Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5 Assessment

Verdict

Sure, the seems are divisive and sure, it’s priced on the north facet of optimistic. However that the Beosound A5 has it the place it counts can’t be denied.

Introduction

How a lot design is an excessive amount of design? When you’re accustomed to Bang & Olufsen, you’ll know the corporate’s reply to that query is one thing alongside the traces of “you may by no means have an excessive amount of design”.

Which brings me to the Beosound A5 transportable wi-fi speaker. It’s orders of magnitude dearer than its most costly rivals, and there’s no two methods about it: it has been designed, after which some. However it takes greater than a lofty asking value and a few premium supplies to make a long-lasting impression…

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5 is on sale, and within the UK it sells for £899. It goes for $1099 within the USA, and in Australia it’s going to value you AU$1649. You received’t be staggered to study this makes the A5 not fairly the costliest battery-powered wi-fi transportable speaker you should purchase.

The most costly can also be the Beosound A5 – the darkish oak model (which has slats as an alternative of the weave of my overview pattern, and black anthracite aluminium slightly than silver) is an much more outstanding £999 / $1199 / AU$1799.

Design

• Premium supplies, expertly deployed
• 187 x 285 x 130mm (HxWxD)
• Bodily controls

I don’t really want to labour the purpose. Bang & Olufsen has delivered a premium transportable wi-fi speaker that appears very very similar to a picnic basket.

When you take heed to B&O, you’ll hear all about how there’s a direct line, in design phrases, from classic merchandise like its Beolit 607, 800 or 1000 fashions from again within the day. When you take heed to GamFratesi Studio, designers of the Beosound A5 along with Bang & Olufsen, you’ll discover the look is partly impressed by Panama hats.

Naturally, this being Bang & Olufsen, the Beosound A5 is essentially the most lavishly designed, solidly constructed, and superbly completed picnic basket round. The paper fibre weave that constitutes most of its surfaces is hard-wearing and ornamental. The anodised aluminium that makes up the top- and backside plates of the speaker are touchy-feely, and expertly fitted and completed.

The bodily controls on the highest floor are recessed behind a layer of pleasingly rubberised materials. The sleek oak deal with that’s pinned to the physique of the speaker utilizing casually branded hinge-pins, is maybe essentially the most nice a part of all the factor so far as really feel is worried. If there’s a extra tactile wi-fi speaker obtainable, I haven’t had the chance to the touch it.

These bodily controls cowl off play/pause, quantity up/down, skip forwards/backwards, energy on/off, and Bluetooth pairing. There’s additionally a Qi charging patch on the speaker’s high floor, so you may cost your smartphone even because it’s streaming tunes. And there are 4 preset buttons, the operate of which will be specified within the Bang & Olufsen Music management app.

Options

• 130mm bass driver; 2 x 50mm midrange driver; 20mm tweeter
• 280 watts of Class D amplification
• App and (up to a degree) voice management
• Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6

In addition to letting you select your 4 shortcuts (to favorite radio stations, presumably, or favorite playlists), the app has loads of different performance. The good Beosonic graphic EQ adjuster places in a welcome look, and there may be additionally the flexibility to show loudness on or off, examine for software program updates, combine your Deezer account and use both the Bang & Olufsen Radio characteristic or TuneIn to entry the planet’s radio stations.

You may create a stereo pair (with one other A5) or a multi-room system (utilizing different Bang & Olufsen audio system constructed on the corporate’s Mozart platform – extra on that later). It helps you to swap ‘omni’ sound (which is how Bang & Olufsen describes 360-degree sound) on or off, and it helps you to run a routine to calibrate the Beosound A5 to the precise place it finds itself in. Complete shouldn’t be too sturdy a phrase.

You may also management the A5 utilizing Google Assistant. However regardless of its native compatibility, the speaker’s mic (for causes solely Bang & Olufsen can clarify) isn’t capable of settle for Hey Google instructions. You’ll want to make use of your smartphone to subject your voice instructions.

So sure, the Mozart platform. The Beosound A5, like most up-to-date Bang & Olufsen audio system, is constructed on it – and it means the A5 is about as easy to service and to restore as potential. It additionally means the streaming module can simply be modified ought to such a factor turn out to be needed. And it permits the corporate to make good on its want for the A5 to have an existence past first life, by supporting reuse, recycling and even remanufacturing.

