On CharlieWednesday said

I would like the same or similar for my BC8500, and I think the MCL2A is the right thing for that, but before I go buying one on eBay, can anyone tell me if I am right!?

Thats right. The MCL2A is very similar to the MCL30 with a IR eye and a relay box in the link room.

On CharlieWednesday said

Also the MCL2a would allow me to have passive speakers connected and I do have 3 pairs of Beovox passives to choose from, but is there a similar option to connect Beolab actives in a second room, and control them in that room?

The MCL2AV can do that. Where as the MCL2A is just a "simple" relay for turning on or off the speakers and a link eye for controlling the main room system the MCL2AV is far more advanced. The MCL2AV has powerlink outputs that can be volumen controlled individually from the other rooms (the MCL2A just follows the volume in the main room). Also the MCL2AV has local inputs, so it is possible to connect a B&O CD player and a Tape recorder and control them in the link room, but also have acces to the sources in the main room. A Beovision TV with datalink (only CRT TV'S) or Masterlink via a Beolink converter 1611  can also be connected to the MCL2AV and the speakers in the TV can be used instead of powerlink speakers. The MCL2AV has also been sold under names like X-tra active speaker kit and X-tra TV kit where the latter did not have an IR eye. The IR eye used by the MCL2A and MCL2AV is BTW the same. If you choose to go this route you are not locked by using old technology. If you choose at one point to replace the Beocenter 8500 with something newer you can do that with a ML/MCL converter. I can highly recommend looking at the Masterlink Control Handbook that should be available via Google search (Beoworld also has a lot of documentation about the MCL2 system, but it is not available at this time because of the upgrade of the site) Hope this help you. Feel free to ask more questions, I have been spending a lot of time in the MCL2 rabbit hole :-)

That's all extremely useful, thank you.  I did not know that the MCL2AV was also an option, and was much more flexible.  They are more expensive on eBay but certainly worth considering.  If I understand it correctly however the MCL2AV has no passive speaker outputs, so if I wanted to use the passive Beovox speakers I already have, I would also need a Beolink passive amp - am I right? I have found the MCL handbook, and hopefully the useful technical info on this Beoworld site will return soon too - I did see it before the site redesign caused it to disappear, hopefully temporarily! I'm actually looking for a solution for a large, odd shaped room rather than multiroom.  I had considered getting a Beolab 3500 but that would require a 1611 converter and they appear to be difficult to get hold of (you helped me with that advice too, in fact!), so this is me looking for another solution. I have in fact bid for an MCL2A on eBay as it was going very cheap and included the transceiver and cables.  It's so cheap anyway it's worth a try, and if I decide to go down the MCL2A route eventually, at least I'll have the transceiver already.

On CharlieWednesday said

If I understand it correctly however the MCL2AV has no passive speaker outputs, so if I wanted to use the passive Beovox speakers I already have, I would also need a Beolink passive amp – am I right?

 

On CharlieWednesday said

I’m actually looking for a solution for a large, odd shaped room rather than multiroom.  I had considered getting a Beolab 3500 but that would require a 1611 converter and they appear to be difficult to get hold of (you helped me with that advice too, in fact!), so this is me looking for another solution.

If you are already thinking in MCL terms the BL3500 MK1 could also do. One of the versions of the MCL handbook has this description for odd shaped rooms, sounding a lot like what you want to do Login to view image One note regarding the MCL2AV. More than often a power supply is missing for it. If used with a MCL2P it can get power from that, but else you need a separate power adapter. The polarity in this adapter is non standard, so negative is the inner pin and positive is the outer pin, so be carefull as using a wrong polarity power supply can cause damage.

Wow, a lot of options!  If I do win that MCL2A on eBay (I've already bid for it) I think I'll just go with that option first, especially since I've already got some Beovox RL45.2, RL1000, C40, CX50 and MCX35 all in full working order but currently unused. Good to know too that a Mk1 BL3500 would also work with the MCL2A, but also with the MCL2AV if I decide to get one later.  You can get BL3500s really cheap on eBay and it would look really good on that wall....

Then the MCL2A will be a great opotunity to make use of some of those passive speakers.</p> Jus to clarify, the BL3500 is not dependent on the MCL2A or MCL2AV, but can coexist in the same MCL network