Office Speakers

Hello Beofans

I have a solution I would like a few thoughts on.

I have just setup an office at home with a dell docking station which on the back has a Lineout connection which i am 99% sure is volume regulated.

I have a camera for video calls with mic built in but the monitor speakers are basically rubbish.

I am thinking I would like to connect some bang and olufsen speakers to the doc something like Beolab 4 as they look nice and cover what I need for video calls and maybe some YouTube / music sound.

Question is I think I would like to have this room setup on my BLI and as a room on the Beolink system.

I also understand if the Beolab 4 is connected with the line in the speakers will never switch off, if i connected an essence MK2 to some speakers in future and connected the dock to the line in would the Essence switch the speakers on and off by detect sound? This might miss the windows sounds that come briefly.

Other option is move the CX50, Beolink Passive and Essence MK2 to the Office and but a new speaker for the kitchen.

I could potentially rig up a USB for 5V power to a power link cable to lets say Beolab4 to switch on the speakers when the dock is active but then this solution would loose the ability to add it to Beolink and have another zone.

I would like to connect my laptop when docked to get sound through some speakers as the initial part but be able to expand the office to a room on the Bang and Olufsen app.

Any thoughts, what have you all done for your offices?

Seanie_230:

Any thoughts, what have you all done for your offices?

I have my Edge in the office and it's played...loud!

I think a Beoplay M5 would work well. It also has the ability to use Beolink for multi room built in and sounds good. I have one in my office for my iMac. Another much more expensive option is to use a Balance. The Balance reminds me of a high-end BP M5!

 

I think the Edge or even A9 would be awesome in an office. 

Thinking more of a set of stereo speakers either side of the desk, generally lab4 or lab2500 but they might not sit well.

Lab4 would look great and connect via line in to the dock for audio out only.

Lab 4s would be great for audio quality. But a pair of A1 in stereo mode would also be great and you can connect them using the USB ports on your computer.

Back in the day, I used to have my Beolab 11 and Beolab 6000 connected using the line out on my iMac and it looked and sounded great. I angled the speakers to my chair and each tower was next to the desk - so no clutter. The only issue was that between the iMac, BL 11 and 2x BL 6000 I had a power strip and hiding all the cables was the main challenge. 

I have a pair of M3's connected through their line IN. The autosense does indeed miss some basic windows sounds (but I turned down those anyway, since they annoy me more than anything).

They are great for music, the occasional video and would also be good for calls (once they are up, they stay on for some time).

Since this 'office' is in an open plan connected to my living room, the great thing is I can join the speakers in on the ambient music playing in the main system when having guests over, everything playing in sync. In my case, this is done through airplay, but the beolink ecosystem will do the same I suppose.

You could use a pair of M5's too (or any other speaker in the single speaker line-up), stereo imaging is done through a 3.5mm jack splitting cable. Mine is from my dead beolab 4 pc set, but Steve @ SH makes those too.

I must say, the beolab 4s did sound good, but the M3s are on another level, they pack a lot more punch. Also, for what I read about the lab 4s, they are a dying breed, the internals are bound to fail (mine did, and the replacement speaker I bought had the same problem too).

Hay all

Thank you for the advice, not sure I would go for 2 M3’s.

I am thinking of starting with Beolab 4 perhaps and then add an essence MK2 later as I think it has autosense in the line in but if not I can pair a Beoremote One BT to select line in.

It will give me the full experience but also have the speakers as computer speakers.

Thanks all.

Bought a pair of Beolab 4's from Matt.

Now for cables and an essence MK2 in the future

 

I'm doing something similar at home, started with my M3 on the desk, but the line sense trigger is quite slow and really annoying on a pc, plus the speaker doesn't go loud enough without distorting, so have just bought a 2nd hand beolink active that has the PC input. I'll then be able to connect this to my dock's line out, connect the powerlink out to a spare Passive amp with Q acoustic bookshelf speakers connected. I'll then plug the active into the masterlink which I already have in the room. This will allow me to switch between PC and other NL sources over masterlink though the NL/ML converter and BLGW. Downside with this is that the Beoliving app won't know what the active is playing. A dedicated essence mk2 or core may be the way to go with line sense off, but the active is a much lower cost! 

The line sense is probably the same on the essence as the M3, it drove me mad when it would switch from Tune In to play a ping from windows! I'm actually hoping that the active will mix the PC input and masterlink together to save having to change source, but won't know until its wired up. I think this was how the beoport used to work. Rob.

Hi there 

thanks for the reply, I was wondering about an M3 but really fancy stereo sound, your setup sounds impressive.

My first point of call will be the Beolab 4 directly connected to the line out of my dock in the short term but then I will def get a Essence MK2 to run it as a second phase to my plan.

It would drive me mad if my room could not be seen in the Bli :)

I prob wont play anything apart from the computer on these speakers but one day I might so essence is the way to go, was thinking about a core but far to expensive 2nd hand for this.

Only annoying thing in the short term is the Lab4's will be on all the time when in line mode but that will be sorted by the Essence

You need speakers for you personally or for general sound in the office? Just if you only need melody, then it is better to listen to it with headphones to not interfere with others in the office. For example, I once had such an unpleasant case. I rent an office on osdoro and decided to connect speakers so that the whole office plays some music for more productive work. Above us, another company rents an office and once they came to complain to me that our music interferes with them. Since then, every employee listens to music with headphones. So think carefully about whether you really need these speakers.