Back with a Bang - Review Bang & Olufsen Beoplay A1

The nicknames for my newest purchase are varied, ranging from UFO to the much less reputable “land mine”. And, to be perfectly honest with you, they are kind of understandable when you lay your eyes on it for the first time. Still, I’ve grown quite fond of it in the short timespan since I got it. But let’s take it step by step, shall we. What the hell is that thing, and why did I buy it in the first place?

Dubai - Where it all started.

Well, I guess it all started back in Dubai. I had flown there to get away from the autumn cold in Ireland, and had landed in a place that was a Cross between the Citadel from Mass Effect and straight-up Blade Runner. Seriously, the room from my room was breathtaking, all it was lacking was the SSV Normandy zipping by while heading out on another mission. All the place lacked was the appropriate ambient music, like, say, the Blade Runner score. And while the speakers in my MacBook Air are quite good given the size of the device, they do lack a certain something. I would repeat that observation about two months later aboard SS Rotterdam in, well, Rotterdam, although that ship called for something more along the lines of Dave Brubeck or Miles Davis.

So, how to proceed from here? Well, for me, the case was clear, I needed a portable travel speaker, especially since I plan to do a lot more travelling in the years ahead. New England, Canada, Iceland, a cruise with Hurtigruten in Norway, oh, and I want to head back to Austria as well. The big question is which speaker should I go for? Beats? NO WAY, I know way too much about what’s going on backstage to trust that brand. Bose? I made my feelings about that brand abundantly clear back when I reviewed my B&O Play H8 headphones back in July. So, once again, I turned to a certain audio forge in Denmark. Why, you ask? Well, I had fallen for Bang & Olufsen several months previously, and I still absolutely love their H8, and incidentally, their “consumer” brand B&O Play offers a series of speakers in addition to their headphone lineup. Their speaker collection ranges from the A1, which can be had for around 200€ from some retailers, all the way up to the A9, which has a retail price of around 2200€. That latter model is also less than mobile. 

For this, and several other reasons, it was the Beoplay A1 that caught my eye. Not only was it nice and compact when compared to the Beolit 15, or the Beoplay A2, it was actually affordable. Plus, it could apparently take a beating, and was dust and splash resistant. Still, it took some time for me to actually bring myself around to buying it, not least because I had to convince two unnamed close relatives not to immediately beat the living daylights out of me when I turned up with that thing in my bag. Finally, I decided to go for a Beoplay A1 in a deep red tone, part of the B&O Play autumn/winter collection 2016/2017. Hey, we’re talking about Bang & Olufsen here, I think you can indulge yourself like that when buying from that brand.

Delivery was less than straightforward, the speaker was lost in the Bermuda Triangle that is Amazon logistics for about a week, before I could finally pick it up from the company mail room on the last day before my Christmas break. Most of the photos therefore were taken straight at my desk at VMware, which is kind of fitting since I partially paid for the speaker with an Amazon voucher I had won at work. 

It's here at last. The packaging is par for the course

The same goes for the back.

The packaging is relatively understated, as I’ve come to expect from B&O Play. The speaker itself takes pride of place inside the box, as it should be. And, let’s be honest, there’s not much else in there that could vie for attention. A small booklet containing a quick start guide are in there, as well as a USB charging cable. That’s it. In my eyes, that’s a bit miserly in my eyes. Given the price, a small clip to hook it onto a backpack, or a carrying pouch would have been nice, but apparently the guys at Bang & Olufsen think that would be overkill.

The speaker takes center-stage, and rightly so.

That's all, folks! Seriously, Bang & Olufsen could have been a bit more generous here.

But enough about the packaging, let’s go for the speaker itself. It looks suitably minimalistic, reduced to all the basic components. It is round, with a diameter of 13.3 centimetres (Sorry, civilised units of measurement only on my blog!), and 4.8 centimetres high. The top two thirds are made of aluminum, while the bottom third is a polymer base. The entire thing feels rock solid, the relatively high weight of 600 grams certainly plays a part there. It also looks quite good in my opinion, despite the fact that the entire design is, as I mentioned above dust and splash resistant. 

And there it is. Looks great in my eyes.

Can you see any switches? Me neither, that's the point. 

3.5mm audio jack and USB-C(!) charging port.

You can clearly see the two materials.

Baby got (no) back. The backside is pretty much bare.

This is partially down to the fact that there are no visible keys or switches along the rim of the device. They’re all integrated into the polymer base, and are marked by discrete pictograms. This makes “blind” operation of the speaker, even for simple things such as switching on, rather difficult, especially since the pressure point for the switches is poorly defined, leading to some guesswork. LED Backlighting while the speaker is powered on could have alleviated part of this issue, however, that is only a very minor nag. Only the audio-in port, the leather carrying strap, and the USB port break the uniform structure of the speaker. Be advised that the connector on the speaker is a USB-C connector! So if you happen to have a Beoplay H7, H8, or H9, or any other B&O Play speaker, their cables won’t work. The leather strap on the other hand is quite handy when it comes to either hanging the speaker onto a hook on a wall, or attaching it to the outside of a backpack. As for the integrated battery, that’s supposed to deliver up to 24 hours of non-stop playback, something I haven’t been able to verify yet. 

Yeah yeah, yadda, yadda, yadda. How’s the sound quality with these things? In a word mind-blowing. Granted, it’s a mobile speaker, but still, the highs are well defined and sharp, the bass is full and present, providing just the right kind of oomph for pretty much every type of music, except maybe the most extreme kind of Drum & Base, all without drowning out the midrange notes. I’d be willing to bet  substantial amount of money that this mobile speaker puts a number of compact home stereo systems to shame. Okay, admittedly, the bass suffers a bit at maximum loudness, but then again, I can’t even crank the speaker up to maximum loudness without getting in trouble with my neighbours. Oh, I’m certain that those chronic audiophiles, you know, the kind who lay their speaker cables according to the lunar calendar, will find a lot of things to criticise with this speaker, but for anyone who just wants to fill their hotel room with good music, the A1 certainly delivers in spades.

Just like the H8 headphones, the A1 speaker can be controlled through the Beoplay app for Android and iOS. And just like the headphones, the audio output can be seamlessly adjusted using the ToneTouch function of the app. Once again, a number of presets are also available for selection through the app on the phone and on the Apple Watch. I’m sure some people will find that function useful, however given the excellent audio quality of the A1, I haven’t done so myself yet. However, with the A1, the app also allows you to couple one A1 speaker to another one to enable a full stereo experience. Given the sound quality of one A1 alone, I can’t imagine how two of these beauties will sound. There is only one major criticism concerning the app. Why isn’t the Beoplay app available for iPad and other tablets? There are many scenarios, especially in your own home, where it makes more sense to use an iPad or other tablet, not least due to the larger battery capacities of these devices. This is something that should be addressed by Bang & Olufsen, and sooner rather than later.

That aside, there’s still one question to settle: Is it worth the money? Well, the Beoplay A1 certainly isn’t cheap. It’s listed as 249€ on the B&O Play website, while several retailers offer it for as low as 200€. And to be fair, this is a Bang & Olufsen product we’re talking about, so you’re not going to have a clearcut logical business case for buying it, there’s always a sizeable emotional component connected to it. From this emotional point of view, it was certainly more than worth it, if only for the envious looks of certain family members.

On that point, anyone got any ideas how to get that speaker past my parents without causing a scene? ;)