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Beolab 50 - addressing the speaker/room interface.

The Kiis get a good review in the Stereophile that dropped through my door earlier. Seemed to like them a lot, though surprisingly the metal cabinets measured as rather resonant. Implied they were a bit of a pain to use without the controller box too.
 
Tony L said:
The Kiis get a good review in the Stereophile that dropped through my door earlier. Seemed to like them a lot, though surprisingly the metal cabinets measured as rather resonant. Implied they were a bit of a pain to use without the controller box too.
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Plastic cabinets, shame they aren't metal like the Opals and Genelecs, looking forward to seeing what they make of the Kii's and they look like all the drivers are generic and not proprietary unlike a lot of other monitors, i suspect if Kii started to make their own drivers the price would be considerably more.
 
My error, the review does refer to polymer cabs and metal back panels, all of which apparently exhibited distinct resonance at 150 and 225Hz which "alarmed" JA and were generally lively up to 400Hz, but none of this was reflected in the listening tests from KR.
 
Tony L said:
My error, the review does refer to polymer cabs and metal back panels, all of which apparently exhibited distinct resonance at 150 and 225Hz which "alarmed" JA and were generally lively up to 400Hz, but none of this was reflected in the listening tests from KR.
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Partly my error too, yes the wrap around plates are alloy! Would have thought they have been pretty inert stuffed full of drivers and amps!
 
The 'controller' adds functionality , latency is adjustable ,contour filters have more options, there are presets available and adds three more connection options , it is also much easier to adjust the speakers ( each speaker is indivuidually adjustable ) sitting in front of the speakers than having to reach behind them.
Keith
 
Ayya Khema said:
oh so you have not compared in the same room with the same source the beaolab, Everest or 800d and you think you can make a serious assesment on how the beolab compares.
worst, you base your opinion of speakers of such quality based on show conditions.

and, you havent heard the beolab 50 yet you are able to say stuff like "Beolab 50 offering a great deal of what the Beolab 90 offered, but at a much more approachable price."
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I didn't say it was a deadly serious side by side, level matched, ABX blind tested comparison.

In real life, if you go speaker shopping as I have, different dealers stock different products and have different shop layouts rooms, and in the passive speaker world also stock different amplifiers and sources, than other competing dealers.

So if you like Speaker A, and amplifier A Stocked by dealer A, but want to hear it with the amplifier from dealer B, or the amplifier from dealer A, wit the speaker from dealer B, then it becomes a very difficult exercise to achieve this.

Generally the most practical course of action one can take is visit a dealer and listen to what THEY think is the best combination of amp and speaker for a particular speaker that one may be interested in, and similarly visit another dealer to listen to a different speaker and amp combination.

For example when I bought my SBL's, with my then existing Naim electronics, I wanted to also hear B&W 803's - similar price to the SBL's at the time.

The Naim dealer (of which there was only one at the time) didn't even stock the SBL's - after much listening to pretty much every speaker that they did carry, they got a demonstration pair down from the importer interstate, especially for me to listen to - the other option being for me to travel interstate to audition a pair.

As regards the B&W's, these were stocked by a totally different dealer, who did not stock Naim anything, different rooms, different amps being used etc.

And from that far from perfect scenario one had to make choices.

Home demos were OK up to a point - I had some Epos 14's at home for a week before settling on the SBL's, but I had no history as a customer with the B&W dealer, so initially when i visited with a friend to hear them, they wouldn't even offer an audition without a prior appointment.

So, yes, far from a satisfactory assessment, but in the real world, that's often how it is with separates HiFi systems.

I do though, feel that HiFi shows serve a good purpose, as they allow you to hear a lot of things you otherwise might not, and draw up a mental list for later in depth audition.

BTW, Have you heard JBL Everests, B&W 800D's and the Beolab 90 and made a comparative assessment yourself? - if so, what are your thoughts?

PS: yes, the Beolab 50 does offer a great deal of what the Beolab 90 offers as it shares the same technological philosophy of design, albeit it will not be as good as the Beolab 90 in ultimate terms.

Cheers
 
Tony L said:
Have B&O ever designed and manufactured a loudspeaker drive unit? IIRC even in the stratospherically expensive 90s you are buying off-the-shelf SEAS. Nothing wrong with that as they are damn good drivers, but when you think of all the companies that can design and make everything (Quad, Tannoy, JBL, Kef, B&W, Klipsch etc etc etc) the fanboism seems a little odd.
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As regards current products, B&O source from outside suppliers re loudspeaker drivers, but it is always a custom build to their specifications.

