BeoPlay A9 - problems with the touch interface

Hi all,

I recently purchased a BeoPlay A9 mkII Love Affair Edition, and I am generally very pleased with my purchase.

However, there is an issue that I am facing and which I cannot ignore. Specifically, the touch controls interface does not always work as it should.

Whenever I stream music on my A9 (regardless of the source - I have tried them all) and I rest my hand on the touch-sensitive surface, the music stops playing (pauses). However, when I briefly remove my hand and rest it again, it does not resume (play) as it should have (and as advertised). Furthermore, when I resume the playback from the device I was using (which is now the only way to do so), the speakers remain muted and I have to do the "volume control" gesture (stroke) in order to either increase or decrease the playback volume in order to unmute it (doing so from the device does not work). This is hardly a convenient way to operate the A9, and what should have been intuitive becomes cumbersome.

In addition, on some occasions, if I lower the volume all the way down (using the gesture), then it does not return to an adequately high volume no matter how many times I slide my hand clockwise. It just reaches a minimum volume and then I have to change the volume from the playback device instead in order to reach a normal listening volume. This is minor, but it is also not convenient and not what I have come to expect from B&O.

Does anyone know whether this is a known issue, and whether it is hardware or software related (even though I have since installed a new software update). Is there a fix that I can try?

I have submitted a BeoCare request and will update this thread accordingly, but I thought that perhaps someone has had the same problems and know a way to address them.

Thank you all for your input and assistance!

Harry

Hi Harry

Great post and I love the look of the Love Affair Collection A9 - i find the a9 to be such a surprising product. 

When turning off your a9, you should tap it, i find that you tap the back of it rather than the outer ring - if you hold your hand instead of tap that tells the a9 to turn off all the products in a NL setup. 

When i turn mine on, i tap it and it normally starts with the Tune In service but if i tap again to change the source sometimes it takes a little bit because it is looking sometimes for my phone as i also stream to it, then i tap again to go to Deezer.  What i would love is a voice over when tapping so it tells you the source

When i turn the volume up and down on the a9 and if i am using the BeoApp i see on my iphone the volume go up and down (well i have done and maybe this was bluetooth, i cant recall, but it does happen) 

Have you looked in to the settings on the Beo Setup App, as there is a setting there for maximum volume.  There are a lot of settings there. 

Hope this helps you.

Cheers

Michael

Hi Michael,

I'm glad that you liked my post, and thank you for your very informative and detailed reply.

A9 is also one of my favourite new B&O speakers (along with the BL18) and it truly is a great product. Especially in the rose gold or the new brass finish, combined with the beautiful covers by Kvardat (I find that the Dark Rose perfectly complements the rose gold A9).

I do touch the back - rather than the outer ring - but I did not know that a long rest would turn off all NL products... I will try tapping it instead of a long "press", but the problem I'm having is with waking it up (resuming playback) rather than pausing / muting it / turning it off  (which works fine).

Yes, when using the BeoMusic app the volume wheel does display the volume change, but I think that's not the case when using another app such as Deezer or Spotify I believe (I will need to check it again to make sure). I have played a bit (a lot!) with the setting on the BeoSetup app and I saw the option to specify something like the "starting volume"  - which was set to quiet I think - and the "maximum volume" - which was set to the maximum value. I believe those were the default options too...

I will play around a bit when I get hope and will report back. I will also report when (if?) I hear back from BeoCare. I submitted a "complaint" so hopefully it won't take as long as it has on occasion.

Thank you again for contributing Michael!

Harry

My pleasure Harry.

I think on the video they show tapping the top but not the fingers that touch the back.

In tune in you can set up your favourite stations and you can change the stations in your favourite list by tapping the left and right hand side of he volume control. It's a neat touch.

Let us know how you go with beo are and if you have any troubles I can take you through it.

Aussie Michael:

My pleasure Harry.

I think on the video they show tapping the top but not the fingers that touch the back.

In tune in you can set up your favourite stations and you can change the stations in your favourite list by tapping the left and right hand side of he volume control. It's a neat touch.

Let us know how you go with beo are and if you have any troubles I can take you through it.

Cheers Michael, I truly appreciate your input!

I have already set up TuneIn and it works great so far, I hadn't tried changing stations via the touch interface though, so I will giva that a try today as well

I will certainly keep this thread updated for any new developments...

