“The portability of the Beolit 12 is practical, and the sound quality is well above average for a speaker of its size. However, justifying the $800 price tag is a big stretch for us.”
Avg
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Very good sound
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Very portable
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Impressive battery life
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Clean, unobtrusive design
Against
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Ridiculous price
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It is plagued by iPhone 4S AirPlay compatibility issues
Editor’s Note: In our video review, we mention that the Beolit 12 had to be manually reconnected to our Wi-Fi network every time it was turned on. B&O has since informed us that this will change with a firmware update that will be available once the unit is available in the US.
Most people have, at some point, come across a Bang & Olufsen (B&O) product. The company’s distinctive take on electronics design has produced some unique and historically superior products, which have enjoyed plenty of love for product placement from the TV and film industry. Beocom 2, for example, appeared in Sex in the city. The BS9000 is practically a staple for all recent productions involving Hugh Grant. We’re pretty sure there was a B&O product somewhere The devil wears Pradaand remember the TV hit series Friends? And B&O was all in on it.
That being the case, it’s easy to understand why B&O is considered a “lifestyle” brand and is often lumped in with other such companies (we won’t mention any names) that often prioritize style over performance. You know, the kind that makes electronics that the American public considers “elitist” and is derided by high-end audio enthusiasts.
Such a broad characterization rarely does it justice – even the other “lifestyle” company we’ve been eluding to from time to time makes some truly decent-sounding products. And in the case of B&O it is probably especially so. Some of B&O’s past products may have been unnecessarily expensive, but they actually sounded (and looked) pretty good.
With that in mind, we reached out to B&O for a review sample of their recently unveiled Beolit 12 AirPlay speaker. B&O got us one very quickly and we immediately threw it in for evaluation. In our review of the B&O Beolit 12 Portable AirPlay Speaker, we discuss its good and not-so-good design points, rate its sound performance, and rank it against the B&W Zeppelin Air and the Klipsch G-17 Air.
Out of the box
Beolit 12 is cleverly packaged without any unnecessary fluff. The bright red box it comes in is equipped with a carrying strap, which is similar in design to the straps of the Beolit 12 itself.
In the box we found the Beolit 12, an AC power cord, an Ethernet cable, a 20-inch long ⅛-inch patch cord, a quick start guide, and a user manual.
The unit measures 9.1 x 7.4 x 2.2 inches and weighs just over 6 pounds.
Features and design
The factor that most distinguishes the Beolit 12 from other premium AirPlay speakers such as the B&W Zeppelin Air or the Klipsch G-17 Air is its portability. Inside the Beolit 12 is a rechargeable battery that B&O claims can power the unit for up to eight hours with a wired connection or up to four hours via AirPlay. It also charges iOS devices.
To improve its portability, a leather carrying strap is attached to opposite ends of the speaker housing with round lugs. It hugs the left side of the speaker when it’s down to minimize its appearance and help the speaker maintain a clean look.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The upper part of the speaker is recessed and coated with rubber anti-slip material. This provides a sort of “drawer” for phones or other small portable media devices. B&O also uses it to hide the unit’s four capacitive touch buttons for power, wireless on, and volume up and down. The bottom of the speaker has four round rubber pads for stability.
The back of the speaker has a pop-up door that hides the speaker’s AC port and Ethernet port. A small cutout in the door allows the cable to pass through. The right side of the speaker has a small recess at the bottom, where we find the speaker’s USB port and a ⅛-inch mini-jack for directly connecting an iOS device (or any other audio device, really).
The front part of the speaker mainly consists of an aluminum grille. The only B&O logo we found is on the lugs that attach the leather strap to the speaker. Otherwise, the front of the unit is extremely clean. In fact, the speaker kind of resembles a large lunch box or a small picnic basket. To be sure, it looks anything but a portable speaker, which we think could resonate with all sorts of people who want an audio solution that blends in with the surrounding decor. In this regard, the opinions of the people in our office varied greatly. Some liked the look of the Beolit 12 while others weren’t big fans.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Beneath the clean-looking front is a 120W digital amplifier, which powers one 4-inch mid-bass driver and two 2-inch tweeters. This may not sound like a lot of speakers, but the tweeters used are larger than most and could potentially be designed to cover much of the higher midrange frequencies effectively. That leaves a 4-inch driver to cover the mid-bass and bass frequencies without the added hassle of dealing with the entire midrange on its own.
At the moment, we have no major complaints, except perhaps the absence of a remote control. This may seem ironic, given that we’ve commented in the past that such a thing seems redundant with an AirPlay speaker, since the iOS device itself functions as a remote control. However, after carrying the Beolit 12 outside of our home and office (and away from Wi-Fi) with our iPhone connected to the speaker, we have to say that a small remote would be quite handy.