Naim did similar with the original Mordant Short driver for the SBL Mk 1, and the bass driver for the DBL from ATC.

Not sure about blinkered fanboism - not that you said that - but certainly in my case a lot of enthusiasm about and for a breakthrough product that as a brand is sadly dismissed by much of the 'audiophile' world as European Bose, or mere 'lifestyle' products - i.e. audiophile snobbery at it's finest in my view when I read of such comments, - as the facts when it comes to B&O's R&D, manufacturing and testing facilities simply do not support the contention.

Cheers
 
and what I'm saying is that it USED to support the notion with things like Beloab 8000's, G-d love 'em.

These new things are really in a different league, it would seem.
 
Tony L said:
I'd have expected the 'controled directivity' to be hugely limited in comparison given it has a single horn/wave-guide loaded tweeter rather than the hugely complex multi-driver arrangement of the big ones.
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It is rather the midrange that will be limited, with only three front-firing drivers. The tweeter has a motorised waveguide, so there they can reach whatever dispersion they want (bar omni).
 
Werner said:
It is rather the midrange that will be limited, with only three front-firing drivers. The tweeter has a motorised waveguide, so there they can reach whatever dispersion they want (bar omni).
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True, albeit those three midrange drivers still have an amplifier, DAC and DSP per driver, each working independently of the other to align the magnitude response to deal with the acoustic vagaries of a room.

Cheers
 
Werner said:
It is rather the midrange that will be limited, with only three front-firing drivers. The tweeter has a motorised waveguide, so there they can reach whatever dispersion they want (bar omni).
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To my mind they have lost most of the the USP of the stratospherically expensive 90s and look rather overpriced in the active speaker market. I'd definitely listen with an open mind, but I'd be beyond astonished if I preferred them to say a pair of MEG RL-901K (one of exceptionally few current audio products that actually interest me!). I far prefer the timeless form dictated by function aesthetics of the MEGs too, especially on their Eames-ish studio stands!

PS I'd love to hear the '90s against the likes of RL-901K, ATC 150 etc. The dispersion thing is actually of limited use to me as I know how to set systems up/don't live in a compromised 'lifestyle/family' environment! I'd love to play with it, but I'd never put speakers in a stupid location or poor acoustic space so don't have as much to fix as some!
 
I heard the Beolab 50's yesterday and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised. They were in quite a small space, in the corners with a stud wall directly behind them. The bass, in particular was very muscular and tight. I only heard bits from the B&O demo CD but the results were impressive. The stereo imagery produced was also very well focussed. At one point the chap running the demo turned the sound up loud (really very loud) and it all hardened up considerably sounding rather like the amps were clipping - but other than that they were excellent.
 
YNWOAN said:
I heard the Beolab 50's yesterday and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised. They were in quite a small space, in the corners with a stud wall directly behind them. The bass, in particular was very muscular and tight. I only heard bits from the B&O demo CD but the results were impressive. The stereo imagery produced was also very well focussed. At one point the chap running the demo turned the sound up loud (really very loud) and it all hardened up considerably sounding rather like the amps were clipping - but other than that they were excellent.
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Interesting to hear a report and thanks. I'm very interested in hearing them myself, but they've yet to arrive here.

I've little doubt that if you drive something hard enough, no matter how good it is, there are going to be limits. And as you approach those limits, be it amplification or driver, to the experienced ear, which you obviously have, there will be a noticeable negative effect upon the sound.

Some users ignore those kinds of sounds of distress, and wonder why things go bang or fizz in a cloud of smoke and smell of burning electronics as the case may be.

An acquaintance of mine with a pair of speakers the same as mine, left them on max volume (90) whilst going outside to do the garden, and with the windows open so he could hear the music.

Was somewhat dismayed to come inside and find that a tweeter had fried... hmm.

Some peeps are very cruel to loudspeakers...lol

Thanks again for the report.. :)

Cheers
 
I will have the Kii's here in a day or so and it will be interesting to compare. However, the B&O salesman did quote me £23,900.00 which is a heck of a lot more than a pair of Kii's.
 
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