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Bang & Olufsen's Beoplay EX earbuds offer an AirPods-like design
Bang & Olufsen has unveiled its first wireless earbuds with an AirPods-like design — and a $399 price tag.
Bang & Olufsen's pricey H8i headphones are currently $250 at Best Buy
We liked Bang & Olufsen's H8i headphones between their premium construction, clear audio and comfort, but the $399 price was tough to swallow when the competition offered solid sound for less. Cost won't be an obstacle right now, though. Best Buy has dropped the price of the H8i to $250 as part of a clearance sale, making a pair far easier to justify if you're determined to put that upscale audio on your ears.
B&O adds Google Assistant to its pricey H9 headphones
High-end electronics manufacturer Bang and Olufsen is back with a set of headphones that are made for the power listener. The latest version of the company's flagship Beoplay H9 headphones promise a whopping 25 hours of wireless playtime from its built-in battery. That's seven hours longer than the company's previous Beoplay H9i managed on a single charge.
B&O's limited-edition Beoplay H9i has an aluminum carry case
Bang & Olufsen is teaming up with premium luggage maker Rimowa for a limited-edition version of the Beoplay H9i headphones. There's a focus on aluminum here, as the headphones will have a warm light grey finish and come with an aluminum Rimowa carrying case. As with the standard H9i, they include active noise-cancellation and a touch interface.
B&O Play launches the E8, its first wireless earbuds
Bang & Olufsen never adopt a new technology until it can guarantee that the audio quality is up to its usual high standards. But the firm has moved fairly quickly, by its standards, to build its first pair of in-ear Bluetooth earbuds. The Beoplay E8 is a pair of Bragi and IconX-esque in-ears that come with their own charging case, just like its rivals.
B&O puts its smallest speaker in your pocket for $169
What's next for high-end audio company Bang and Olufsen following last year's handheld BeoPlay A1 speaker? Making a smaller model, of course. The Beoplay P2 fits in the palm of your hand and perhaps more closely resembles an earbud case than it does a speaker. But maybe don't fret that sound quality diminished because the speaker's size did. Like the A1, the P2 blasts sound out in 360 degrees and it inherited a tweaked version of the mid-woofer from last year's model. 2016's sound carries forward in another way as well -- the P2 shares its 0.75-inch tweeter with the A1.
B&O adds a $299 option to its wireless headphone line
When it comes to Bang and Olufsen's audio gear, you have to be willing to shell out some extra cash to get the company's mix of design and sound. The Beoplay line does offer some more affordable options and today the over-ear Beoplay H4 wireless headphones make their debut. Priced at $299 (£249/€299), the H4s are $100 less than B&O's current most affordable wireless option: the over-ear H7.
B&O Play get into the wireless earbud game
B&O Play came very late to the Bluetooth audio game, but it didn't matter because the sound quality was worth the wait. The firm is now widening its wireless range with the H5, its first set of in-ear buds that ditch the 3.5 mm connector. The big selling point is that the gear will connect to a smartphone app, letting you tweak the sound profile to the situation, such as commuting, podcasts or working out. They can also tweak the "tonality and staging" to their own ends by delving further into the app, the settings saved until you choose to readjust.
B&O Play's H7 headphones trade silence for longevity
Bang and Olufsen held out on Bluetooth for a lot longer than other audio businesses, waiting until it could guarantee that the standard had good enough sound. Ever since it was satisfied, the usually restrained Danish firm has been throwing out wireless audio gear at a rate of knots, and another one arrives today. The BeoPlay H7 is a cheaper, over-ear version of the on-ear H8 cans we first saw in January, the biggest difference between the two being the loss of active noise cancellation. Losing that feature means that the battery, rated for 14 hours on the H8, is promised to last 20 hours on its smaller sibling.
