The speakers in their natural habitat. Image: Bang & OlufsenThe new series of Immaculate Wireless Sound products is Bang & Olufsen's first real step into the wireless audio market. Image: Bang & OlufsenThe BeoLab 17 is a compact speaker that can be positioned multiple ways. Image: Bang & OlufsenThe design on the front panel is meant to mimic the structural ribbing on the inside of the panel. Image: Bang & OlufsenThe BeoLab 18 is an update to David Lewis' BeoLab 8000 standing speaker, which is B&O's best seller speaker. Image: Bang & OlufsenThe wood detailing is meant to represent the sound dispersing through the room. The bottom of the speaker is curved like a high-heel shoe.
Image: Bang & OlufsenThe BeoLab 19 is a subwoofer that's meant to be displayed. Its design inspiration is taken from a jet engine. Image: Bang & OlufsenThe acoustic sound lens on top. Image: Bang & OlufsenBang & Olufsen is very good at creating very pretty objects that sound nice. The Danish audio company always has been good at this, reaching all the way back to the late 1960s, when it introduced the classic BeoMaster 3000, a wood-paneled tuner that’s now in the permanent collection at the MoMA. Some things have changed since then—namely, the fact that you don’t even have to plug in your speakers to make them work anymore— but B&O’s fastidious devotion to good design has not.That holds true for the company's three newly-launched wireless speakers, which are going to look very nice in your millionaire best-friend's living room. The new lineup, which is compliant with WiSa standards for for multi-channel wireless sound, is B&O’s first real step into the wireless audio market and includes the BeoLab 17, a compact speaker made for flexibility, the BeoLab 18, a slender standing speaker and the BeoLab 19, a geometrical subwoofer.
All of the devices look and sound like B&O devices, which is to say they’re a sleek combination of natural wood and mechanical aluminum that give off a holistic, well-balanced sound. But getting those two factors to cohabitate was not an easy process. B&O wanted to turn the subwoofer into something that you’d actually want to showcase.The recipe relies on what CEO Tue Mantoni calls “design-driven innovation,” which basically refers to the company’s dedication to creating a design process where the engineers and designers work side by side. Typically companies design first, make second, which often can result in them not exactly seeing eye to eye on the final product.
But B&O pairs the two disciplines, who often have opposing agendas, up at the outset, which Mantoni believes helps them to work through any problems as they brainstorm. “The designers want it nice and small and beautiful, and complicated to make,” he explains, “While the engineers want it to be bigger so it can have great sound. They also want something simple to build.” The joint effort, ultimately leads to a longer more expensive development process, “But,' says Mantoni, 'We believe it leads to better products.”The smallest of the products, the BeoLab 17, is an unusually-shaped compact speaker that was designed to do more than just sit on a bookshelf.
Torsten Valeur, lead designer of the the 17, says he stumbled on the idea of an off-centered triangle while folding a paper in half. 'I was just playing around with paper and cardboard,' Valeur recalls, 'And I realized, 'Oh, this form is so flexible you place it anywhere.' He's right—you can turn the anodized aluminum speaker on its side, sit it upright or mount it to a wall, and it looks and sounds good from every angle.
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It doesn’t hurt that it has four wireless antenna nestled inside its frame rendering lost-connections moot. The other major feature you might have noticed is the front panel, which looks like a mess of translucent lines. Valeur calls this 'broken ice,” and it's a pretty apt description, but more interesting is the fact that it's actually a representation of the structural ribbing that's typically on the inside of the panel. Maybe you love it, maybe you hate it, but it's certainly a deliberate design choice on behalf of B&O.The other freestanding speaker, the BeoLab 18, is an update to David Lewis’ classic BeoLab 8002.
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The flat paneling of Lewis' design has been replaced with 19 wooden slats that are, according to Valeur, meant to visualize the music emanating from the speaker. The BeoLab 18 is perhaps the biggest achievement of the group, with its 4-inch midrange/woofer drivers and 160-watt class D amplifiers all compacted into a slight frame that balances on an extruded aluminum base that's meant to reflect a ballerina on pointe. “It was at one point fatter and shorter than what the final product is,” Mantoni says says. “At the end of the day we achieved what we wanted, which is a more organic feel and look to it.”The last in the new series of products is the BeoLab 19, a squat, rock-solid subwoofer. Typically subwoofers are bulky and unattractive, best hidden inside a cabinet or behind a piece of furniture.
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B&O wanted to turn the subwoofer into something that you’d actually want to showcase in your living room. The resulting device is a super-solid aluminum twelve-sided polyhedron, or a Dodecahedron for those of you up on your geometry, that looks remarkably similar to a mini jet engine. This is no coincidence, as Jakob Wagner, the product’s designer mentioned in a video, he drew direct inspiration for the aerial machine. “I’ve always been fascinated by jet engines,” he explained.
“They’re expressions of pure performance.” The subwoofer contains two custom-made 8” drivers, which along with its unique geometrical shape, helps to stabilize the device and keep vibrations to a minimum.Each of the speakers come equipped with four wireless antennas built into the body, so you can get uncompressed sound from up to 40 feet away. When all three devices are played in concert, they produce a robust, balanced sound that will make you drown your Jambox in envy tears. But don’t cry too soon—that sound, and those good looks, is gonna cost you.
Beginning in late November, you can get the BeoLab 17 for $3,990, the 18 for $6,590 and 19 for $3,395.