Hi,

In case you did not know, you can change the order of the sources that you flip between (by tapping in the middle).

I.e you may want the "wakeup tap" to start TuneIN and a second tap to start Deezer.

You do those changes in the Beosetup app.

 

 

 

Hiort:

Hi,

In case you did not know, you can change the order of the sources that you flip between (by tapping in the middle).

I.e you may want the "wakeup tap" to start TuneIN and a second tap to start Deezer.

You do those changes in the Beosetup app.

Hi Hiort,

Thank you for your input as well. I had noticed that you could rearrange the list of the available sources (and enable / disable them) but I had not linked that with the "wakeup" function specifically. Looks like there are still a lot to learn

To be honest however, I rarely use the BeoMusic app because it can be counterintuitive at times... Hopefully this wil improve in the future (even though, judging from the frustration that updates cause to Moment users, my expectations are somewhat restrained)

Just a thought however, Michael mentioned that I should briefly "tap" the A9 to pause the playback, but you mention that by "tapping" I switch between different sources. Surely there must be a way to distinguish between the two, and the additional "long rest" which turns off all NL products. Now I'm confused

Here you can see the commands to be used.

More detailed user manual.

 

Hiort:

Here you can see the commands to be used.

More detailed user manual.

Thank you Hiort, those were indeed useful to check.

As far as I can tell, the long "press" does not turn off all NL products (which can only be done via long pressing the power button, not via the touch interface), but mutes / pauses the speaker. A short "tap" on the other hand switches between the various sources, as listed on the BeoSetup app.

Seems straightforward for now, but my problem is sadly still not resolved, given that a long "press" does not resume playback after pausing.

Hi all,

So, for what it's worth, it looks like I didn't spend enough time fiddling around with the A9, the various gestures, as well as the various inputs.

First of all, I am very happy to report (but I apologize for raising the alarm so soon) that my A9 thankfully works as it should. I simply had the wrong impression that in order to resume playback you need to long "press" (rest your hand for around 1 second). That is not the case however. To sum up:

- Pause: In order to pause playback you need to "long press" for around 1 second (until the left light blinks)

- Resume: In order to resume playback you need to "tap" (i.e. only briefly place you hand on the touch sensitive ring, for less than 1 second). If you "long press" again then nothing will happen. This is somewhat confusing and counter intuitive I would say. The play and pause gestures should have been the same.

- Change sources: During playback, if you "tap" in the middle of the ring you will shift between the specified sources

- Change tracks: During playback, if you "tap" either on the right (skip forward) or the left (skip backwards) on the ring, then you will change tracks

- Turn off all NL speakers: You need to "extra-long press" (i.e. rest your hand for around 5 seconds on the touch sensitive ring)

These gestures work regardless of the app that is used for the playback, but (at lease in my case, and using an iPhone 6S and streaming over Airplay or Google Cast) Deezer was surprisingly laggy in registering some gestures at times (specifically if used repeatedly to change many tracks at a time for example, or when raising and lowering volume rapidly) whereas BeoMusic was much more responsive.

What struck me as odd is that, when playing over the Deezer app, if I opened BeoMusic then the song playing would be displayed, but the progress bar (showing how much of the song has been played so far and so on) remained static unless I paused the playback (when the correct time was registered). This is odd I think, since obviously the app knows what is being played so why not display all the available information?

Also, regarding the playback volume, when using the gesture controls along with the Deezer app (perhaps because of the lag in the app's response) sometimes the volume level (as displayed on the app and as communicated to the A9) did not correspond to the actual level played back by the A9. For instance: after repeatedly moving my hand back and forth along the ring, the volume displayed was around 80% but the music was playing back at around 50%. However, as soon as I switched from Deezer to BeoMusic (or I assume if I skipped tracks) the actual output switched to 80% (and my ears almost fell off!). This is a "bug" that relates to software integration I assume, and can be easily avoided if you don't play too much (and rapidly) around with the touch sensitive volume controls.

I apologise for the many (and long) posts. Hopefully someone will find some value in my observations and reporting in the future.

Thank you everyone for your contributions!

I found interest in reading your post.

Aussie Michael:

I found interest in reading your post.

Then I'm glad I took the time to write it