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Due to my current configuration, with equipment cables in walls, I’d like to daisy chain a BL2 sub to a pair of BL1s from a BS9000, with the sub being the last speaker in the chain. Is this possible, in spite of the BL2 guide suggesting the sub should be first in the chain?
Hi futurist,
Mechanically it is possible, however I would not recommend it.
The Beolab 2 is advised to be the first device in the chain because it applies a crossover which keeps the low frequency information for itself and sends only the sound information above that cutoff to the speakers via its outputs.
This works well because the subwoofer is designed to reproduce more of the lower frequencies because of its big cabinet and drivers. In practice many users including myself will likely comment that the speakers also sound nicer when "relieved" from trying to reproduce these lower frequencies on their smaller drivers.
If you daisy chain as you have described all three devices will be attempting to reproduce bass and lead to a "doubling" of output (a bass bump somewhere around the falloff in bass of the BL1's) But then some users may like that for bass heavy music :)
Can always try it and see if it suits you. The BS9000 does atleast have some bass controls which helps since the BL2 doesn't.
Best of luck!
Hyponx's answer is right - but I thought that I'd add one small comment.
It's possible (with an unknown probability) that, if you have a pair of "main" loudspeakers (in this case, your BeoLab 1s) in parallel with a subwoofer (your BeoLab 2s) it could result in LESS instead of MORE bass. This is because it's possible (especially in cases where ports and slave drivers are present) that the phase responses of the loudspeakers (in conjunction with loudspeaker & listener placement and room acoustics) cause the signals to negatively interfere with each other - resulting in cancellation.
Note that, in cases where this does happen, it would typically only happen in a specific frequency band - not the entire bass. So you can have situations where you get a bump and a dip (or bumps and dips) in the magnitude response due to the various loudspeakers "cutting each others' grass".
Cheers-geoff
Thanks everyone for the advice. Will have to buy a longer cable and do some reconfiguration. B&O knows best...
Actually, one more (related) question: Is 5 pin din cable sufficient to connect the BL2 to the BS9000? Or do I need the full 8 pin version?
And another (possibly stupid) question. The BL1s are currently daisy chained. Could I simply connect the BL2 to one of the powerlink sockets on the BS9000 to achieve the same effect as putting the sub first in the chain? Or would this be mixing methods?
Thanks Geoff, I hadn't thought of that but it makes complete sense!
I'm going to defer commenting on the cable to some of the other folks here with more expertise (Steve must be around here somewhere)
The desired affect of the subwoofer when connected to the BS9000 will only be achieved if the connections are in this order: BS9000 --> BL2 --> BL1's. So no the second variation you proposed also wouldn't work
As an aside what you are describing (Using one plug on the BS9000 for the BL2, and the other plug on the BS9000 for the BL1's) could be possible with a Beosystem or a Beovision television as they have more sophisticated crossover controls, but not the BS9000.
Cheers!
Hyponx: Thanks Geoff, I hadn't thought of that but it makes complete sense! I'm going to defer commenting on the cable to some of the other folks here with more expertise (Steve must be around here somewhere) The desired affect of the subwoofer when connected to the BS9000 will only be achieved if the connections are in this order: BS9000 --> BL2 --> BL1's. So no the second variation you proposed also wouldn't work As an aside what you are describing (Using one plug on the BS9000 for the BL2, and the other plug on the BS9000 for the BL1's) could be possible with a Beosystem or a Beovision television as they have more sophisticated crossover controls, but not the BS9000. Cheers!
Hi,
You could put your Bl2s in parallel with your BL1s by either
However, as I said, both of these solutions are probably a bad idea... :-)
Cheers-Geoff