Beolab 3500 with a beosound Core - possible?

7 replies

Sam Long

Bronze

5 posts

Posted April 1, 2025 at 04:48 GMT

Hi folks I bought a fairly cheap Beolab 3500 (with no beo4 controller) and I am trying to connect to a beosound core. I have the most basic understanding of the master link system ( my other speakers are beolab 8000s connected to a beosound 3000...) so I'm struggling to work out if I can use the 3500 as a standalone speaker to stream music to. I have a cable with 8 pin din at one end and an audio plug at the other and I have another cable which is RJ45 at one end and 8 pin din (female). So the questions are:

Do I need a beo4 to control the 3500 or is there a way I can manually program the 3500 to receive input from the Core?
If I find a beo4, how do I set up the 3500 (does everything that comes in through the DIN plug come through as an aux input?)

Sorry for the numpty question - thanks all.

matador

BronzeModerator

2424 posts

Posted April 1, 2025 at 19:06 GMT

#714551

Hi, Beolab 3500 maybe the most frustrating Beolab speaker around ! Tremedous form factor, acceptable sound, very fair price nowadays, but… Unless you use it in a Masterlink network as it was inteded to or trick it with solutions ranging from a "simple" Beolink converter (making it less "form factor convenient" to cumbersome IR remote keys sequences, it will be – Argh, it hurts to say it – pretty useless. Sorry for you.

Location: Paris France

Sam Long

Bronze

5 posts

Posted April 12, 2025 at 10:52 GMT

#714629

Thanks Matador im going to persevere I think. I have my beolink 1000 and the sounds heavenly.com instructions. My only problem is that the beolab doesn't seem to respond to my beolink. Do I need to pair them or something? cheers (et Merci en avance) sam

Madskp

Gold

1759 posts

Posted April 12, 2025 at 11:34 GMT

#714630

Location: Denmark

Sam Long

Bronze

5 posts

Posted April 13, 2025 at 09:06 GMT

#714647

Thanks Madskp. I can see the purple light so I'm pretty sure the beolink is working ok. I'll try the sequence again Sam

Sam Long

Bronze

5 posts

Posted April 18, 2025 at 04:22 GMT

#714678

Sadly no joy. I know the beolink is working because I control my beosound 3000 with it. Am I missing something?

Madskp

Gold

1759 posts

Posted April 18, 2025 at 06:34 GMT

#714679

Hello again One last thing you can try to verify if the IR receiving part on the Beolab 3500 is working is to try to do an option setting. Do the sequence LINK, 6, STORE on the Beolink 1000 If it works the Beolab 3500 should respond with Option 6 in the display (Note: if the Beolab 3500 is a MK2 version this only work if it is connected with a Masterlink audiosystem like your BS3000. An easy way to see if it is an MK1 or MK2 version is to look at the 8 pin DIN connector on the back. MK1 will have MCL engraved into the metal below the connector whereas MK2 has no engraving). If you still got no response from the Beolab 3500 the IR receiver is much likely not working. A known fix is to replace to capacitors on the display board. There is a great guide for that in this post

Location: Denmark

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