A Tearful Day.....

STY,

Thanks. Sort of knew this day would come when I had to put some thoughts down on paper to share. I did a really long review previously with the BL5’s when I purchased them. Sorry but I’m not going to be able to do that this time because it really all comes down to just comparing relative superlatives between the BL5 and the BL90. That is impossible for anyone to compare without first-hand experience/exposure of both loudspeakers.

So what can I say? Well first, the loudspeakers were delivered direct from Denmark and arrived in a couple of large wooden tea boxes with integral pallet base. Delivery in my case was specified at 1 week from the time of deposit subject to B&O Installer availability. I had pre-prepared most of the cabling for the BL90s when I purchased an Avant 55 at the beginning of the year. However, the decision to pull the trigger on the 90’s was not an immediate slam-dunk and was not made until mid-March and then only after extensive listening sessions.

Cat7 cables were run from the TV alongside the old BL5 Powerlink cables. The BL3 (rear) cables remained the same. I installed an Oppo-105 BR Player connected via HMDI to the Avant and a Toslink cable direct to the BL90 Master. A SP/Dif cable also runs from the BM5 to the BL90 Master. B&O Denmark couriered me a 5m Cat7 cable (the only cable supplied with the BL90’s apparently – the rest are Dealer supplied as required on installation) as the DPL (Digital Powerlink) between Master and Slave. I already had one pre-wired so that went into my spare parts/cable bin.

Once in my apartment (my living room is approx. 5m x 7m with a 2.5m x 5m open kitchen add-on), the BL90’s were unbolted from the pallets and positioned. The optional Service Skate provides a quick and easy way for one person to move a loudspeaker on a wooden floor into position. They are very heavy loudspeakers and difficult to move on your own without the skate. I toed mine in at the classic 30 degree offset and connections took 30 seconds (easy, open, fiddle-free access behind the rear wooden base panel) and a push of a micro-button to select L/R channel designation. WISA was not utilised. The Avant (also BeoRemote One) can be used to configure sound mode 1, 2 or 3 and then renamed Narrow Beam, Wide Beam, Omni etc as required. Omni mode is not currently available but will be in June following an online automatic update. I don’t as yet do the Android or Apple habitat so I’ve yet to get into the BL90 App where there are more configuration options both present and in the future. A rainy day to-do thing.

OK, now using the BM5 as a DNLA Music Server via the Avant and effectively straight out of the box with zero ARC calibration and disconnected SP/Dif, I would say without hesitation that the BL90’s simply blow the BL5’s clean out of the water. I would say there are 4 key points to take home on this:-

a)       At the time of review, no BL90 in-room (ARC) calibration was in play,  nor SP/Dif.

b)       The BL5’s and BL90 treble frequencies are voiced completely differently to one another and it takes some getting used to (as a long-time BL5 listener). However, the BL90’s “sound right” albeit they are not as bright as the Lab 5’s – which I liked. Initial impression was that the BL90’s treble is somewhat supressed. Changed my mind on that now.

c)       The BL90 bass output is so much more controlled, extended and significantly tighter than the 5’s. You can easily hear significantly more detail and structure in the low-end bass than the BL5’s. Listen to a sidekick drum thump and you will hear this.

d)       Finally, the BL90 imaging is like nothing else. Music is projected like a true 3D picture sonically and somehow (I’m struggling with descriptions that make sense) you seem to be able to visualize being able to “see” around a specific sound/instrument to another one directly behind it. Thus it seems, you can delayer sounds placed on top of each other into separate sounds in their own space. It’s weird (in a good way).

I have started to listen to quite a few Opera tracks since acquiring the 90’s (never liked the genre previously) and with good recordings, you really are there in the front row of a theatre and have the ability to hear the complex (and smooth) voice tones of the singer with a presence that I’ve never been able to hear before. Listening to the likes of B.B. King, Clapton etc…anything with guitar, piano, bass, drum beat etc… the music is just another league clearer and more real than previously experienced. It is like you are sat in a prime seat in a music club.

Strangely, I would say that the BL5’s are better for action movies when watching TV/film. If you like your explosions, the relatively unconstrained boom of the 5’s bass is more effective that the clinically and technically tight bass of the 90’s.

There were also a couple of technical glitches found with the Avant software during installation in that a) Narrow Beam Front Surround sound mode does not sound good with the Avant centre. I think it is a timing/delay issue. Wide beam mode seems to work perfectly (but there is not a lot of difference between these modes just yet) and b) there was another issue in that the BM5-NL/ML Converter-Avant configuration did not trigger the BL90’s into on-mode. There was a workaround solution provided but every Avant in circulation will have its firmware modified online to natively recognise this configuration if it has not already done so.

As I say, it is impossible for me to adequately describe to you why a GBP55,000 loudspeaker is better than the next B&O offering at a paltry GBP15,000. It is just that it is once you listen to them, the quality difference between the two is not by a narrow margin. The sonic difference “out of the box” is like comparing a pair of BL3’s to a pair of BL5’s. The gap between BL5 and BL90 appears to be more. All three are indeed very good loudspeakers in their own right but the BL90’s definitely take reproduction to an entirely new level way beyond that of the BL5. One can argue the merits of sound performance to price and the law of diminishing returns – especially when there is a very real price gulf (mid-Atlantic ridge even) of GBP40,000 between the 5’s and 90’s. It is not insignificant. However, you do not buy a loudspeaker system like this unless you can really afford to and the Department of Man-Maths inside your head says that it really is OK to spend all your hard-earned dosh on these fat ladies rather than say a practical new BMW 5 Series or move perhaps to a house with one more bedroom in Southern England.

In comparison, the latest Meridian DSP8000 variant is pitched at a similar price as the BL90 and their technology is older than the BL5’s. No idea how they sound. Don’t care to either.

The build quality of the BL90’s is lovely but rock-solid utilitarian. There is a real hand-made care and attention to detail taken to fabricate the speaker frets. The cast aluminium chassis is faultless and bomb-proof. It is clear the cost to manufacture these units is a lot by any industrial measure. I do hope B&O are satisfied with the margins on each unit? I suspect that they will not sell many of these as the market is tiny and diminishes rapidly above the GBP10,000 threshold regardless of manufacturer.

There are a few design issues I am not too keen on or will take time to appreciate; I would prefer all the frets to abut together edge to edge in a nice textured grey fabric (ala BeoPlay A6) rather than glossy black and in a manner like the BL4 snap-on covers are abutted to each other without any extraneous polished aluminium highlighting. I see that design element as a possible dust trap and too noisy from an aesthetics perspective. It may fit well with F&P’s ethos of geodesic inflatable tent design but not with B&O’s elegant industrial design simplicity.

I am also not too sure on some of the design / in-fill elements where the 4 opposing aluminium crown apexes (N.E.W.S) come together point to point (i.e. where the Bang & Olufsen logo sits and other similar non-marked positions). The illuminated logo itself is a little brash and the thin plastic covering with 5mm wide ledges have questionable design language. I would also personally opt for a traditional red/green LED under a fret somewhere to indicate on/off. The illuminated logo is too bright and blue when watching TV in the dark and this can distract. Hopefully a software update in the future will allow user-controlled dimming of this. The light-rings atop of the units are cute for indicating wide/narrow beam and for showing friends flashy white light patterns when switching on/off but you can’t see them at all when seated. This is good I think.

I was not able to undergo the ARC calibration process at the time of installation. Again, B&O software implementation is lagging hardware roll-out and the only way it can be done presently is using a cumbersome setup of external PC, USB sticks and some pricey math-lab modelling software to calculate all the DSP correction parameters. This delay in functionality was clearly indicated by the Dealer at the time of purchase (along with a road-map of pending software updates and dates). The self-contained in-speaker version will be available via automatic update in June I am told. This will include options for improved beam-width control to allow precise narrow-field sound-staging and will move overall performance capability up again to another level. Beam direction will also be implemented so you can enjoy great balanced sound outside the optimal seating position (I have no need for this at all I think).

