ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hello Peter and Svend fans !
Once in a while, I think that I may get an A8 because I'm fed up of hooking an Ipad or Iphone to the Aux. of my BS9000 and cannot control it (and the sound is rather poor).
I'm also fed up of hooking the airport express to the BS9000 to have control of the Ithing.
For personnal reasons, we don't have permanent wifi at home so airport express is stored 95% of the time.
So a BS8, sorry a BeoPlay A8, could be a good idea, I need simple stuff and it's simple.
Also the sound is quite good for the price.
Unfortunately, the only room I could enjoy the BS8 is the "family" room where whe have BS9000 with Beolab 8000.
It could go in the kitchen but I have a BS3 that I use everyday for Fm radio (breakfast) and memory card (after dinner). To use BS8 in the kitchen for the same purposes (radio) I would need wifi (and I don't whant it).
So my question is how can you manage to have a BS9000 and a BS8 in the same room and use the beo4 or the BS8 remote ? How do you control A8 with the beo4 (A. mem ?).
Will you do it or stick with your BS9000 and ignore the A8 ?
Thanks,
Gregory
Wow! What a conundrum. Since you don't have wifi ( radiation paranoia?), I suggest you not go ahead with the A8 and I heard there is frequent wifi dropouts anyway, I have the Beosound 8 so I have no personal experience with the A8.
IMHO You should let technology work for you and not the other way round. I suggest that you get a high quality Ipod dock come DAC via RCA to your BeoLab8000 straight. You might be surprised how much better is the sound quality is via iPod/Ipad with a good dac straight to your 8000s than say the Besound 9000 to the Lab8000s.
There's so many DAC options out there with now i docking facilities I guess your budget is below $1000?
The Musical Fidelity M1 clic is the obvious solution but then again you don't require the streaming facility..... I am guessing
There's the Pioneer N50 but it has streaming also.
There's the HP-P1 from Fostex that is mainly built as a portable i DAC/ headphone amplifier which I am using but only for headphone.
If you are into SD playback perhaps the high-end Fostex HP-A8C? no i functionality though. But you can of course add an i transport connected to the digital input if you like. I am planning to get this for my future Beolab 12-3 system.
There's of course the Arcam Ipod dock which is cheap and cheerful. Not to mention an HDMI output that will come in handy too. If it is too low performing for the Lab8000s via the rca output you can perhaps add a separate DAC to it in the future.
Or there is the Arcam rDACkw with Kleer wireless connection to your i device or computer. But the rWand is only compatible with the old i connection though. I suspect a replacement rWand to be available soon for the latest generation of i devices... you know since the rWand is a separate purchase anyway. For wireless computer streaming you will need the rWave. These are all done not via wifi. (For this I suggest you get from www.russandrews.com so you have the option of getting the power supply upgrade along with quality RCA cables or even upgrade your stock lab8000 power cables with PowerKord-8 too all without even getting your ass out of the sofa.) You can hide this DAC out of sight behind your BeoSound 9000 and you can still playback your Ipod Wirelessly not via wifi.
Gosh I almost forgot I have the Nuforce iDo that I connect to a pair of vintage Lab 6000s straight. Quite good better than the old Beosounds . And dirt cheap.
BeoGreg: So my question is how can you manage to have a BS9000 and a BS8 in the same room and use the beo4 or the BS8 remote ? How do you control A8 with the beo4 (A. mem ?).
Thanks for your detailed answer wonderfulelectric.
You may be right, I have to try the DAC solution but I don't know what a DAC is !
I really need simplicity, wich is for me less connections, less wires, less buttons...that's why I 'm thinking of a BS8 (one electric wire and that's all !).
With the Beolab 8000s, can you have a DAC on "line" and a BS9000 on "powerlink" at the same time ?
I suppose I won't be able to use my beo4 with all the devices you have listed.
Thanks DoubleU, now I figure how it will work in the same room. Great.
Sorry for my ignorance, but wich link source it will be (can't be cd or radio for example) to switch on/off the Ipod/phone on the A8 dock ?
I have the BS9000/BL8000 pairing as well. I have full time wireless, so that's not an issue, but I don't connect either my iPhone or iPad to the BS9000. I have a PC I use for a music server, running Windows 7 but with iTunes installed. I take the USB out of the PC to a USB DAC (digital to analog converter) that sounds much better than the internal sound card of my PC, and from there into the Aux inputs of the BS.
I do control the iTunes on the PC from my iPad, makes it easier for me to sit on my lazy backside and select music, build playlists, etc. but you don't really have to have wireless if you don't want to do that, you can control it directly from the PC keyboard without wireless access.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Thanks Jeff, that's another solution.
My concern is that my computers (1 Mac, 2 PCs) are far away from my music system.
I always read with interest the discussions about computers and music systems but I don't thnik it's for me. I'm in front of a computer screen all day long and it requires to many wires.
Cheers,
I wouldn't do the A8. you will have them in direct competition to the BS8000 and sound wise you won't be that happy.
you could do an airport express that can launch its own wifi network. The playmaker can do that too but it will have a light blinking if I am not mistaken.
if you don't want to deal with wifi, you could get a blue tooth receiver, for example the Dr Dre Pill speakers have that built in you could just connect them to the BS9000 and use that.
I have he playmaker and enjoy that thing a lot.
jk1002:I wouldn't do the A8. you will have them in direct competition to the BS8000 and sound wise you won't be that happy.
Sorry for the delayed reply.
Just think of a dac as an interface to take data from a media say a CD or an Ipod that converts to something that can be fed into amplifiers.
I think the Arcam rDAC-KW might be your answer. You get to connect your i-devices wirelessly to your BL8000s without Wifi but your main problem will be that you have to switch the powerlink input to RCA manually when you want to listen to it direct. Much better sound quality this way. Do you use your BS9000 as often as your i-devices or your computer? That is where the problem lies . Otherwise you can of course connect the Arcam rDAC-KW to your BS9000 via A.aux in too and still listen to your i-devices or computer wirelessly.( You need a different set of cables from the Arcam to the BS9000 from the Airport Express though. You need to get it from your B&O dealer.) The Arcam is an extremely small device that you can hide easily. But the wireless connectivity is only 10 meters. No Wifi needed but that is the reason why there is a distance limit. Just go to the Arcam website to check it out.
The Arcam rDAC has been around for a while. The KW version just adds the Kleer wireless technology. There are two wireless dongle versions and each you have to buy separately, one is for USB (rWave) with range of 50meters and then there is the one for your i-devices (rWand) with range around 10 meters. Reason why only 10 meters with the i-devices I think is due to the limited power supplied.
And you already have a superior sound system in the living so don't bother with the A8 if you are going to have it in the same room. The BeoSound 8 sounds great on its own though so get it for another room if your like.
PS. You don't have to control using the Beo4 if connected directly to the Beolab8000 because you have the main device ( the iPad or iPhone or even computer) in your hands and you control your track selection and volume from there.
( Remember to always store your CDs lossless in AIFF,Wav or even Apple lossless. Hard disk space is cheap these days and the sound quality lost is permanent when stored compressed)
BeoGreg: Thanks DoubleU, now I figure how it will work in the same room. Great. Sorry for my ignorance, but wich link source it will be (can't be cd or radio for example) to switch on/off the Ipod/phone on the A8 dock ? Gregory
Just a dumb guess by me, but I would try LINK-AUX or LINK-AV or even LINK-PC (and probably in that order!).
BeoNut since '75
A.MEM for Airplay
N.MUSIC for USB (L.N.MUSIC)
CD if docked
A.AUX for line-in