Bang & Olufsen's first soundbar is a 550 W powerhouse

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The market for the soundbar is now so saturated, with so many entrants, from the most chic to the trades, which is perhaps the most remarkable of the new Beosound Stage: this is the first time that Bang & Olufsen is tackling such a healthy system.

Reflecting the aesthetic design that we find in B & O's Beovision Harmony TV Dancing, which debuted at Milan Design Week earlier this year, the Beosound Stage, due out in late October, do you expect the brand in terms of style. It was designed in collaboration with the Danish studio NORM Architects in order to use simple geometric shapes and natural materials.

The simple frame of the £ 1,250 soundbar can be made of aluminum, bronze aluminum or – if you want to buy the £ 1,900 version – smoked oak, with traditional dovetail joints. The natural and bronze frames are both made from a single piece of forged aluminum, so no seams. The frame rotates around the speaker and the only visible controls are those on the control panel. The fabric covering the loudspeaker itself, which can be transformed into sophisticated Kvadrat fabric, is of course acoustically transparent.

Incidentally, if you think you've ever seen a B & O sound bar, you may be thinking of the Beolab 3500, which became the Beosound 35 of 2016. Bang & Olufsen states that even though they had a similar form factor They were never optimized terms of user-friendly connectors for television, to be sound bars. In fact, the Beosound 35 has been designed to be placed over a door or on a foot.

As it seems to be the current fashion, B & O claims to have created the Beosound Stage as a soundbar that does not rely on a subwoofer or satellites to create an immersive sound for a TV. To this end, B & O has inserted 11 speaker drivers, each powered by its own 50-watt amplifier, giving an active three-channel DSP speaker that you can plug into your TV.

The center channel speakers include four custom four-inch woofers, designed to reduce distortion and allow greater movement, which in the real world should result in bass enhancement. The midrange of this center channel is supported by two 1.5-inch midrange drivers and a 3/4 "dome tweeter. The left and right sides have 1.5-inch mids and 3/4-inch tweeters on each side, which are placed next to each other at a 45-degree angle to the axis, in what's called a baffle design to create a 3D image. sound effect. Speaking of 3D, B & O also fulfills one of the current prerequisites of the sound bar with the inclusion of Dolby Atmos, which targets the home theater market experience.

Among the other usual functions, there are five different listening modes: television, music, movie, night listening or none (which basically means a flat equalizer, leaving the incoming sound unchanged). After choosing a mode, it is then possible to adjust the sound using Bang & Olufsen's simple and intuitive ToneTouch equalizer, which is perfectly suited to those who are used to adjusting EQ on B & B headsets. O.

An interesting omission is that there is no digital assistant on the scene. B & O said it had considered adding technology but felt that it was not an optimal use case for Alexa or Google Assistant in a sound bar, adding that users are usually at a distance from the speaker itself and that the dialogue is so common audio for such a device. Of course, this did not stop the competitors from placing assistants in their sound bars.

The Beosound Stage 8 kg can be placed flat in front of or under a TV, and wall mounted on its side for a thinner profile. The sound is adjusted according to the orientation you choose, but you must indicate to the speaker via the accompaniment application how the scene is in your own configuration. If you want to use the speaker in a multi-room music system, the usual suspects are included: Chromecast built-in, Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 4.2 (plus a 3.5mm stereo mini plug, too, if you wish connect) HDMI managers will be satisfied with EARC and ARC support as well as 4K HDR support.

But did B & O come too late for the party? With so many choices, and some with comparable specifications, many will depend on B & O's research of these potential customers who care as much about their technology as their performance. The formidable Sennheiser Ambeo (also a first in the brand category) is a formidable rival to address here. He gets a perfect score from us for the performance, but could never be described as a "spectator" and is very expensive. . We bet most people would prefer something that approaches the design sensibilities of B & O. But then you have the Sonos Beam, which is nice to watch and costs a lot less than one or the other. other of these options, even if it is true that there is no support Dolby Atmos or DTS: X itself.

Then it remains to be seen how the Atmos system works properly on the stage when the speakers are not physically oriented upwards to bounce the sound from the ceiling. DSP can only do a lot, after all.

However, mentioning the Ambeo highlights that the Beosound Stage, for a B & O product, is not the most ridiculous enclosure, it's a thousand pounds less than the Sennheiser. This may be the influence of the incorporation of B & O Play into B & O itself last year. If it sounds as good as it looks, then B & O will have that rare thing about hi-fi, brawn and beauty in one package.

Read the WIRED recommendations guide on the best sound bar to know which models we are evaluating above all others

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