While demo-ing the loudspeakers prior to purchase, the listening sessions showed clearly how easily treble would roll-off on any off-axis position outside the width of your shoulders in narrow mode. It is that tight and you will not be able to slouch while listening (A man in a restraining chair with no mates and no interrogator’s I think). A slightly wider beam dispersion to the primary seating position (or two) may provide more enjoyable and relaxing experience than that of a head-in-a-vice laser beam sound dispersion torture? 

 

Summary.

The Beolab 90’s are a world-class loudspeaker in the upper echelons of their class. The build quality is undeniable and more rock-solid than any other B&O product bar the stainless steel coffee coaster disks manufactured a few years back. For me, it is not a big and ugly loudspeaker in real life as the photos may depict in the media (beauty in the eye of the beholder stuff and please also remember that the BL5’s were similarly criticised on their release for being lardy and un-B&O-like).

The timbre, imaging and musicality of the BL90’s is in my opinion simply light-years ahead of the BL5’s and the only way for most to understand that is for you to have prolonged exposure in a familiar listening environment. I am confident that you would hear clear binary differences between the two and each time you will be able to point to the Lab90’s as the nicer, more natural and realistic sound. Hard to believe?

The BL90’s will also improve in what they do in Q2 and Q3 2016 as Geoff Martin and Co. pull their collective fingers out to give the BL90’s their full spec software capability as per the published white paper. Regardless, one cannot emphasis the shear quality of reproduction straight out of the box.

A key potential downside I do see with these loudspeakers is how the massive quantity of internal proprietary electronics fare over time and how B&O support the 90’s servicing going forward on what I see personally as a loudspeaker purchase for a lifetime.

These loudspeakers are indeed very expensive toys and beyond the reach of most normal sane people. We all adapt to listening to music from respective outputs of the A1 to the BL90. How easy or correct is it to draw a graph of technical performance vs price? Where does each B&O product populate on that that curve? Is the BL90 so far out there that like the BL5 before it – it represents outstanding value compared to the competition? Or is it just a very expensive extension of the laws of diminishing returns for modest improvement (over 3 times more expensive than the BL5’s for perhaps less than a 1/3rd of extra performance)?

So I would say that if you are in a position to afford them without guilt or remorse, then they are simply just wonderful things to have and to enjoy. I can state that every morning since receiving them, I have awoken to a sense of pride and joy on being fortunate enough to own them and to be able to listen to them. I am sure I will have the same feeling tomorrow morning. 

 

10

Mr 10%

Thank you for taking the time to document your thoughts and experience living with these wonderful speakers. Really enjoyed the read

Mr 10Percent:

I am sure I will have the same feeling tomorrow morning.

And as you said they are speakers to last a lifetime I am sure we all wish you tens of thousands of tomorrows.

Thank you for the review - as Yendys said it is a great read.

And I still think you should change your nickname to mr1%

Thank you for the detailed write up. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like that you picked up the need for B&O to support customers with servicing for many years / dare I say decades given the 18 channel active DSP which is all proprietary. At a push I could afford these but it would be a push too far with a new baby on the way and a mortgage so for now i'll have to stick with the old timer classic BL8000 and hope for a smaller / more wallet friendly version in the future but this is very much a Concorde moment in the world of loudspeaker technology and audio performance. Well done B&O.

Great review. As you are in an apartment, do these speakers impact your neighbours in any way? Did the BL5's have an impact?

In my top floor apartment we keep our speakers (S45’s Mk1)  high up in the hope that it minimises what transmits to the floor below.

Graham

Mr 10Percent:

I did a really long review previously with the BL5’s when I purchased them.

Wasn't able to find it --> a link perhaps?

So I would say that if you are in a position to afford them without guilt or remorse, then they are simply just wonderful things to have and to enjoy.

This sentence applies to every B&O product!

A great review.  Thank you very much for taking the time.  I look forward to hearing them myself one day.

I loved your comment about waking up every morning with a feeling of pride and joy.  I hope you keep that feeling for a very long time. 

Enjoy!