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This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
hi
I have a Beosound 4 and Beolab 3 speakers. I am going to repurpose some or all elements of the system from being a CD player into a Tidal music player via an additional streamer/dac purchase.
Now my conundrum is do i need / keep the Beosound 4 in the loop or just get the leads from Steve at Sounds Heavenly and connect the steamer/dac directly to the Beolab 3’s?
2. When only using the Beosound 4 as a throughput from the aux into the Beolab 3’s is the Beosound 4 impacting on the quality of the sound - either in a good way or bad way. I have the sound settings in it set to zero and enhancements turned off. I guess it gives an another volume control setting in additional to the one in the streamer/dac. But is that too may in the system?
3. Beside the loss of a CD player, SD card reader and radio which are all online for me now is there a need to keep the Beosound in the system that im missing?
Ultimately which option will give me the best sound enjoyment of my favourite music?
cheers
Would your new streamer have a remote? Do you currently have a remote for the BS4? I think a remote is mandatory with streaming services because the music is not level set (at least not on Deezer or Spotify - never used Tidal).
From a sound perspective, I doubt if I could hear the difference between having the BS4 in the chain or not, but I'm getting old so my hearing isn't what it once was. Generally speaking, most of what you hear is mostly influenced by the speakers and the room vs. all the other components in the audio chain (assuming none of these components are weak).
The D/A conversion is happening in the DAC/Streamer, and the BS4 is just routing the analog audio from the aux input through a pre-amp to the speakers. Probably not a lot happening there to influence the sound, but you never know. A "purist" would say get rid of it, but we're not all purists.
If you don't want the CDs, SD, radio or remote control, I don't think you're missing anything by getting rid of it. Although, you may not be gaining much either.
I don't use the remote. Still boxed up from when i bought it. System is connected to my laptop so i just use the volume button on the laptop for 90% of the time.
Im happy to keep the Beosound 4 in the loop if not impacting negative on the sound that i could get by going direct to the Beolabs
yaksemash:I don't use the remote. Still boxed up from when i bought it. System is connected to my laptop so i just use the volume button on the laptop for 90% of the time. Im happy to keep the Beosound 4 in the loop if not impacting negative on the sound that i could get by going direct to the Beolabs
Agree, keep the BS4.
The best way by far to control the volume of the 3’s through a preamp - the BS’s are made for controlling Beolabs!
Of course you can do a direct connection as Steve offers, but you will have a much more smooth and precise control of the SP level with the BS volume buttons - or rather with the Beo4 remote.
Best way to connect a pc/streamer is to set its volume to approx max and let it stay - and then do the volume controlling with the Beo4.
If your future streamer has the option of sending the sound as ‘line-out’, please choose this in order to have as low a noise floor, when you connect it to the BS4.
As always....try things out to see, what fits you best.....you obviously never tried the Beo4 for volume controlling.
A lot of users won’t let go of controlling the volume directly from the app (for the streamer) - it is handsome/convinient, but not the best way soundwise to do it.
Whether you will notice a difference in your setup, only some testing will tell.
(If you keep rhe BS4, you’d always have the option of adding a linked room (using MasterLink), where you also can listen to what you stream).
Happy testing!
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV