Thoughts gentlemen?
http://az498215.vo.msecnd.net/static/files/productsheets/BeoLab90_Technical_Sound Guide_1510[1].pdf
Keith.
http://az498215.vo.msecnd.net/static/files/productsheets/BeoLab90_Technical_Sound Guide_1510[1].pdf
Keith.
Well, I'm hopelessly deaf/biased, so my speakers will always be better. Amir doesn't sell those and they are not a Harman product, so Revel will always be better. Dallas, well, he's an audiophile equipment roller. He'll love them today, but by next week he'll have something else. Speakers with VU meters or something.Have one of their grants [use the DOD department] send a pair to DallasJustice, AJ Soundfield, and Amir for a 10 year test period; they can figure it out.
Well, studiophiles certainly believe that. I think he might have been presenting it as what is done.Yes only that his opening comment was that, in a studio one wants to remove all reflections.
Frontal only yes.Isn'ttheir narrow beam / controlled dispersion , contrary to 'added spaciousness'.
That's one way of adding back spaciousness.Although with the 90 you can alter width,
I like what they are doing, right up my alley though certainly far more advanced (hey, they're $70k iirc). Hope they find the market receptive, looks like a great product.
As far as whether audiophiles would want the, well...we'll see
How very true.If they hadn't build in all those converters and amplifiers, giving audiophiles a chance to stack up that many pretty boxes, they'd be a huge hit!
Tim
LOL. I heard a pair a few years ago, I think they were the Beolab 5, and they were horrible. They were so awful I thought the guy who demo'd them for me was pranking me. He was not. He thinks they're awesome and doesn't regret spending what he paid for them. I actually wrote up the experience for an email to someone in the biz, so I'll repeat it here if anyone cares. The well known studio owner's name is redacted because I'm not an ass.B&O is a company which produces very high-quality, expensive audio equipment that audiophiles disrespect. I love that about them.
I visited XXXX at his home in March 2009. We listened in his large mixing room, which I'll guess is about 30 feet front to back and 25 feet wide, with a very high ceiling peak. There is no acoustic treatment to speak of, but both rear corners have open double-doors which helps the bass response. The left and right sides were not symmetrical, with a brick and glass fireplace on the right, and a bookshelf on the left. Clapping my hands sounded normal with no obvious flutter echo or "bathroom" sound. XXXX said the RT60 is about 500 ms.
XXXX played a number of stereo cuts, and I sat in the sweet spot which is near field in that room but with the speakers farther apart than usual. In my own home studio my big JBLs are even wider where I sit while mixing, so I'm used to that. Still, with instruments panned to the center, in my room the phantom center image is dead-on accurate. You'd swear there's a speaker directly in front of you.
The first track XXXX played was pop music, and the lead singer seemed to be floating vaguely about four feet above the speakers in the center. I mentioned that to XXXX and he acknowledged that's a "side effect" of the BeoLabs. But the sound was not only artificially elevated, it had no real placement. It sounded like a ton of stereo reverb was added to the singer. The same happened with all of the other tracks XXXX played. The sound was huge! But it was artificially huge, and by a large amount.
I was not familiar with any of the tracks XXXX played, so then we listened to two of my own tunes I brought. Same thing. Everything was way too large, and imaging was non-existent. Everything seemed to have a ton of reverb on it, even instruments that are dry in the mix. One tune in particular I had been working on for many months and I know it intimately. In both of my rooms every instrument sounds perfectly clear and placed with precision. But through the BeoLabs in XXXX's room the same parts were vague and ill-defined.
The "washed out" sound was so strong I almost asked XXXX if he might have accidentally enabled some sort of "ambience" type preset in his playback system. But I didn't want to insult him! Bose 901 speakers comes to mind, but this was even less focused. I don't know how much of this effect was due to the room, and how much to the omni nature of the BeoLab speakers in such an uncontrolled environment. I was surprised to see no real absorption in his room, not even on the reflecting surface at ear level directly behind the "client" couch where I sat. XXXX did acknowledge that some absorption there might be useful.
I can't imagine mixing this way! It was impossible to tell where anything was placed unless it's panned hard left or hard right, and it's impossible to tell how much reverb is on any track because everything sounds so incredibly huge and washed out. XXXX is a great guy, and he's very knowledgeable! We talked extensively about comb filtering, one of my favorite subjects. But this experience really set the tone for what I think of when someone mentions XXXX.
The only time that I heard the Beolab 5s, they were in a B&O shop and sounded similar to, perhaps not as extreme as, your experience. However, the 90s sounded nothing like that in the 2 days I spent with them.LOL. I heard a pair a few years ago, I think they were the Beolab 5, and they were horrible.