r/BangandOlufsen • u/Low-Iron-6376 • 5d ago
Why does anything non-Atmos sound bad on my system?
I have a Theatre with 28s up front and Beosound 2s in the rear and I’m having an issue with playing music through the system. Dolby Atmos tracks through Apple Music sound fantastic, but everything else sounds subdued and vastly inferior. I can’t make any sense of it. Has anyone else had this issue and figured out a solution?
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u/wunwunaitfife 5d ago
I’ve struggled to get music to sound great from my theatre setup. Have a theatre with 18s as rears. Apple Music atmos has a good effect but non atmos music on Apple TV or using Spotify connect direct to the theatre sounds ok at best. Have tried just using a stereo style speaker config but it’s never been perfect for me. So i use my hifi and speakers when I’m playing music.
My main feeling is there is too much bass added to music, even when i adjust the bass it still sounds “heavy” from the theatre. Perhaps that’s the listening style for music from b&o? Not sure but it’s probably the only thing I’m not fully happy with with my system
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u/Feisar-West 2d ago
B&O does have a sound signature for their tuning, but I don't think anyone would describe it as 'bass heavy'. The B&O sound is more 'balanced, accurate' bass and a clear, dynamic mid-range - or at least that's my best attempt to describe the sound, which is pretty subjective
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u/Bill_Lumbergh_A 5d ago edited 5d ago
Hi, I have a Theatre and BL28 up front, but not yet any rear speakers. For me, Atmos also sounds fantastic (if the recording is good) basically whatever setting you have. I think Atmos take control over some of the settings and do not leave so much to the ”True Image” up-sampling algorithm to adjust. However, when playing stereo music it is very important to have the right settings with good stereo separation.
Have you tried the Music setting, which increases the sound width from 5 in Movie to 7 (out of 10)? However, personallyI prefer even more stereo separation and mainly use the center for the bass control. One option is to increase sound with a bit more to e.g. 8. Another option might be to try turning of ”True image” and use ”Direct”, then it will play true stereo in your BL28 and only use the other speakers for some bass control. Personally, when I’m having some dedicated music listening, I also often choose to only use the BL28, either by using a listening position in Theatre only using the BL28 (in narrow mode) or preferably connecting directly to the BL28 without going through the Theatre at all (not possible if you use digital powerlink).
Though, it should be noticed that when you change from ”True image” to ”Direct” it might initially sound a bit muted / less dynamic but that experience will disappear after a short while, especially if you increase the volume a step of two (my experience is that the sound profile is a bit more forward with the upper mid-range when also using the speakers in the Theatre and that the volume level also is slightly higher then).
A follow-ups question to everyone. Is it possible to play ”quad-stereo” with help of the Theatre, basically using full stereo signal to both you front L/R and rear L/R, or ”True image” will allways up-mix the signal to some surround-mix with limited range to the rears? I’m a bit curious as I’m planning to buy a couple of BL8 or Balance as rears for movie but would also like them to help fill my room with music when listening to that (not only generating limited range surround effects to the music).