Bang & Olufsen's New Beosound Theatre Was Designed to Literally 'Read the Room'
We oftentimes get speakers wrong. Because the bass goes hard, we forget about the actual character of the sound quality. Are the impedance, amplifiers, or power handling all there? Does it know how to navigate the acoustics of our room? Is it optimized to handle our televisions or home systems? All that and more, we tend to brush to the side just because the bass, most of the time, is just okay.
Danish audio brand Bang & Olufsen, for what it's worth, has transcended bass as a barometer, with its new all-world, all-immersive soundbar, the Beosound Theatre. What it is is a multi-product home cinema in itself. It's seamless in the way it integrates the sound quality into the negative spaces of the room. In layman's terms, it's a hell of a product.
"What's so special about the Bang & Olufsen speakers is that you don't need acoustic treatments. You don't need to add acoustic enhancements to your room. All you need are the speakers," Bang & Olufsen Philippines Brand Manager Vince Miclat says.
He continues: "For the Beosound Theatre, it has a dedicated mic that you can activate. It will automatically calibrate the room, whether it's filled with glass or whatnot. The speakers will adapt, no matter how bad the location is. It always give you the output the artists, directors, music, or movies intended."
Even within a less-than-ideal showroom, the spatial sound performance is incredible.
It's a big pronouncement. But if we look through the specifications, the Beosound Theatre backs that talk up big time. It comes with 12 speaker drivers, including two custom-made long stroke 6.5-inch woofers and 800 watts of amplification power. Hence, the 112dB sound pressure level. Speech clarity is also managed by the center channel.
The set also builds on the brand’s flagship Beolab 90 speakers technology. It introduces a new three-dimensional sound directivity due to the patent-pending combination of the direct, side- and up-firing speakers. All speakers work together to control the beam width and direction.
These drivers ensure better sound distribution within rooms. Better distribution means a better speech quality and sound experience overall. There's an heightened perception of the spaciousness, as well. "Sound engineers designed it for different locations, music genres, instruments, and more. They develop it in such a way that anything you play, it will always give you the desired sound," the brand manager notes. He also tells us they really can't say no because, well, they seem to be work-a-holics that way. They're cool like that.
This thing was conceptualized with modular design thinking in mind. The solid oak lamella cover is made by a family-run factory in Denmark and perfectly matches Bang & Olufsen’s family of Beolab speakers, such as the Beolab 18, Beolab 28 and Beolab 50. We can see that the design of the lamellas that clip into place rather than glued means that they can easily be disassembled or replaced. The fabric version, on the other hand, is designed to be a visually softer solution.
Of course, the bass system is always going to matter. While other bass networks usually send the sound to the subwoofer, the Beosound Theatre works as a single unit. It makes sure that the various loudspeakers work with and not against each other.
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Meanwhile, the aluminum “wings” are also extendable for customers whose TV screens grow as they upgrade. The interface bracket is also motorized and forms a smooth connection between the stand and the TV screen, cleverly hiding any clutter to present the TV as one integrated design. It's all about longevity and adaptability. Head of Product Circularity Mads Kogsgaard Hansen says that the multi-product set can outlast just about any TV in its lifetime.
The soundbar can evolve to be used as a dedicated sound center, and it starts its seven built-in outputs that can support up to 16 external loudspeakers. This makes it the perfect complement to, let' say, Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 surround configuration. In this setup, Beosound Theatre functions as a center speaker that merges the Dolby Atmos decoding and custom-tuned post-processing with Bang & Olufsen’s True Image algorithm. How about that?
Its setup is a piece of cake, too, thanks to Bang & Olufsen’s Roomsense app. It assigns a role for each speaker based on the different placements in a matter of seconds. The app helps us cancel out the unwanted resonance. The soundbar also comes with Bang & Olufsen’s own proprietary software platform called Mozart, which creates a cross-generational home audio setup, similar to the design of the Beolab 6000 and Beolab 8000 column speakers.
"It's not just about the bass. It's about the authenticity of the sound quality. Our sound engineers often say that they don't want to hear them go, 'Oh we like that speaker,'" Miclat claims. "We'd rather hear them say, 'Oh I love that song. You know what? I never heard that detail before.' It means we delivered."