Bang and Olufsen's BeoPlay A6 is a $1,000 wireless speaker
Luxury audiovisual brand Bang & Olufsen (B&O) has just announced a pricey wireless speaker, the $999 BeoPlay A6. The style evokes the back of a chair, gently curving and covered in designer fabric from Danish studio Kvadrat. Apparently, this isn't all about looks, though. B&O says its unique shape "enables sound to fill an entire room whilst creating ambience in multiple areas of a house." The interface for the A6 is pretty interesting too. It's all based around swiping and tapping the top of the speaker. A swipe right, for example, turns the volume up. Holding the center mutes, and a quick tap skips the track. Perhaps not the most intuitive control scheme ever, but a cool talking point nonetheless.
B&O launches its first wireless headphones, the BeoPlay H8
Bang & Olufsen's main announcement this year is the wonderfully weird "Moment" home music system. The Danish company had a few other things to show though, and the BeoPlay H8 Bluetooth headphones are one of them. A mixture of cowhide, lambskin and aluminum, the H8 is definitely one of the more premium-feeling pairs of Bluetooth headphones we've held in a while. With active noise-cancellation, a bunch of high-quality playback features (aptX/A2DP) and a custom metal touch interface, they're one of the nicer specced ones, too. We took a quick look at CES.
B&O Play made a portable Bluetooth speaker, no, we're not kidding
Back in September, at the last press day of German trade show IFA, I should be hauling-ass across the show floor. Instead, I'm waiting outside by the taxi rank, sucking down secondhand smoke of the booth attendants on their breaks and hoping that my ride hasn't forgotten me. Soon after, a pitch-black Audi S8 glides to a halt by my feet, and I know that either the CIA is about to tackle me, or this is my ride to Bang & Olufsen's top-secret, off-site testing area.
B&O's dishy BeoPlay A9 speaker nabs Spotify Connect
Granted, $2,700 is still a pretty steep price to pay, but if you've already bit the hi-fi bullet and picked up Bang & Olufsen's satellite dish-inspired BeoPlay A9, you'll probably be happy to learn that the speaker just got Spotify Connect. If you're a premium subscriber to the streaming service (more money, we know), you can hit play on the speaker to stream your music from the cloud, the minute you get home. You can control the music from your mobile device, but you don't have to worry about pairing it with the speaker. Hey, no one ever said convenience was cheap.
B&O Play H3 and H6 bring Bang & Olufsen's newer badge to headphones
Bang & Olufsen already offers headphones, and it has the B&O Play line to serve a mobile-oriented world. Wouldn't it be nice if the two categories mixed? As of today, they do. The B&O Play H3 in-ears and H6 over-ears apply that Danish love of aluminum and leather to the kind of headphones you'd want to pack with your MP3 player or smartphone. The H3 carries 10.8mm drivers, a mini bass port and a 20Hz to 16kHz range in a unibody shape that should hold up to exercise; the slightly more stationary H6 over-ears sport 40mm drivers and a wider 20Hz to 22kHz range. Both have primarily iOS-oriented in-line mics and remotes, although the H6 alone has Monster-sourced daisy chaining support to share tunes with others. Don't expect a significant break in B&O's premium pricing just because they're B&O Play-branded headsets, however. The H3 and H6 will respectively cost €249 and €399 when they hit some retail stores in May, and US pricing isn't likely to be much cheaper.
New BeoPlay V1 shows up ahead of time, hearts and wallets flutter
We're more used to phones getting leaked ahead of time, but it's not always just the latest and greatest handset that sneaks its way into our inbox. Danish website Recordere has managed to get a cheeky glimpse of the new BeoPlay V1 TV from Bang & Olufsen. Pegged as the new "affordable" model from the Scandinavian manufacturer, it'll come in two flavors: the BeoPlay V1-32 and V1-40 (the numbers representing screen size,) which include DLNA functionality, five HDMI ports, one USB, and integrated 5.1 surround sound, as well as a few other treats. The official launch is the 5th of May, with pricing set at €2,399 and €2,899 (about $3,170 and $3,831 respectively) depending how big the space in your front room is.
