Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen Portable Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker with 3 Microphones, Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certified, Honey Tone

I collect speakers so I have a lot that I can compare this too. This is my first Bang & Olufsen speaker and its instantly become one of my favorites in my collection. However it is very expensive for its size and has a very specific use case, being a very portable speaker you can take anywhere. I'll start with the sound quality. The best way I can describe the sound is its extremely balanced. You can hear the highs, mids and bass all at the same time without anything overpowering. Instrument seperation is also the best I've heard. It is quieter than I expected and I have to listen to it at about 80% volume to sound loud enough but I can turn it up all the way without distortion or losing its balanced sound profile. Build quality and form factor is also excellent. The speaker grill is made out of sturdy metal and the base is made out of some sort of rubber or plastic, I can't really tell but it does feel very sturdy and premium. No complaints. It's larger than I expected, but still fits in the palm of my hand. I find it to be a very beautiful speaker with the perfect balance of minimulist and elegance. Finally the app and pairing went well, nothing much to say. It paired quickly, took me to the app I needed and connected without issue. You can mess with the equalizer in the app, but I found the default preset to be the best one. Comparing this to other speakers I have I found Bang & Olufsen to be a step up in quality from other brands like Bose and JBL, though its a step up in cost too. Comparing this to other ultra portable speakers like the Bose Soundlink Micro (2nd gen), JBL Clip 5 and the tribit stormbox micro 2 (the best three ultra portable speakers I have) the A1 sounds considerably better, with a much fuller soundstage and a lot more clarity. The others just sound tinny compared to this. However it is larger than those speakers as well though not by much. I feel like a more fair comparision is this against the Bose soundlink home or Tribit StormBox 2. Out of all the speakers in that size I still find the A1 to sound the best, but not by as much. Its still clearer and more balanced but its hard to tell unless you listen to the speakers side by side. Now for speakers in the A1's price range like the Bose Soundlink Max or JBL xtreme 4 it more depends on which volume you want to listen too. The Bose and the JBL will have considerably more bass and can get way louder filling a much larger room. The A1 still sounds more balanced but Bose and JBL are also very good with clarity and detail as well and again its hard to really tell unless your listening to them side by side. I'll end with my personall recommendations, and it really comes down to how big your bugdet is. If you can't easily afford it, there are plenty of cheaper alternatives that are great too, get a bose flex or jbl flip 6 if you need a durable portable speaker, or a Bose soundlink Home if you want something that looks more fancy. If you need a speaker for more than a few people or to fill a larger room, get a bose max or jbl extreme. However, if you can afford it and don't need a room filling speaker the A1 is really a pleasure to listen too. I've always avoided Bang & Olufsen before because I thought they were too expensive for what they were but this speaker has changed my mind. Bang & Olufsen clearly know how to build a great speaker.

Surprisingly good sound for a small speaker. It also, unlike many other Bluetooth speakers, can play at very low volumes and still be clear.

I like this speaker because it's easy to travel with and it also sounds really good (for its size) even though it uses Bluetooth, but via AAC, and not the horrible sounding SBC codec like most of its competitors do. The A1 is really well made and looks and "feels" really nice. It is so much nicer than the other crappy plastic BT speakers on the market. Yes, it's expensive, but I feel it is pretty much worth it. It's perfect for hotel room use. Etc.

This is the best sounding speaker I’ve ever heard, by far. Clarity is astonishing. Worth the high price!

The A1 series 3 arrived with the bass driver not functioning, only high frequencies could be heard. The Amazon return was seamless.

Very nice. Sounds great, long battery life.

It is really great to use and play music, and I love the bass sound it produces

Too Much Focus On The Cradle To Cradle Certification And Not Enough On The Sound! I had much higher hopes for this speaker, being a long time B&O fan owning their legendary Penta III's as well as a number of their headphones. I had always liked their sound profiles and quality! This is the first product from them that was a bit disappointing to me. It has nice specs on paper but it falls short in sound performance. As the title of my review says, I feel like way too much effort went into the C2C certificate and the exterior design than the sound of this speaker. While they did do a nice job with the design, it is a very nice looking speaker, that is well made from high quality materials that is designed to last. It has a sleek and modern look to it, it feels great in the hands with a smooth finish and easy to use buttons. On the audio side is where I found the many shortcomings. It used Bluetooth 5.1, which allows for AAC and aptXTM codecs, but not many devices use these aptX codecs, leaving it left to use basic AAC or SBC on many devices. Why they chose not to go with 5.3 or 5.4 I don't know, but this lower spec limits the ability to listen to Hi-Res audio at a quality signal and sample rate, something that many users pay for subscriptions for and would be using on this device like me, I use Amazon HD and this doesn't allow me to get the full quality offered. In use this is said to have 60 watts, but it honestly sounds like it has far less, with a very low maximum volume. Sound quality is well below what I expect from B&O, it has a very lacking bottom end to say the least. It doesn't have much bass at all, no matter what genre of music I tried, this speaker left me wanting to hear the bass drums on rock more than the bright midrange and harsh highs. Electronic and hip hop music feels like it missing the most important element, the beat, with poor bass across the board. A very odd tuning or driver choice that feels like it was an afterthought to the design instead of the focus of it.