B&O’s latest speaker is a love letter to aluminum

Bang & Olufsen (B&O) has released a new version of its picnic basket-shaped Beosound A5 Bluetooth speaker that’s wrapped entirely in aluminum. The company calls the new look Spaced Aluminum and says you can replace the speaker’s cover with two other available finishes – Nordic Weave and Dark Oak. The Spaced Aluminum Edition is available starting October 26 at Bang-olufsen.com and select retailers for $1,399.

What’s interesting about the Spaced Aluminum design is that it uses a series of 3,500 individual aluminum discs to form the speaker grille.

“We have worked with various circular patterns in our speaker grille designs for many years,” said Michael Henriksen, B&O’s vice president of product marketing. “It’s become a signature, but it’s a whole new style.”

Typically, when B&O makes circular pattern grills, the circles are cutouts – the part of the grill that is acoustically transparent. On spaced aluminum covers, it is the opposite. Two layers of aluminum are used to give the illusion that the disc is floating and that the sound is flowing through the space. between Disc.

B&O is no stranger to aluminum. When we reviewed the company’s BeoSound Stage soundbar we saw what it could do with content. “We have a rich history in aluminum,” said Henriksen. And we are surprised by our past. Aluminum is a timeless material that ages beautifully and reflects our values ​​of creating products that last.

Apart from the visually and physically different cover, the new Beosound A5 variant is identical to the speaker B&O launched earlier in 2023. It has 280 watts of power, IP65 water and dust protection, a rechargeable battery that provides 12 hours of playtime, both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless speaker connectivity, and a handy wireless charger built into the top surface.

Along with the new spaced aluminum model, B&O says it’s adding two new features to the Beosound A5. Starting in November, you’ll automatically be able to stereo-pair two A5s that are physically close to each other – a welcome addition considering that the Beosound A5 is a mono speaker when used alone.

Then, in 2024, the company says it will release a feature called Fluid Sweet Spot. If you have an iPhone 11 or newer and a stereo-pair set of Beosound A5s, Fluid Sweet Spot can change the sound output of the two speakers so that it’s optimized for your listening situation (as determined by your iPhone Has been done). The same feature was first announced in September when B&O launched its Beolab 8 speaker, though at the time, the company didn’t land on the Fluid Sweet Spot name.