B&O has launched its first ever soundbar, dubbed B&O Beosound Stage. Announced at the ongoing Venice Biennale, the latest from the house of Bang & Olufsen kept alive the company's tradition of considering its electronics to be works of art. The uber-premium soundbar is surprisingly the brand's first ever attempt at making a soundbar, and given that it targets the luxury end of the audio buyer's market, opinions (as always with everything B&O) remain divided on whether the Beosound Stage would justify its lofty pricing and elite aspirations.
To address the audiophilic concerns, B&O's spec sheet for the Beosound Stage says that there are 11 front-firing speakers inside the soundbar, each accompanied by individual, 50W Class D amplifier to avoid issues arising due to incidental power/signal loss. Bass response is provided by four, centrally placed, custom made, 4-inch woofers. The central channel placement of the integrated woofers help reduce material distortion — often a case with some soundbars. Furthermore, there are two 1.5-inch drivers hooked up with a 0.75-inch dome tweeter, which is dedicated to produce crisp, pronounced and balanced mid frequencies. To control this all, users will get four listening modes — Movie, Music, Night and TV, each with customisable equalisers in order to refine the audio output.
In terms of audio standard certificates, the B&O Beosound Stage is compliant with Dolby Atmos and Dolby TrueHD, while connectivity features include in-built Chromecast and AirPlay 2. The soundbar comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity that can also be used separately, while there is an HDMI port and an Ethernet jack as well. The HDMI eARC port ensures negligible lags in data transfer speeds between the source (TV) and the output (soundbar), which should ensure high resolution playback. Despite the forward-thinking inclination of the soundbar, the Beosound Stage also includes RCA connectors and a 3.5mm audio port, for added connectivity.
Design wise, there is no denying a sense of geometric perfection in the way the Beosound Stage looks. However, the art purist in you will need to shell out a fair bit in order to get your hands on this — the metal-finished versions of the Beosound Stage are priced at $1,750 (~Rs 1,27,000), while the 'smoked oak' uber luxurious wooden frame version will set you back by $2,600 (~Rs 1,88,000). B&O's not the typical company that would instantly release country-specific launch details, and India is typically a market for Beoplay, the brand's more affordable (read: still rather expensive) sub-brand. But, given its market potential, we might see it in official B&O India stores, soon.
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