Beolab 50 calibration

Hello,

I hope everyone has had a nice new year and let’s hope for the best for 2021!

I recently bought a calibration microphone for my beolab 50s and before I calibrate I wonder if I should change the distance settings in my beovision. For now my 50s internal settings are set to distance 0.0 meters on both right and left but I have set the correct distance to the speakers (and my other speakers) in my tv.

I wonder if the tv settings should be set to 0.0 meter and the correct distance should be set in the speakers instead or vice versa - or both. I worry that if it is set in both devices (50 & tv) that the latency will be doubled as the speakers themself will compensate for the distance and the tv too. That’s at least my logic in the matter.

At the same time I know that less processing is made on powerlink input than the others but I don’t know if the distance setting is disregarded or not.

It’s a bit confusing and I need to find a straight answer so I don’t make the sound only worse.

I also noticed that there is a MIC input RJ45 also on the tv (eclipse Gen 2). Can this be used with the same microphone as the speakers? It has the same contact but no info came with the mic. Only a stand. So strange. It’s like B&O is trying it’s best to keep information away from their customers.

By the way, I have the new iPhone 12 Pro Max and I used it to measure the distance between speakers and my preferred seating position. It works awesome thanks to the Lidar sensor and is probably way better than any regular measuring device.

Mic doesn’t work on the eclipse, port is not active.

I have only set the distance on the harmony. The mic will figure the rest out for tuning. One thing that is important it to point the mic up when you measure.

For measuring distance i use a laser measure and it’s accurate more accurate than either bv or bl knows what to do with.

Mikipidia:

Mic doesn’t work on the eclipse, port is not active.

I have only set the distance on the harmony. The mic will figure the rest out for tuning. One thing that is important it to point the mic up when you measure.

For measuring distance i use a laser measure and it’s accurate more accurate than either bv or bl knows what to do with. New: Beovision Harmony, Beolab 50's, Beolab 18's, Beolab 17's, Beolab 3's, Beosound 9000 mk3, Beosound Stage & LG, Beosound 2, Beoplay M3, Beoplay A1, Beoplay H4 gen 2, Beoplay E8 3.0

Mikipedia on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Mikipedia

mikipedi4 on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mikipedi4

Old: Beovision Eclipse, Beolab 1's, Beolab 2, Beovision 10-46, Overture 2300, beolab 8000's, Beolab 4000's, Beovision avant 32" etc. etc.

Thanks!

But what does the distance setting do in the speakers then? For example if I play music using my Beosound core or usb interface, will not that make the sound come out in the wrong way?

Weird that the MIC input exist on the eclipse but isn’t in use.

Lidar is laser so I believe the iPhone measurement should be equally excellent or better, right?

Not the wrong way, just at 0 distance, the distance is iirc meant for external sources not connect to a bv but to the 50’s themselves.

The apple measuring app is fairly accurate, not as acurate as a laser measure. I’ve tried it too with good succes, but i’ve also had it up to 5cm out. Not that that matters a whole lot as the distance with b&o is only done in 10cm increments. With my laser measure i measure literally from where my ears are and that’s not something you can do with an iphone unless you have someone else do it for your

Mikipidia:

Not the wrong way, just at 0 distance, the distance is iirc meant for external sources not connect to a bv but to the 50’s themselves.

The apple measuring app is fairly accurate, not as acurate as a laser measure. I’ve tried it too with good succes, but i’ve also had it up to 5cm out. Not that that matters a whole lot as the distance with b&o is only done in 10cm increments. With my laser measure i measure literally from where my ears are and that’s not something you can do with an iphone unless you have someone else do it for your New: Beovision Harmony, Beolab 50's, Beolab 18's, Beolab 17's, Beolab 3's, Beosound 9000 mk3, Beosound Stage & LG, Beosound 2, Beoplay M3, Beoplay A1, Beoplay H4 gen 2, Beoplay E8 3.0

Mikipedia on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Mikipedia

mikipedi4 on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mikipedi4

Old: Beovision Eclipse, Beolab 1's, Beolab 2, Beovision 10-46, Overture 2300, beolab 8000's, Beolab 4000's, Beovision avant 32" etc. etc.

I don’t usually sit in the exact same place either. I rather move a lot in my sofa :) but I do think the iPhone Lidar laser is totally accurate as it’s also laser and calibrated. The older iPhones (12 regular, 11 and down) doesn’t have Lidar so they are less accurate though. But I might buy a laser to compare. But seems very good and during Christmas I measured walls at my family and every measurement came out perfect. So i think it’s fairly accurate :).

Do you have any source that states what the internal distance info is for? I guess it’s there for a reason so having it on 0.0 seems weird to me. I mean, if it’s not for use then it shouldn’t be a setting right? Sorry for being picky, I’m an OCD guy so I need to know things 😃

I am a bit more perplexed now after reading on Geoffs blog that setting the distance and level of the speakers should be made manually and not by using the ARC calibration. So I think the distance should be put into the speakers, but then, should it also be put into the TV? That is hard to know. 

