IFA 2022 – Beosound Theatre, the ultimate soundbar as seen by Bang & Olufsen

After the Beosound Stage, Bang & Olufsen got back to work very quickly to release a new soundbar. We could have expected a new model at a lower price, but that would be to misunderstand the Danish luxury manufacturer… With its brand new Beosound Theatre, presented on the sidelines of the IFA, B&O’s objective is completely at odds , but remains very clear: to offer an all-in-one soundbar capable of impressing your eyes and ears, but not only…

An original and clever design

A simple first glimpse sets the tone. Bang & Olufsen has, as usual, given free rein to its imagination by developing a design that is as unique as it is atypical. The Beosound Theater takes the form of a very massive “keel”, to use the words of the builder, with a lower part in polished and anodized aluminum reminiscent of the hull of a sailboat, the main part being protected by a fabric front that can be accompanied by solid wood slats… as an option.

This darned neat design doesn’t stop there, and the attention to detail has been taken to its climax. The soundbar can be positioned on the wall like on a piece of furniture, which is not particularly original, but its frame allows for an unprecedented configuration: the rear side incorporates a fixing system allowing it to directly support a television so as not to “to be one” with the latter, with the added bonus of a small integrated compartment to accommodate cables and a multimedia box. The bar is also able to expand in width to match different diagonals (55, 65, 77”) by attaching aluminum panels to it. We clearly don’t do things by halves at B&O.

“The world’s most powerful and immersive soundbar“

No more no less. This is the greatest promise of the Beosound Theatre, which will therefore have to compete with the Ambeo Soundbar by Sennheiser, the current holder of this title. The soundbar, capable of handling 7.1.4 streams, has no less than 12 speakers for this purpose: two 6.5” long excursion woofers, two 3” midrange speakers supplemented by a loudspeaker – central coaxial loudspeaker (composed of a 5.25” loudspeaker and a 1” tweeter), four 2.5” loudspeakers and two 1” tweeters. These 12 speakers are assigned to reproduce seven channels: LFE (extreme bass), front left, front right, center, side left and right, and height left and right. The two remaining surround and height channels are transcribed thanks to the 3D audio virtualization of the bar.

This was also an opportunity for Bang & Olufsen to highlight its work initiated on the Beolab 90, which made it possible to control the directivity of the loudspeakers in a particularly advanced way. Thus, it would be optimized according to the flows and on all the loudspeakers of the Beosound Theater in order to offer a better sound envelopment, but also an optimized listening, finally depending on the position of the ideal listening point (the famous sweet spot). The soundbar also has an acoustic calibration function, which is carried out with two microphones integrated into the bar and an external microphone provided, in order to optimize the sound and spatial rendering.

Concerned about the durability of its product, Bang & Olufsen also specifies that it may be possible to add up to 16 other speakers wirelessly in its home cinema environment, if the whim of building an excessive system takes you. For the moment, the interface can only be done with the expensive Beolab loudspeakers of the same manufacturer, but it is expected that other loudspeakers (even older ones) will be affected with a future software update. If this is the case, the acoustic calibration system is designed to allow the other loudspeakers to deploy their full potential, particularly in the lowest frequencies: a specific phase correction algorithm has been precisely designed by B&O to avoid problems of interference, phase shift, and therefore “hole” in the restitution of this zone.

Full of features and connectivity

True nerve center of the home-cinema system, the Beosound Theater obviously does not skimp on the possibilities of connection and the functionalities. On the wired connection side, there are first of all no less than three HDMI inputs accompanied by an HDMI eARC 4K / 120 Hz – 8K / 60 Hz port, supplemented by a USB-C port that can transmit a stereo analog signal via an adapter mini-jack, an RJ45 port and a port specifically assigned to LG Oled TVs (for integrated controls in the B&O application, for example).

The wireless connection is represented by Bluetooth and wifi, obviously with a whole range of connected functionalities: multiroom, streaming of online music services, and on server via DLNA, support for the BeoLink proprietary protocol and AirPlay 2 and Google Cast protocols. No intelligent voice assistant is natively integrated, but the possibilities of interaction are nonetheless multiple.

The soundbar for the real rich

Finally comes the thorny question of the tariff. One thing is certain as it stands, the Beosound Theater hands down the Ambeo Soundbar in one category, that of the most expensive soundbar on the market. The very luxurious Bang & Olufsen bar is positioned well above its direct competitor since it is launched at €6490, without any options. Suffice to say that this new soundbar will have to be totally flawless on all points and provide an absolutely incredible sound experience to hope to justify the investment even a little…