Performance
As with any AirPlay speaker, the Beolit 12 must be connected to a Wi-Fi network before wireless music streaming can begin. This is the only technically involved process, per se, but it can confuse you if you don’t pay attention to the instructions provided.
Some boomboxes do this by having the speaker act as a Wi-Fi access point, which is then reprogrammed with a Mac, PC or iOS app. B&O opted instead for a hardwire approach, which requires an Ethernet cable connection between the speakers and the Mac or PC’s Ethernet port.
B&O’s printed instructions are perfectly fine, but for those who want live setup instructions, the company offers a video on its website. For the most part, the setup process went as described in the instructions and was fairly short. However, on our first attempt to connect at home, the Beolit 12 positively indicated that it was connected to our Wi-Fi network, but was not recognized by iTunes. After the second connection attempt, iTunes recognized the presence of the Beolit 12 and we were able to play music right away… from our computer anyway.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Like the Klipsch G-17 Air, the Beolit 12 is the unfortunate victim of some sort of compatibility issue that exists between the iPhone 4S and AirPlay hardware. It’s a problem that Apple has promised to fix with its iOS update that should be out “sometime in the near future.” So we’ve never been able to stream music via AirPlay with our iPhone 4S, and neither will you if you decide to buy the Beolit 12 before Apple’s iOS update releases.
B&O points out a workaround that involves using the iPhone 4S as a remote control for a PC or Mac’s iTunes library. Yes, it’s a nice feature, but it assumes the user’s iTunes library will always be available and doesn’t take into account all the other content waiting on the iPhone.
No, we want to be able to stream directly from our device so we can listen to Pandora, Spotify or YouTube audio on demand through the speaker, but at the moment it’s just not possible. Users of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or any iPad model should have no problems. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the iOS update like everyone else. Thanks a lot, Apple.
The Beolit 12 sounds very good; better than we expected, actually. The compact form factor doesn’t allow for any stereo separation, so the room response is fairly localized, but the sound quality is much better than many of the much larger iPod speaker docks we’ve tested.
Although the Beolit 12’s bass response can’t reach as deep as the Klipsch G-17 Air, it still delivers plenty of accurate lows. We appreciate that the speaker does not exhibit bloated, booming or forced bass. Instead, it rounds out the soundstage very well and adds distinctive power while deftly avoiding the “one-note bass” trap common to many other small speaker docks that aim to achieve as much bass presence as possible. We particularly liked how smoothly the speaker transitioned between bass, mid-bass and midrange tones. With the Beolit 12, your friends won’t be looking for a subwoofer, but the bass-to-size ratio and accuracy are still extremely impressive.
The Beolit 12’s high frequency handling was probably our favorite part of the unit’s sonic signature. Treble through this speaker was clean, articulate, just a little airy, and detailed enough to be satisfying. It wasn’t thin, metallic, overly elongated, or artificially bright. Even our harshly bright recordings sounded very good through this speaker.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Midrange response was also very good. We felt it had a bit more body and vocal presence than we experienced with the Klipsch G-17 Air. We also got a bit more crunch from the distorted guitar effects and a better tone from the drums.
The off-axis response of the Beolit 12 is not as good as the Zeppelin Air or the G-17 Air. When you move to the side or stand above the unit, the treble and upper mids will get bumped a bit. Still, the speaker is capable of a pretty healthy volume and does a good job of filling medium-sized (say, up to 20 x 20 feet) spaces. And, of course, it also works well outside, where it will probably add a nice musical background to outdoor work.
Conclusion
If we don’t already know how much an item costs before we review it, we avoid finding out until our review is complete. The idea here is to form an opinion and rating based on how the item works regardless of price. Based on this methodology, we were ready to give the Beolit 12 a score of 8.5. Then we found out what the projected retail price would be: $799?!
Look, we understand that some people will pay unnecessarily high prices for something special, and we contend that the portability of the Beolit 12 is practical, and the sound quality is well above average for a speaker of its size. However, justifying the $800 price tag is a big stretch for us.
For that, we could grab a pair of Paradigm Shift A2s, Paradigm’s Bluetooth dongle and an Apple Airport express and still have enough scratch to fill our iTunes library with over 150 songs worth of new music. Of course, the resulting system would not be portable, but the sound quality would absolutely delight the Beolit 12. So the question is: Is portability worth it to you?
At a time when price-performance ratios are always moving in favor of the consumer, it seems counterintuitive to produce a product that works in the opposite direction. Unless, of course, the intention here is not to maintain that elitist reputation and alienate a large segment of potential customers.
We rated the Beolit 12 an 8 for excellent performance and portability, but we can’t issue a recommended product label when there are so many other good-sounding portable music options for iOS owners at far lower prices.
The tallest:
- Very good sound
- Very portable
- Impressive battery life
- Clean, unobtrusive design
Lowest values:
- Ridiculous price
- It is plagued by iPhone 4S AirPlay compatibility issues
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn