Danish manufacturer of high-end consumer electronics Bang & Olufsen is known for the design and attention to detail of its products, in addition to performance. The Beosound range of audio products covers all types of speakers, including home installation speaker systems, but the product I am reviewing today is part of the portable audio range. In fact, it’s one of the most affordable products Bang & Olufsen currently offers, even if it still comes at a pretty steep price when compared to comparable wireless speakers from brands like Xiaomi, Sony and JBL.
The Beosound Explore is a premium wireless speaker, priced at Rs. 20,000 in India. It is designed and built for outdoor use, with an anodized aluminum frame and IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. Is this the best wireless bluetooth speaker you can buy for around Rs. 20,000 now? Find out in this review.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore can handle the elements
Bang & Olufsen products are known to have very good aesthetics, and the Beosound Explore is no exception. The speaker is stylish, refined and significantly smaller than similarly positioned options like the UE Boom 3 and JBL Xtreme 2. However, it weighs about the same as the above products due to the liberal use of metal in its construction. The frame is made of anodized aluminum, while the base has a rubberized material for grip and some degree of shock resistance.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance; this means it can withstand significant exposure to dirt, dust and water, including full submersion in shallow water for short periods of time. A waterproof fabric strap and carabiner also come with the speaker to make handling and carrying it a bit easier. The USB Type-C port for charging is on the bottom, on the rubber base, and the controls are on the top. The positioning of the speaker drivers provides 360-degree sound rather than a focused listening zone.
There are five soft-touch physical buttons on the top to control power, volume, playback and Bluetooth pairing. With the play button you can play and pause music with the touch of a button, but you can also skip to the next track by pressing twice or the previous track with three presses.
Conveniently, there’s also a multi-point connection, which allows you to connect up to two Bluetooth devices at once, as well as stereo pairing if you have two Beosound Explore speakers. Quick pairing via the Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair protocols is also supported. It is important to mention that this speaker does not have a built-in microphone, so you cannot use it hands-free to make calls. That also means there’s no support for voice assistants like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore has two 1.8-inch drivers, two 30W class D full-range amplifiers and a frequency range of 56-22,700Hz. The speaker uses Bluetooth 5.2 for connectivity with support for the SBC Bluetooth codec. The Bang & Olufsen app (available on iOS and Android) allows you to control playback and volume, adjust the sound profile and set up stereo pairing to pair two Beosound Explore speakers. It also displays the battery level of the speaker.
The battery life on the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore is said to be 27 hours at normal volume, according to the company, but in real use I found it a lot less. I got about 11 hours of listening time at moderate volume levels on a single charge, which, while much lower than the claimed figure, is acceptable for a speaker of this size. It took about two hours to fully charge the Beosound Explore with my own 10W charger.
Good soundstage on the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore
Aside from the good looks and build quality, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore promises good sound quality thanks to its dual driver setup. While the gain specs suggest the Beosound Explore is loud, it doesn’t push the volume as well as devices like the UE Boom 3. That said, the sound quality is decent in terms of tuning, and the positioning of the drivers makes for a good soundstage. .
I used the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore with an iPhone 13 (Review) as the primary source device for this review, but also tested multi-point connectivity with an Android smartphone. Since there is no microphone on the device, my testing was limited to listening to music, occasionally watching videos on YouTube, and playing games on my smartphone. Connectivity was stable even with two devices connected to the speaker over distances of up to 3 meters, and switching between devices was quick and seamless.
Starting with Benee’s Supalonely, I had the volume set to about 50 percent and the sound profile set to the ‘Optimal’ level, which is the equivalent of a flat equalizer setup thanks to the speaker’s natural tuning. I found the sound a bit too warm in this setting, which made Benee’s light, youthful vocals a bit muddy and skewed. While this helped make the sound punchy and bass-happy in this punchy track, it didn’t sound as clean as I would have liked.
Fortunately, the sound profile is easy to adjust to my liking and I was able to intuitively set it to levels suitable for individual tracks. That said, this isn’t something I’d want to do often, given my varied musical preferences and tendency to listen to different genres in shuffle. In this regard, the speaker’s natural tuning wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, especially considering the cost.
With Intoxicated by Martin Solveig and GTA I got the chance to listen to the Beosound Explore with the kind of music that suits it best. The strong, fast beat of this track sounded nice on the speaker, and the directionality of the drivers made for an excellent soundstage across the room, despite being placed in a corner against a wall. With the volume up, this track was a lot of fun, and I also felt the sound quality improve a bit with the volume around 70 percent or higher.
While turning the volume up to about 90 percent made the sonic signature feel a little too boomy and overbearing, the Beosound Explore held its own in minimizing distortion and harshness in the sound. Overall, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore sounds decent even considering the high price, but is held back somewhat by its size and tendency to sound a bit too warm.
verdict
Bang & Olufsen’s ‘luxury’ approach to personal audio works quite well for the Beosound Explore. This is an outdoor-friendly wireless speaker that could be great for glamping or sitting next to the pool of your holiday home. It’s a good looking, well built wireless speaker that offers enough sound quality to rationalize its Rs somewhat. 20,000 price tag.
That said, the sound isn’t quite as loud as I’d hoped, there’s no microphone for hands-free calling and you’re definitely paying a premium for the beautiful styling and rugged construction. The sound quality is decent though, especially the good soundstage and the ability to quickly adjust the equalizer to your liking using the app, making the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore a worthwhile option to consider for around Rs. 20,000.
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