Is Geoff here and might want to fill in the blanks? :)

From the blog:
Regarding your question regarding automatic setup of Speaker Distance or Level using the ARC measurements: Of course, this is technically possible. However, doing so would introduce a User Interface or procedural issue. For example, we need 3 measurements for the ARC filter calculation for one zone. Which of those three measurements should be used for the distance or level? Or should we use 2 or 3 of the measurements to arrive at a best solution – or none? The only “correct” answer is to ask the user when the measurements are performed, which makes the measurement procedure “clunky”. The cleaner path is to separate the ARC measurements from the distance and level and make those independently adjustable. 

 

From the technical sound guide: 

The Speaker Distance control is used to ensure that the times of arrival of the loudspeakers’ signals at the listening position are matched, despite their being placed at different distances from the listening position. The value displayed on the menu should be the distance from the listening position to each loudspeaker. The result of this alignment is that the closer loudspeaker’s signal is delayed to match the time of arrival of the sound from the more distant loudspeaker.

Note that, since the Listening Position can be different for different Presets, these distances may not necessarily be the same from Preset to Preset.

 

 

My experience from speaker setup.

Set the speakers for both music and film on beovision.

The first thing to do is set up the speakers for music. If possible, set the speakers at the same distance from the TV and from the rear wall. Measure an equilateral triangle and twist the speakers so they hit just behind the center seat. It is important for the movie experience to turn the speakers. Otherwise, the right seat gets too much of the right sound and left too much of the left sound.

After that, you set the distance on all speakers in the TV menu. If you have beolab 50 or 90 then it is better to set the delay of 8.6m in the app and the rest in the TV. It will be easier then. Make sure you have the phantom center in the middle of the TV. You can also check it with audio / video sync test on youtube. On my beolab 50 master I had to add 0.1m. Had the same problem on beolab 20 that I returnef. Not happy with the sound.

The next step is to set the sound level. It is easiest to do this with db meter app. If you set the front too high, they take over the center. Then the sound image is distorted. There is a reason why one cannot adjust the level of the center. The center is the most important speaker in video setup. It is also equally important to have the right level of the surround speakers. If you run beolab transmitter as I do on the rear beolab 17 you should ad 0,2m for the transmitter delay.

Michael, You have to set the distance for sources connected directly to the 50s. But you also have to set the same distance and presets on the tv/ There’s a setup video where Geoff Martin goes through the entire calibration process from star to finish. Setting the distance to 0 will mess up the imaging of the sound. I have microphone, the 50s and eclipse to can attest to this 

That video (Beolab 50 Setting up) can be found here.........and is a must-see for all of those, who want to set up the 50’s/the 50’s connected to a Bang & Olufsen tv by themselves:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRPmJ785xnMi0nBHAKH25GbHItnj_1E8Q

MM 

However.....

Millemissen:

However.....

There is a tv - and there is a BV.

But if you use both then you have double the distance to play with on a b&o tv.

Esax:

But if you use both then you have double the distance to play with on a b&o tv. Beovision 7-55 MK1 red, Beolab 10 red. Beolab 50, all black. Beolab 17 broken ice. Beolab transmitter. Apple tv4 and apple express 2.

Maybe the speakers don’t use the distance in the speakers when used with powerlink input?

Who knows for sure though? A lot of contradicting info here

Michael:

Maybe the speakers don’t use the distance in the speakers when used with powerlink input?

Who knows for sure though? A lot of contradicting info here Beolab 50, Beolab 8000 x 2, Beolab 4000 x 2, BeoSound Core, BeoSound 9000, BeoSound Century, BeoLit 15, BeoPlay A1, BeoPlay P2, BeoPlay H9 3rd Gen, BeoPlay H6, EarSet 3i, BeoVision Eclipse Gen 2 55", BeoPlay V1-40, BeoCom 6000 and so much else :)

Mine does with bv 7-55. Someone could test on a eclipse or harmony.

My experience (from long time back)

1. Set up Eclipse, BL90, BL3, no sound bar in the menus

2. Set up BL90 in the App (the 90s also talk to the Eclipse on the fine tuning)

3. I have almost a 3.8m equilateral triangle, slight toe in, 0.5m from the back wall, enter measurements.

4. Calibrate for your listening pos on the ARC/beam etc

5. Fine tune the db for L/R

 

To me, the biggest issue are the centre speakers. They clearly stand out (in not a good way) against the BL90s. I prefer a phantom centre and I’m guessing this would remove most setup issues of distance setup?

Hi Michael,

My experience with Eclipse 65 mk1 is that when BL 50 is connected with powerlink then all sttings in the speakers menu is disconnected (left/right,distance,db control). You make all these settings ONLY in the tv.

IF you have also an external streamer connected directly to the speakers then make a special preset for this input and make all the settings in the speakers. Here you should also set latency to HIGH instead of Auto when using powerlink from a BO TV.

It is better to seperate with different presets in the speakers between external inputs directly to the speakers and the powerlink from a BO TV.

Best regards

Martin