A Glitch in the matrix - beoplay S3

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bh0wee Posted: Wed, Jun 14 2017 7:09 PM

rated by 0 users

Hi,

Thankyou s3 for allowing me to enter the world of b&o. Good to be here.

Intro:

I read an awful lot of reviews on s3, mostly people praising them, which made me buy one myself. Silly consumer that I am. And even though the speaker is very likeable, I want to be honest. I am really amazed how so many people get past this - there is too much treble, LIKE THE TWEETER PLAYS 2 - 3 TIMES ITS OUTPUT.

Words:

Now that I have put it aside, its very fortunate that s3 responds well to EQ. But still don't prefer meddling with the levels. I think this could have been much better straight out of the box. I wish there could be setting to turn the treble down in the unit, and not from the source. The Beoplay  App allows to tune the sound when the speaker plays through bluetooth but even at the warmest of the warm setting, its too bright for my liking.

Everything else is just magically beautiful. There is good amount of low end detail and power. Though it lacks that airy agility it makes up with scale and authority. Nice, neat and punchy. Overall the presentation is very detailed. Its very enjoyable but personally because of the overly enthusiastic treble I found it fatiguing on longer sessions. The sound characteristics also change based on inputs

Inputs:

USB : One of the reasons why I bought this unit was because it supported USB input. I assumed bypassing my PC's analog out and feeding the digits straight to the speaker would be a good Idea. Letting the speaker do all the DACing. Unfortunately there are sound clicks and cracklings every  now and then, which I think are because of empty spaces in the stream, that my PC was too lazy to fill in. But I think s3 is lazy too. It could have done some digital wizardry. When I am most imaginative, I like to think these noises are vinyl crackle. Some tracks have a lot of hiss and when there it too much because of the magnified treble. Like  "Disc wars" from Tron Legacy was unbearable, which generally plays good on many speakers. I got only the left channel playing in this mode, the stereo was not mixed. Assuming the right channel would be directed to another s3 if connected. The output is otherwise detailed but it sounds a bit unnatural like boxy, edgy and discrete.Sampling maxed out at 48khz/16bit. :(

Bluetooth: I compared audio from my android phone's bluetooth and phones audio out. The bluetooth had more sense of space. There is no hiss, crackle or clicks, but there are occasional drops. Which can be overlooked.I am assuming most people will use this. And here it wins hands down. Better than most (if not all) speakers in this price range(again if you overlook the treble, man this thing is just unavoidable.)

Aux: From my PCs (crappy) out this sounded the most natural. It was smooth and rounded. I would like to stick to this method contrary to my original intentions. For first play the audio starts after 2 - 5 seconds. (no delay , its just slow to start). But I am okay with that.

All of the above was for a single unit. I am now considering a second s3. I am aware bluetooth stereo pairing has some delay. So I am sticking to old trusty wires.

Discussions:

1.) I would want to know your strategies for reducing the treble. I have currently put a tissue napkin over the tweeter and closed the speaker with cover. It reduced the harshness a bit.

2.) I would want to know your stereo setup and how do you get the best out of these rocks. Any Dac suggestions etc.

I thinks some of the problems could be solved by update, like no stereo mix when playing via usb.

Thanks and have great day :)