference, connect Beolab 4000 speakers in every room, that is the simplest solution ( if money is no object)

but if I want to use Passive Speakers ( Beovox etc) , then I have to buy two Beolink boxes, BA (Beolink Active)  with PC input and use the PL Output to the BP (Beolink Passive) Amp ( 2 x 30W stereo) where I can attach the Beovox speakers. The BP being much cheaper than a pair of 4000's,  ho hum :-) 

 

 

 

Jeff
Top 25 Contributor
USA
Posts 3,793
OFFLINE
Silver Member
Jeff replied on Sat, Jun 23 2012 11:12 PM

Don't know if you have the room, but Parasound makes a line of half width, small components including a very nice small 40 w/ch amp. The amp also has 3 ways to turn it on, front switch, 12 v trigger, or signal sensing. 

You could take the above approach, use a Powerlink to RCA convertor, run that into a Parasound amp set to turn on when it detects a signal, and use passive spkrs. I think the amps run around $350 USD here in the states. 

Jeff

I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus. Sad

Vienna
Top 100 Contributor
make an educated guess
Posts 1,090
OFFLINE
Bronze Member
Vienna replied on Sun, Jun 24 2012 12:37 PM

Stan:

I'm sure Vienna means Active ...  

Stan

Absolutely right!

Thx for correcting my misleading post Big Smile

ouverture
Top 500 Contributor
London
Posts 263
OFFLINE
Bronze Member

it looks like B&O have come to rescue in the form of "Playmaker" , which will allow the flexibility I desire, but I'm going to need Beolab's around the house for it to work, but used pairs of BL 4000's on ebay are now going only £300 or so, it's probably the best way forward for me, and no Masterlink to bother with.

Playmaker priority of sources: 

1. AirPlay ( iTunes and any iPad, itouch or iPhone) 

2. DLNA  (  any DLNA media server like the Netgear ReadyNAS ) 

3. Any Source connected to the line-in of the Playmaker

 

mind you one in every bedroom is still not cheap, hey ho this is B&O :-(

Page 1 of 1 (9 items) | RSS