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READ NEXT: Our favourite wireless speakers Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore review: What does it do well? That easy to use rubberized top-plate is textured, in contrast to the cool metallic grille and bodywork (Image credit: TechRadar) B&O Beosound Explore review: design and features The Beosound Stage is Bang & Olufsen’s first soundbar and hits the ground running with its immersive sound, flexible usability and stunning design. Behind the grille are 12 speaker drivers: two 6.5-inch woofers and that coaxial centre, which comprises a 1-inch tweeter mounted in front of a 5.25-inch midranger. There’s also two 3-inch mid-range drivers, four 2.5-inch drivers and two 1-inch tweeters. The total power output for this array is 800W; 100 watts power the two bass drivers, with 60W going to each of the remaining 10 drivers. Beosound Moment was a digital audio master with a hub and separate touch interface you could bring along. But the new Beosound Moment introduced a touch-on-wood operation and the MoodWheel. The MoodWheel was a way to access a mood rather than a specific piece of music. Studies have shown that not many people are active listeners most of the time. Music was mainly used to create an atmosphere. Moment – being in the moment – was conceptualised from that learning.
Despite being a wireless device, and having a handle, the Beosound Level certainly isn’t a portable speaker. It weighs 3.3kg and measures 34.8 x 23 x 6.6 cm – suffice to say you won’t be carrying this out on your picnics. BeoSound 4 can be placed almost anywhere on its floor, table or wall stand. Angled for convenient operation, the glass door half-opens at the wave of a hand, and the operation panel with SD card slot is presented to the user. Press ‘Load’, and the glass cover rises further for the CD loader. Connect BeoSound 4 to any BeoLab loudspeakers, and in particular with the new and equally compact and refined BeoLab 4 loudspeakers. Big impact expected And should the worst happen and it become outdated or reach its performance limit, it can be swapped for the module that represents the state of the Bang & Olufsen art at that particular time. Sound Quality Beosound 1 and Beosound 2 were launched in 2016. They were the successors to the first Beosound 1 - from 2001 - but catering to digital streaming of music that had replaced conventional radio and CD players. This also meant moving from a traditional audio system, as the central focus point in the music setup, to streaming features integrated into loudspeakers. B&O also assures users the Explore is rated IP67 for dust- and water ingress, which means it can be submerged in freshwater at up to a meter deep for 30 minutes and live to tell the tale.Control is also available from a touch-surface on the top of the Emerge – this interface, it’s fair to say, is a more qualified success. They’re overly sensitive and altogether too responsive, to the point they’ll make you trepidatious about operations that should be straightforward – adjusting the volume level, for example. The Theatre can be partnered with any screen brand or size, most typically 55, 65 or 77 inches. Bang & Olufsen works closely with LG, and stylistically, that would be the TV of choice – perhaps the new lighterweight LG C3. The aluminium wings – which fix left and right, and can be changed to accommodate different screen sizes – are an inspired element. The Bang & Olufsen companion app opens up even more options, such as instant access to a vast array of radio stations. Local stations in your country are listed first and foremost, but you are free to change the location, so you can easily stream radio from the likes of Africa, Asia or South America, should you be so inclined. Beosound Explore's USB-C charging port is your only physical connection (Image credit: TechRadar) B&O Beosound Explore review: sound quality Press firmly but gently on the outside rim of the front cover about one-third of the way down from the top; at the same time pushing the cover up, away from you
We’re used to Bang & Olufsen products looking great, and the Beosound Explore is no exception. The slatted aluminium grille protecting the speaker’s internal components gives it a classy appearance and, although it was created for life outdoors, the Explore is a device that’s equally at home in a modern living room. Mastering magic is very much part of the Beosound product revolution. Mastering technology alone was no longer enough. Technology must be designed to both respect and challenge the human senses. The emotional appeal should be considered just as important as any technical specifications. By appealing to the basic human needs for pleasure, confirmation and surprise, Bang & Olufsen intended to involve the user in a dialogue. The whole point of a beautifully designed high-end wireless speaker such as the BeoSound 1 should be to stand out – visually and musically. Tonality is similarly consistent, and similarly satisfying as a result. Leave the EQ adjustment alone and the sound is just slightly on the warm, rich side of neutral – but the app offers you a couple of ways of dialling this out if you don’t like it. And anyway, this balance quite nicely matches the speaker’s visual aesthetic.I then sat down to listen to it, playing music from both my laptop and my phone using Apple Music and streaming via AirPlay 2. I positioned the Beosound A5 in various places around my main living room, to see if and how it affected the sound output. In terms of technical specifications, the Beosound Explore is relatively unremarkable. It supports Bluetooth 5.2 but sadly there’s no provision for advanced audio codecs. You’ll be making do with SBC regardless of the device you pair the speaker with, putting the Explore at a disadvantage to the Beosound A1 (2nd Gen), which supports both AAC and aptX Adaptive. I’ve had the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5 for a couple of weeks, and since it arrived having already been loaned out to other parties, I didn’t feel the need to run it in too much. I did let it play a few songs on a low volume, just to get warmed up. Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.0. Bang & Olufsen isn’t saying which codecs are supported, but if there’s any compatibility beyond SBC and AAC I haven’t been able to access it. Spotify Connect, Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 are available, thanks to dual-band Wi-Fi.
With a price that lies under what is usually expected of a Bang & Olufsen product, Bang & Olufsen expects that BeoSound 4 will capture a lot of interest from first-time buyers in the market. The digital portability offered by the SD card built into BeoSound 4 is consistent with Bang & Olufsen’s strategy to ensure that wherever the company’s customers may be, they can have their entertainment choices with them.
Delivery upon market launch
As with other connected B&O products, the audio profile also can be tweaked via the app, if you must. A graphical pie is divided into Bright, Relaxed, Energetic and Warm and you can create your own EQ with ease, or you can trust the judgement of Bang & Olufsen’s audio engineers and do nothing. There are also some pre-sets worth avoiding, especially the Night mode that strips out the bass for the sake of the neighbours. Nice concept, horrible result. With the BeoSound 1 isolated from mains electricity lie it down on the floor with the front panel facing upwards and the controls away from you, at the top Despite the price tag, this is not a replacement for a high-end AV receiver system. It’s something altogether different. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Theatre is its bass handling. This all-in-one slams like a battalion of subwoofers. It can drop seriously deep, and is capable of quite startling dynamics. Those two forward facing 6.5-inch woofers know how to pressure load a room. Press "Load" and watch the CD holder flip up to accept your disc. Or switch over to Radio and listen to one of the 60 stations that can be stored in the programme memory. And if you ever need better reception, the aerial will rise at the touch of a button. It has none of the speakerphone/power bank features of the aforementioned JBL Charge 5, mind, and it costs a little more, so you really do have to prioritize the aesthetic – and there's nothing wrong with that.
The Beosound Level goes loud too – we generally tested it on a third of the max volume and it was already providing room-filling sound. For the sake of our neighbors, we didn’t try to test the speaker at max, though an accident that involved us leaning on the ‘volume up’ button without realizing it showed that this thing can really hit deafening heights (if you’re leaning on it).Bluetooth 5.3 is onboard for maximum compatibility with a range of audio sources, but you also get the option of streaming music via Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Chromecast over Wi-Fi. There aren’t any physical inputs for playing audio, with the only input being USB-C, which is used for charging. The software was developed based on a collaboration with an Austrian institute working with artificial intelligence and research made by musicologists studying music patterns. Another attention-grabbing element is that top dial. It doubles up as the volume dial and controller.
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