Bang & Olufsen has produced successful hi-fi products for decades. And now the Danish producer is ready with its first soundbar called the Beosound Stage.
It is the habit of faith is not a particularly cheap product compared to many other soundbar’s on the market, but it scares us not away, for example, if you compare with Sennheiser’s first model.
Bang & Olufsen have the habit to manufacture products with a focus on the design and use of exclusive materials. Beosound Stage is no exception here.
the Frame around the product itself is the first thing that catches the eye and is made of brushed aluminum. You can buy soundbaren in several color combinations, such as bronzefarve or smoked oak. If you want the version in the tree, you need to pay more.
You can also put soundbaren down in front of your tv. Photo: Tek.no
Soundbaren also comes with several different colors on the fabric, which protects the various elements. In our case, this is a neutral aluminum frame with black fabric, which has found its way to the testing laboratory. A choice that fits well with most tv.
in Addition, the frame some touch-buttons, which the manufacturer elegant show has incorporated. There are also two small contacts at the bottom, which you can turn on or turn off the product.
Beosound Stage is designed so it can either be hung directly on the wall with stofdelen against you, or you can put it on a stereobænk, so that the fabric pointing up towards the ceiling. Even though it affects the direction, it does not change on the sound in the room.
in General, is designed also minimalist and clean, without that it is seen as old-fashioned or futuristic.
the Article is made in collaboration with the faculty of Engineering.no
Beosound Stage has the physical connections located on the back. Given that you must insert the cables from the under – or top side, you can remove the lid to the, which is made of plastic.
But that is not the world of connections to romp with.
There is only a HDMI-input you can connect to external products in addition to an HDMI port, connect the tv to share audio via the Audio Return Channel (ARC).
in addition to this, there is only a line in, LAN and optical digital audio inputs to boast of. Admittedly, you can for example pick up sound through the tv if you use the ARC and has connected several devices to the tv’s other HDMI ports. But what we miss the most, is a separate sub output.
For many it will be nice to connect a little extra bass, but it has not the opportunity here. Bang & Olufsen say that the product is designed so that you simply don’t have the use for a bass speaker.
in Addition, your device supports wireless networking and can easily be used as Chromecast or AirPlay 2-speaker on your home network.
Photo: Tek.no
Soundbaren has no physical remote control, but if you connect it to the tv, you can adjust the volume via either an app or with CEC support via HDMI.
To connect to soundbaren via Bang & Olufsen’s own app is pretty straight forward, although it seems almost impossible to do it without hooking it up to Google Home. It can be fine, if you are already using the service, but for everyone else, it seems a little unnecessary.
the App takes soundbaren, and you decide which network you want to connect to, and not least whether it should be hung on a wall or lie on a table.
When that is done, you get an overview of the soundbaren, where you can choose between different sound modes. The device automatically sets the mode that suits best to what you’re listening on. In addition, you can choose to override the app, if you like a different mode, and, not least, change how the different modes sounds.
There could well be some more and better connectivity options. Photo: Tek.no
If you choose ‘Music’ to get the soundbaren to play in standard stereo. But you can also adjust the treble and bass, with your own equalizer options. And if that’s not enough, you can adjust the sound further by tapping on a cirkelikon, which leads you to a kind of radargrafik, which is divided into four distinctive features; warm, enthusiastic, relaxed, and radiant – similar to the solution, the company uses on their headphones.
In the middle you can then draw a white dot at the different corners to change the sound. For example, ‘enthusiastic’ give more treble.
If that’s not enough, you can also drag contacts up under the radar the statement. ‘Mix Up’ gives more in focus through the center channel, while the ‘Virtualize’ contribute to a more airy sound when watching movies.
all in All, this solution is too complicated. It is great to be able to customize the sound to your taste, but this is too much of a good thing. Especially when the only thing you can adjust with, is so inaccurately worded.
For those who are not trained to make these adjustments, we think that the app creates far more confusion than real use. And we must honestly admit that some of these adjustments also confused us.
Bang & Olufsen is associated with good sound, and Beosound Stage does not disappoint here.
Fundamental to the soundscape be the same, regardless of whether you choose to hang the plank on the wall or put it on the stereobænken. Our experience is that you need to sit higher than the level to which the plank is set to, if you choose to have it on a table. Otherwise block some of the brighter tones, and thus you lose the details.
the sound Itself is well-balanced and level-headed. It is not a particularly engaging sound that is produced, but accuracy and detail are there enough of. Most would probably say that it is slightly boring.
As mentioned, it is not possible to connect an external subwoofer to this system for those who want more bass. But it must be said, that the bass in the Beosound Stage is quite significant, although more bass for movie evenings rarely foragtes.
Voices are also clear and well represented, which is important for many, when they see the film. The treble is detailed and sharp without being unpleasant to listen to.
Soundbaren manage to run with max volume without the sound to deteriorate and spiral out of control. It is more than enough for the neighbor next to the notes, to watching movies.
Photo: Tek.no
Bang & Olufsen’s first attempt to create a soundbar is pretty well done with the Beosound Stage.
They hit well with the product design, though one also expects a solid and well-composed product for this price. B&O is known to stand out from the crowd on the design, which they continue to live up to.
at the same time is the sound from the Beosound Stage not bad in any way. It is clean and balanced, but some might want a more engaging sound. There is solid bass in soundbaren, which is both accurate and fast in pace. Voices and details are emitted also in a good way.
It that prevents the soundbaren to achieve the best, among other things, the app that makes it exceptionally awkward to adjust the sound stage to the different modes.
at the same time, it is a bit thin with tilkoblingsmuligheder, where in particular the lack of the ability to connect to an external subwoofer is a minus.
all in All it is still a good product. And with some improvements in ease of use and connectivity will Beosound Stage quickly climb a grade or two up.
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