Hi,

Sorry – but I can’t answer your questions. The automotive sound systems are outside my “jurisdiction” so to speak…

I will forward your comments to the appropriate persons, though.

Cheers
-geoff

Hi Paul,

My articles are intended to be more about the technology behind B&O products and not the products themselves. Beolab 90 is somewhat of an exception, since it is the only loudspeaker in our portfolio that contains some features such as Beam Width Control or Active Room Compensation.

To answer some of your questions: there is no difference in the frequency range or frequency response of a Beolab loudspeaker when switching from Power Link to Wireless Power Link. There is a change in the signal to noise ratio, since the wired connection has a slightly higher noise floor. On the other hand, in the case of some installations, there may be some errors in the wireless signal – but in all our testing, the error concealment algorithm built into the system makes these errors inaudible.

The theoretical maximum sampling rate of WiSA is 96 kHz. However, when you are using a B&O transmitter (named “Wireless Power Link”, since it is a WiSA signal and a proprietary communication channel, similar to Power Link Data) we limit the sampling rate to 48 kHz to improve the overall performance of the system.

I do not have the Frequency Range spec’s for the 18 and I’m currently travelling. I will try to get these when I return to work. If you’d like to know more about Frequency Range in general (and why it’s not a terribly meaningful indicator of anything), this article might be of interest.

A Frequency Range for a subwoofer doesn’t make much sense due to its limited bandwidth – so I doubt that this will be a specification that we would release, but I can check on this for you when I return as well.

It is certainly better to have two subwoofers instead of one. There has been much research done on this topic back about 15-20 years ago. The bulk of the reason has to do with the coupling of the loudspeakers to the room. This is why it is better in almost all cases to have full-range loudspeakers rather than an x.1 system.

If you put your subwoofer in a corner, you will have a case where you are maximising the coupling of the loudspeakers to the room modes. If you like bass, this means you’ll get more of it – but at the resonant frequencies of your room… Almost all B&O loudspeakers have a built-in filter that can do some general compensation for corner placement. This issue is discussed here. In addition to this, the BeoLab 19 has extra controls for alignment with your main loudspeakers. These are discussed here – although not all of the things mentioned in this article will be directly applicable to you, depending on how you connect your loudspeakers to your source.

To answer your last question – I never recommend any loudspeakers, since the choice of loudspeaker is a very personal one, depending on usage, taste, and preference. The only recommendation that I have is that no one should ever buy a loudspeaker without having heard it with their own music, preferably in their own listening room.

I hope that this adequately answers at least some of your questions.

Cheers
-geoff

Hi Dante,

This is a very big / dangerous question due to the fact that the answer may offend the religious…

As I wrote in the Technical Sound Guide for the BeoLab 90, we recommend that you do NOT buy expensive AC Mains cables or “power conditioners” for the BeoLab 90, since this will potentially introduce an increase in impedance between the loudspeakers’ mains input and the circuit breakers in your house. In addition, the BeoLab 90’s have power filtering built into their power supplies, so additional filtering is redundant.

As to spending a fortune on cables:
– If the cable is for an S/P-DIF input, then it is wise to ensure that you are using a cable with the correct impedance to reduce the possibility and influence of reflections on long cable runs. This does not necessarily mean that you need to spend a lot of money. Of course, this is dependent on the jitter attenuation capabilities of your digital input.
– If the cable is for an analogue input, I, for one, don’t have a religious belief in expensive cables. I believe in good grounding, good shielding, correct balancing (if you’re using a balanced cable), good (very low impedance) connections, and the low-pass filtering effects caused by the RC network created in the wire itself. Again, a well-designed interconnect need not require re-mortgaging your house. And, as I tried to imply (actually, I was too explicit to pretend that I was implying anything…) in this posting, moving 10 cm in the room will have a larger effect than changing your wires…

I once heard a wise man say at an AES conference that people have to believe that expensive cables sound better – if they didn’t, then this means that they wasted their money, which is not an option…

cheers
-geoff

Hi Jeff,

There’s no way to reliably answer this question without more information. The problem is that the question is heavily dependent on the specific characteristics of the “limitations” and “flaws”. In a perfect world, all pieces of the chain reach their limits simultaneously… If they don’t, then you have to choose, for example, between a loudspeaker that reveals the clipping of your amplifier, or an amplifier that can drive your woofer to bottom out on the magnet (to pick just two examples of system limits).

Cheers
-geoff

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for your kind words!

If you’re buying a non-B&O device, then I would suggest that you find a stereo preamp with RCA/cinch line outputs that best suits the requirements imposed by your devices “upstream”. If the output can deliver (A) adequate output levels (2 V RMS minimum as a maximum output level) (B) a good signal-to-noise ratio and (C) reasonably flat frequency response, then you’re “safe”. It is unnecessary to buy a dream with built-in room compensation, since the BeoLab 5’s have ABC. I hope, however, that it’s understandable that I cannot recommend a specific brand or device…

Once everything is installed, I would suggest that you spend some time adjusting levels on your preamp and loudspeakers to ensure that you maintain the best signal-to-noise ratio. This is a balancing act between the startup volume of the BeoLab 5’s, the setting of their line input with respect to expected voltage, and the output level of the preamp – so there is no out-of-the-box answer for this – it will have to be calibrated by your installer.

I hope that you’re happy with your birthday gift!

Cheers
– geoff

Hi Manuel,

Without knowing the levels that you’ll be playing at, or anything else about the system, I would recommend that you use a 4th-order (24 dB / octave) Linkwitz-Riley crossover with a centre frequency of 120 Hz for your bass mangement system.

However, if you’re typically playing at lower levels, then you can drop the frequency to 80 Hz or so.

Also, if the loudspeaker placement and / or acoustical behaviour of the room dictate, it may be necessary to include additional EQ, phase, delay, or gain adjustment to align the speakers in the room.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
-geoff