Bang & Olufsen has recently announced the release of its latest Bluetooth speaker, and it’s a thing of absolute beauty. The new Beosound A5, designed in collaboration with Danish-Italian design duo GamFratesi, once again sees the famed audio manufacturer looking to combine audio substance with oodles of Scandi style.
The Beosound A5 promises to become Bang & Olufsen’s most powerful portable speaker ever, teasing hefty sound wherever it goes thanks to a four-way driver with four digital amplifiers putting out a combined 280 watts of power for dynamic 360-degree sound. With a 13cm woofer, two 5cm midrange drivers and a 2cm tweeter, the A5 should be capable of offering big sound on the road or in the home.
The technology within the A5 is taken from the B&O Beolab 90 and 50 hi-fi speakers, both of which use “ beamforming technology”, an innovation that the manufacturer claims “creates an immersive experience far beyond the expectations of a portable speaker.”
As was the case with the recently upgraded Beosound A9 and Besound 2 wireless speakers, the A5 uses the company's Mozart platform. This, in essence, allows B&O products’ software to be updated and upgraded well into the future, thus removing the need for consumers to buy new products as often as they otherwise might.
Bang & Olufsen also claims that the speaker has been designed to be serviced and repaired easily, further extending its lifetime; and it promises to produce easily swappable front covers in new materials and colour schemes, to change things up even more.
It’s worth talking about that design, too. The A5 features two colour schemes - aluminium with a woven paper fibre front and a light oak handle, or black anthracite aluminium with a dark oak cover and handle - and is designed to hark back to classic B&O models such as the Beolit 607 from 1961.
It’s not designed only to be looked at, either. The fully portable Beosound A5 can be taken anywhere thanks to an IP65 water and dustproof rating, not to mention more than 12 hours of playtime from a single charge. There is also the option to daisy-chain two A5s together via the Mozart platform, as well as to integrate the speaker into the B&O smart home multi-room system. Featuring Bluetooth 5.2, the Beosound A5 is also compatible with AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Spotify Connect.
“Beosound A5 combines Bang & Olufsen’s long-standing approach to timeless design with our vision on sound for the future,” states B&O's VP of Product Marketing, Michael Henriksson. "We are excited to collaborate with GamFratesi to create two speaker designs that are rooted in a Scandinavian aesthetic with a distinct design signature on their own.”
Pricing for the B&O Beosound A5 varies depending on the choice of colour scheme. The A5 in Nordic Weave will cost you £899/ $1049/ AU$1650/ €999 and is available in stores and online from 27th April 2023, while the Dark Oak scheme will set you back £999/ $1149/ €1099 and will be available in stores and online from 27th April 2023.
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