Bang & Olufsen has announced a compact yet powerful new soundbar, which is made from pure aluminium and sports 10 drivers.
The Beosound Premiere will be available from December, priced at £3,900 / €4,900 / $5,800.
I've been covering technology as a journalist for several decades, having also been the deputy editor of Home Cinema Choice, and I've therefore seen plenty of interesting and unique AV products in my time. But if there's one company that's almost certain to surprise even me, it's Bang & Olufsen.
Often kooky, its speakers especially have come in all manner of shapes and sizes. You only need to cast your mind back a few years to the Beosound Theatre soundbar to understand exactly what I mean. However, they almost always have the capabilities to go with the creativity – and it looks like that could be the case again.
The manufacturer has announced another bar with radically different styling to many of the other best soundbars on the market. The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere is crafted from pure aluminium and features three luxury finishes – gold tone, black anthracite, and natural aluminium. And it looks quite unlike anything we've seen before.
The soundbar features 10 customer drivers, each with its own amplifier, and sports the brand's proprietary Wide Stage Technology to emit a spatial soundstage that is claimed to feel wider and taller than it is.
The idea is that you do not need additional speakers to experience a spatial effect for movies and music. Although adding extra Beolink Surround-capable speakers allows for even more immersion. A Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 decoder inside the Premiere will help drive them.
Bang & Olufsen design, through and through
In terms of the design, the drivers are celebrated as part of the bar's compact form factor, including an up-firing tweeter in front and centre. There are also 90 LED lights that can make the soundbar seem like it is glowing from within. And they also respond to interactions, as settings are adjusted.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Premiere soundbar will be available from December (the natural aluminium model) and priced at £3,900 / €4,900 / $5,800 (around AU$8,900). It comes with a stand that can be used on an AV cabinet or to wallmount the speaker.
An extremely limited Beosound Premiere Haute Edition, which comes with a precision-milled pattern that took over 17-hours to achieve, is available now for £11,000 / €13,000 / $15,700 (around AU$24,155). There will be only 25 of these ever made, however.
