Elegant Sound For Anywhere
The Beosound A5 is B&O’s most powerful portable speaker
Bang & Olufsen has crafted one of the most elegant portable speakers that break the conventional appearance. The Beosound A5 is designed by the Danish-Italian design duo GamFratesi Studio who got their inspiration from early Beolit models. There are two colour finishes – the light oak wrapped with fibre weave accented with natural aluminium, and the stripped dark oak with a black aluminium finish.
Each colourway exudes a different feel, the light oak can be easily mistaken as a food basket for picnics, while the dark oak blends well in a forest setting. If your home is furnished with wood themes, the Beosound A5 will look perfect. And while you are outdoors, place your smartphone on the top of the A5 to charge your devices wirelessly. The A5’s 9000 mAh battery can hold enough
The large sturdy handle makes the A5 easy to carry around. There is no protective bag included, and rightfully there is no need to, as the A5 is IP65 rated for water and dust resistance. While the wood and paper weave components may be damaged by water, they would age nicely over time. Although the website does not provide parts replacement costs, the A5 is designed to be modular where parts can be replaced.
There are two 2-inch full-range speakers, a 0.8-inch tweeter and a 5.25-inch woofer with a Class D peak amplification of 70W on each driver, making the A5 the most powerful portable speaker in the B&O line-up. This power is rather overbearing for loudly-mixed tracks, but they allow quiet tracks like the opening track of “No Time To Die” by Billie Eilish to fill the room. From the B&O app, it is possible to adjust the frequency balance in many ways: using the treble-bass or the Beosonic, a tool based on advanced digital sound algorithms to explore different audio spaces by simply moving the circle around or enlarging it by pinching.
Beosonic can alter the soundscape quite dramatically, so it is highly recommended to experiment with it to get some rather dramatic results. I find myself enjoying the A5 only after tuning with the Beosonic. However, I was unable to find a standard setting that plays consistently well with all my test tracks.
To further improve the acoustic performance of the A5, run the “Room Compensation” feature where the speaker plays a sweeping sound to map the room. From the app, you can also switch the directivity from omni to front. You can also pair it ao another A5 to deliver better stereo sound or connect it to Wi-Fi using Beolink Multiroom and Chromecast for multi-room broadcast.
The push buttons on top of the A5 can be hard to see but it is certainly a design compromise to achieve a less techie outlook. Besides the usual playback and volume controls, there are four “favourites” buttons to configure shortcuts to radio stations or Spotify playlists.
Rating: 4/5
We Say: A beautiful portable speaker for Scandinavian theme homes, with powerful speakers to deliver audio satisfaction.
S$1,499
www.bang-olufsen.com
Technical Specifications
Driver 1x 5.25-inch woofer drivers, 1x 2-inch full range drivers, 1x 0.8-inch tweeter
Amplifier 1x 70W Class D for woofer, 2x 70W Class D for full range, 1x 70W Class D for tweeter
Frequency Response 32 – 23,000 Hz
Maximum Sound Pressure 101 dB SPL
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.3, WiFi 6 2.4/5GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax, Spotify Connect, Airplay 2, Deezer, Tidal Connect, Chromecast, Beolink Multiroom
Bluetooth Codecs SBC, AAC
Water Resistance IP65
Battery more than 12 hours playtime, 3 hours charging
Dimensions 285 x 187 x 130 mm
Weight 3.8kg