The Beosound A5 has a complete of 280 watts of Class D amplification, powering 4 drivers: a 130mm bass driver, a pair of 50mm midrange drivers and a 20mm tweeter. As with the corporate’s way more costly Beolab loudspeakers, the drivers are beam-forming – and that’s how the A5 manages to ship ‘omni’ sound. ‘Omni’, by the way in which, is to not be confused with spatial audio of the Dolby Atmos selection – such gimmickry shouldn’t be indulged in Bang & Olufsen-land.

The A5 makes use of Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6 for wi-fi connectivity. The later means Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Join and Tidal Join are all obtainable, whereas the previous is (once more, for causes solely Bang & Olufsen could make sense of) appropriate solely with SBC and AAC codecs. You may spend loads lower than this on a wi-fi speaker and revel in some higher-quality aptX or LDAC Bluetooth streaming.

An IP65 score means the Beosound A5 can stand as much as quite a lot of what the British climate can chuck at it, and a battery lifetime of 12 hours or so means it has endurance on this respect too. Naturally, the battery will drain extra shortly should you’re taking part in at high quantity or charging your smartphone on the Qi patch (or each) – however two hours on the mains will get you again to 80% capability and three will high the battery up totally.

It’s common for Bang & Olufsen to be coy concerning the native decision of the DACs fitted to its tools, but it surely’s significantly unpleasant on this occasion. In any case, somebody with the cash to spend on a Beosound A5 in all probability has the cash to pay for a hi-res music streaming service subscription – and are more likely to need to know their new speaker can benefit from it.

Sound High quality

• Huge, burly sound
• Scale and dynamism to spare
• Not, strictly talking, 360-degree sound

At a fairly compact and discreet 187 x 285 x 130mm (HxWxD), the Beosound A5 is much from the most important transportable speaker round. The sound it makes, although, is significantly bigger than the cupboard it comes from.

The place simple scale is worried, the A5 isn’t lower than spectacular. The thought it could possibly create immersive 360-degree sound is fanciful – however that shouldn’t detract from the simple depth and width of its sound. It’s not the one wi-fi speaker capable of escape its bodily boundaries, but it surely does so to an virtually startling diploma.

And this huge sound is made up of quite a lot of experience within the small areas. Tonality, as an illustration, is convincingly pure all through the frequency vary – there’s next-to-no colouration of sound, only a devoted and correct rendition. And from the highest of the frequency vary to the underside, the Beosound A5 is balanced and deft – it transitions from excessive frequencies to the midrange after which to low frequencies with no discernible hand-over and no change of character. Nothing is underplayed, nothing stands proud – it’s a completely even-handed performer.

I streamed a file of BC Camplight’s The Final Rotation of Earth to an Apple iPhone 14 Professional by way of AAC Bluetooth and the Bang & Olufsen’s abilities are made obvious. It’s a barely hazy, radio-friendly recording, however the A5 can open it up, lay it out securely on its huge, well-organised soundstage, and make every aspect safe in an area. Regardless of the disparate nature of the instrumentation, tonality is convincing – and the unity, the togetherness of the way in which the A5 presents the tune makes it no effort by any means to take heed to.

The speaker digs deep into the frequency vary and hits onerous, but it surely provides bass sounds each loads of element and an terrible lot of management. This straight-edged manner with the low finish means rhythmic expression is sweet, and momentum is appreciable. There appears little likelihood of this speaker ever changing into slowed down by its personal low-frequency presence.

It’s the same story of element and management on the reverse finish of the frequency vary – treble sounds are clear and shiny, embrace loads of element, and stay composed once you’re listening at huge volumes (and consider you me, the A5 is able to huge volumes). Within the midrange, in the meantime, the speaker communicates eloquently – it permits a vocalist to completely specific their perspective and intentions and permit them just a bit pocket of area wherein to function with out estranging them from the remainder of the efficiency.

Dynamic skill is sweet too, each the place the apparent quiet-to-loud transitions and the harmonic variations in a solo instrument are involved. And the A5’s skill to organise a soundstage and a recording means even essentially the most complicated, element-heavy recordings round are open and specific.  

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