Skip to main content

Every spot is the sweet spot with these $40,000 Bang & Olufsen speakers

At a time when it seems like every new speaker we see is portable, waterproof, dust-proof, solar-powered, wireless, multi-room, and built almost entirely around the big-sound-small-package proposition, it’s nice to see there are still some folks out there who embrace the size-no-object, cost-no-object approach to new speaker design. Why? Because speaker porn, that’s why. And boy does Bang & Olufsen have an incredible new speaker for us to lust over. Introducing the BeoLab 90, a monstrous, multi-driver, floor-standing speaker designed to deliver mind-blowing sound no matter its surroundings, and even re-position the ever-elusive “sweet spot” wherever the listener wants it to be.

As budding audio enthusiasts delve into the depths of sound and acoustics, they quickly learn that speaker positioning and room characteristics have a huge effect on how a  speaker system sounds. The conventional means of dealing with a room’s influence is to abate problem areas with some sort of acoustic treatment. With the BeoLab 90, Bang & Olufsen basically says, “screw all that noise.”

Recommended Videos

Instead, each BeoLab 90 speaker has been designed with a 360-degree array of 18 individual Scan-Speak drivers, all precisely digitally controlled with B&O’s so-called Adaptive Room Compensation, a digital sound processing and built-in amplification combo that measures the effect a room has on the sound being produced by the speakers, and alters its output to compensate. The result is said to be exquisitely balanced and powerful sound, with a soundstage that’s as wide or narrow and as deep or shallow as wanted, for a convincing, live sound, no matter the room conditions or listening position.

Driving all those drivers in each speaker are 14 ICE amplifiers — one for each channel — plus four class-D digital amplifiers for the bass. In total, the amplifiers can deliver up to 8,200 watts per speaker. Overkill? Hell no. The sort of control and dynamics Bang & Olufsen demands requires a little something called headroom, and the company cut not a single corner when designing the BeoLab 90. Perhaps that’s why each speaker weighs in at 302 pounds.

But wait, there’s more.

While the BeoLab 90 has a number of conventional wired connections, including USB (24 bit / 192 kHz), S/P-DIF (24 bit / 192 kHz,Toslink (24 bit / 96 kHz), XLR, and RCA, the speakers are also WiSA compliant. For those not familiar, WiSA is a wireless hi-res audio standard, capable of delivering audio signals at up to 24 bit / 96 kHz resolution over the 5.2 to 5.8 GHz UNII radio frequency spectrum. The budding wireless technology is just starting to make its way into the mainstream, with more WiSA-compliant sources expected to feed a growing

For the BeoLab 90, however, there may be no more perfect source component than the company’s Avant 4K Ultra HD television, which, in addition to being able to transmit hi-res audio signals for music and movies directly to the speakers and even act as the center channel in a surround sound setup, has the ability to adjust its orientation on a motorized stand, directing its image in any number of directions. In this way, the Avant and BeoLab 90 can be combined to direct both image and sound to any spot within a room, effectively making any spot the sweet spot, all with the press of a button on B&O’s new mobile device app. Several arrangements can be pre-configured and saved as any number of pre-sets, such as Easy Chair, Sofa Left, Sofa Right, or Kitchen.

Each BeoLab 90 speaker is expected to cost around $40,000 and should be available in the coming month, available at Bang & Olufsen specialty stores across the US.

This story originally appeared in The Manual’s brother publication, Digital Trends

The ultimate guide to cigar wrappers every aficionado should read
Why the wrapper is the most underrated part of your cigar
Guardian of the Farm Cerberus cigar from Aganorsa cigar tasting experience

If you’ve smoked a good variety of cigars, you’ll eventually have discovered a difference between wrapper types. Besides being just pretty packaging, that thin outer leaf can account for 60% of your cigar’s flavor! I’ve smoked cheap bundles and limited editions, and I’m telling you that the wrapper makes or breaks the experience. So, let’s delve into cigar wrapper types and change how you select your next smoke.

Why cigar wrapper types matter

Read more
Ted Lasso season 4: Everything we know so far
The show is coming back three years after the last season.
Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso

After plenty of questions about its future, Ted Lasso is back. The Apple TV+ hit seemed to be done following its third season, but production has officially started on the fourth, with much of the cast set to return for this new installment.

Now that we know Ted Lasso is coming back, there are still plenty of questions about what that means for the show, and how it might change moving forward — and everyone has opinions on what they'd like to see from season 4. Here's what we know so far, including when we might see that fourth season:

Read more
Beginner’s guide to cigar shapes and sizes — and why they matter
Why your cigar choice says more about you than your watch (and how to pick the perfect one)
A collection of cigars

Walking into a cigar shop and facing what seems like a million options is enough to make anyone panic. Cigars stacked everywhere, each with a strange name, size, and a slightly different shape from the last one. If you haven't done this before, it's tempting to just grab something, anything, and run!But hold on a second. Those shapes actually matter. They aren't just there to look fancy or make things confusing. The size and shape change the whole experience of smoking that cigar – how it tastes, burns, and feels. It's kind of like how driving a tiny sports car is way different than driving a big truck. Both get you where you're going, but the experience along the way is not the same.

What are cigar vitolas?

Read more