BeoSound Level left/right channels reversed

I couldn’t resist any longer - I treated myself to a BeoSound Level in gold tone with wooden fret. Apart from the annoyance of setting it up without activating GVA (no non-GVA in stock at the dealer) I love it.

With every new piece of B&O that I buy, I play a playlist containing both test and music tracks, to properly assess the sound quality. With the BS Level standing on edge, I was surprised to find that left and right channels are reversed.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Really ? 

in what Song can we Check it? 

Thanks for the response.

It’s a Denon test Cd that has separate Left and Right voice recordings.

After I get home tonight I’ll see which way the “sparkles” pan on ELO - Confusion.

Edmabu:

in what Song can we Check it?

Courtesy of @LuffeDK in another thread: https://youtu.be/hTvJoYnpeRQ   Use AirPlay to send it to the speaker from your Apple (of course) phone/tablet/computer.

Thanks for sharing that, trackbeo. That sounds incorrect as well (the wrong way round). I’m sending music to the BS Level via Airplay.

I’ve just reported the issue to B&O via the iOS app.

I would be grateful if other BS Level owners could try playing that YouTube link or other known left/right segregated track to see whether this is a common issue or an isolated one. Thank you in advance.

Lawrence

I reported the issue to B&O via the iOS app (“Contact Support”) on Monday and Tuesday this week. I haven’t even received an acknowledgement.

I’ve now emailed them directly to see if that makes any difference.

Whilst B&O Support did respond after I directly emailed them, I took the BS Level back to the Oslo store where I bought it. The kind man who originally sold it to me discussed the matter with Support.

Apparently it is a software issue affecting all BS Level speakers, and will be fixed in an update.

lawrencejmcook:

Apparently it is a software issue affecting all BS Level speakers, and will be fixed in an update.

Insane that something like that slip through on a premium product.....

Hi Hiort,

It looks like a few products were adversely affected by the latest updates, E.g. Harmony losing Chromecast, BS35 losing IR. Looks like regression testing did not receive sufficient focus.

i am in the same boat. I bought the gold/wooden version last week and immediatelly noticed that the stereo image on songs that i know very well sounds awkward. The left/right channel test tracks (either from Youtube or Apple Music, streamed to the Level via Airplay) resulted in the following: 

• The “left channel” voice was coming from the wooden fret, slightly to the right of the center (the Level was set on the table with the speakers towards my face and touch controls on the top)
• The “right channel” voice was coming from the wooden fret, slightly to the left 

the same tracks played from the iPad inernal speakers were coming from the correct side and much more obviously away from the centre.

It seems that with Level it was not just the left/right orientation being wrong, but the stereo separation is very compressed. Not that i was expecting the same stereo separation as from a proper 2-speaker stereo system, but I was still somewhat disappointed. 

An unrelated issue is that the last step in setting up GVA/chromecast in Google Home app always fails with “connection failed”, even though the google home app always “sees”/finds the Level as a new device. I tried in 3 different wifi networks, in 5ghz as well as 2.4gHz, with an iphone and android phone, factory reset more than 20 times, always the same error in the final step. B&O support was useless, telling me that the iPhone cannot be used with Google Home and that the setup can only work with an android phone (!?) - the latter didnt work either. I gave up and now have a device without GVA and without bluetooth streaming (GVA set up seems to be a prerequisite for bluettoh streaming?).

yaccobo:

It seems that with Level it was not just the left/right orientation being wrong, but the stereo separation is very compressed. Not that i was expecting the same stereo separation as from a proper 2-speaker stereo system, but I was still somewhat disappointed.

Hi yaccobo,

Yes, I agree that the stereo width is not great in the “standing up” orientation (the primary way I listen to it), but the left/right reversal was more surprising given that the speaker driver arrangement is so clearly left/right.

yaccobo:

An unrelated issue is that the last step in setting up GVA/chromecast in Google Home app always fails with “connection failed”, even though the google home app always “sees”/finds the Level as a new device. I tried in 3 different wifi networks, in 5ghz as well as 2.4gHz, with an iphone and android phone, factory reset more than 20 times, always the same error in the final step. B&O support was useless, telling me that the iPhone cannot be used with Google Home and that the setup can only work with an android phone (!?) - the latter didnt work either. I gave up and now have a device without GVA and without bluetooth streaming (GVA set up seems to be a prerequisite for bluettoh streaming?).

I have not tried to set up GVA. Like you, I was disappointed that setting up GVA is a pre-requisite for bluetooth pairing - this seems illogical to me. The nice man at the Oslo Sentrum store said that I would only have to use the Google Home app to enable bluetooth and can then delete the app. I might try that later today, but in all honesty AirPlay is fine for me and the vast majority of my guests.

Have you tried connecting the BS Level via Ethernet when setting up Google Home?

What was the error message?

Hi folks,

A few days ago my BeoSound Level’s software was updated from ver 1.6.25000.10334 to ver 1.7.40060.11443

Unfortunately, the left/right channel reversal was not fixed. Still waiting.