I have a Beosound Core connected to my first Beolab 18, which then I have connected with my second Beolab 18. For this I used B&O Powerlink cables.
I want to connect a subwoofer to add some extra bass. I only use the Beolabs for music.
Question: Is it possible to connect an active subwoofer, like the SVS SB-1000 PRO to my second Beolab 18? For this there is a B&O Powerlink RJ45 to 2x Cinch cable availble. Or is it not possible to combine the Beolab 18s with a 3rd brand subwoofer?
For me the Beolab 19 is far, far too expensive.
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Connect 3rd brand active subwoofer to Beolab 18 yes/no?
2 replies
+1 on all of @Sretam's points. I have not yet purchased anything myself, so anybody else, actual personal experience please! But if nobody else follows up, here's what I learned so far:
Please report back with your results. There are plenty of posts on integrating (e.g.) KEF LS50s and an SVS sub, but I have not yet seen a single post about Beolab 18s!
- Getting the speakers to sync (latency) so there isn't reinforcement or cancellation at certain frequencies is a solved problem: Beolab 18 is 4.4msec per Geoff Martin (https://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/2017/12/06/bo-tech-beolab-loudspeakers-and-third-party-systems/) and SVS SB-1000 PRO is 6 msec per "Jack Gilvey" at SVS (https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/latency-on-svs-sb-1000-pro.124469/) so putting the subwoofer 38cm further forward seems about right. Maybe at those low frequencies it doesn't matter; you often see instructions to move a subwoofer around to cancel the room dimensions reinforcing certain frequencies (modes), and rarely does anybody say it ruined the frequency response of their main speakers. But because crossover filters aren't perfect, unless you set the SVS super-low, it's guaranteed to overlap with the BLs.
- Because Powerlink splitters work, and because the Beolab 18 speakers were intended to be daisy-chained to each other and thence to a Beolab 19, it seems highly likely that both RJ45 jacks inside the Beolab 18 are always active, simply wired together. So you would buy an RJ45-to-DIN8 dongle, part # 6271237, from a B&O dealer and a Powerlink-to-2xRCA cable from wherever.
- In order to match the subwoofer level and crossover for even frequency response, plus of course room modes (no matter whose sub you buy!), I would get a copy of Room EQ Wizard (free) and a UMIK-1 (cheap) to look at the output of your new setup and tweak it using the SVS App. Especially because you are using it for music and not as a movie boom-box, this will repay your effort. But maybe you could do it by-ear if you have enough time or are both gifted and lucky (or not too persnickety).
Please report back with your results. There are plenty of posts on integrating (e.g.) KEF LS50s and an SVS sub, but I have not yet seen a single post about Beolab 18s!
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