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Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage

"If Dolby Atmos had it better, this beautiful soundbar would be worth the price."

• Beautiful design

• Deliciously deep and resonant bass

• Tons of EQ customization options

• Airplay 2, Bluetooth and Chromecast

• Simple and flexible wall mounting

• Expensive

• Inconspicuous Dolby Atmos

• Only one HDMI input

• B&O app needs improvement

There is now an incredible range of excellent sound bars for those who want the ultimate in simplicity in home theater sound.

With prices starting at $ 150, anyone can get much better TV sound for a relatively small investment.

But what if your tastes are more exotic? What if you not only want your soundbar to sound great, but also want to make a visual statement? That's why Bang and Olufsen (B&O), the legendary Danish audio brand, developed the Beosound Stage, a Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar that starts at $ 1,750 and quickly goes to $ 2,600 if you choose one of the optional wood surfaces can increase.

B&O has never been the brand you buy for sound alone. However, we all agree that a soundbar that costs this much money sounds better and looks amazing. Succeeds?

What's in the box?

The Beosound Stage comes with a power cord, a six-foot HDMI cable, and a remarkably small plastic bag with wall-mounting hardware and a wall-mounting template. The box itself is easy to recycle, but the extensive foam padding inside could prove challenging to dispose of without throwing it into a landfill.

design

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

B&O's design signatures are all over the Beosound stage. This is evidence of how distinctive these signatures are, given that B&O did not design the exterior of the speaker at all. This contract went to a third party – Norm Architects – who was inspired by the vintage B&O Beogram 4000 turntable.

The Beosound Stage is breathtaking to look at, with perfectly rounded corners and seamlessly integrated controls.

Especially when the soundbar is clad in the optional smoked oak and gray wood ($ 2,600) materials, the similarity is evident.

But even in the cheaper cloakroom made of natural aluminum and black (a relative term for B&O products) of our test device, the Beosound Stage is breathtaking to look at, with perfectly rounded corners and seamlessly integrated controls.

Your other options are Bronze Tone / Warm Taupe or a limited edition Anthracite, both of which are available for $ 2,025.

In my opinion, soundbars should hide from view or at least be inconspicuous when possible. However, B&O takes the opposite approach by making the Beosound Stage an object that requires attention.

To a certain extent, this makes sense. Whether you use it to play audio or not, it will be part of the decor of your room. So why not make it a topic of conversation? On the other hand, I found that when watching TV, even in a darkened room, the wide band of brushed aluminum was an unwanted reflected light source that I had to carefully ignore.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Granted, I used the Beosound Stage in tabletop mode. When you attach it to the wall, that aluminum rim shrinks to a barely visible, gossamer line around the otherwise perfectly black fabric that hides the drivers underneath.

When you sit on a level surface, the Beosound Stage stands a hair over three inches tall. This is shorter than the Sonos Arc and should keep the stage from interfering with even the lowest television image. At 43 inches wide, it's narrower than many top-tier soundbars, but it's also much deeper for hair over 6.5 inches. So you need to make sure you have space in front of your TV.

For wall mounting, lift the soundbar to a vertical position and rotate it 180 degrees counterclockwise. This places the controls on the top edge and maintains the angle of the tweeters almost perfectly. This position has two disadvantages: it hides the two small LED indicator lights, and it takes up extra space: it's just over 6.5 inches tall.

The engineers who designed the lower abdomen of the Beosound Stage must be given props. It has three identical square panels with rubberized surfaces. When seated on a table they act as feet, but when mounted on the wall they act as simple keyhole mounting slots.

Unlike some soundbars that require expensive, optional wall mounts, you only need two small plastic collars to attach the stage to a wall.

Another clever detail: All cable connections can exit from the underside of the soundbar in almost any direction, so that you can route the cables through your wall or through a pipe.

Setup and connections

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Physically, the Beosound Stage is a study in elegant simplicity. The setup process is much less straightforward.

Once the soundbar is connected to the power supply and (optionally) to your TV via HDMI ARC (or eARC), the set-up process is controlled by the B&O app on a phone or tablet (both iOS and Android versions are available ). Unfortunately, the B&O app cannot complete the process on its own. During the setup you will be directed to the Google Home app.

If you've used the Google Home app before, there's no need to sign in to Google and configure your home. However, if you've never used Google Home before, we recommend installing it first before attempting to set up Beosound on stage.

Not a Google fan? You have to get over it. There is no way to skip the Google Home step and use the soundbar without it.

Finally, return to the B&O app to complete the process. The whole thing only takes about 10 minutes, but it's awkward and not what I would expect from a B&O brand.

It's not entirely B&O's fault. With Google now making the Google Home move a requirement for any audio product supposed to include Chromecast functionality, B&O's hands have been tied. Other soundbar companies like Bose and Sonos that offer Apple's AirPlay 2 technology have so far refused to add Chromecast to their products. When the cost of doing this makes it more cumbersome to set up, it's easy to see why it isn't.

The Beosound Stage is supplied without a remote control. However, you can buy a B&O remote control if you want to use one. Instead, as with the Sonos Arc, you adjust the settings of the soundbar via the B&O app on a phone or tablet. When streaming music, the volume is controlled via the app. When you're listening to your TV, use your existing TV remote to control volume through HDMI CEC.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The only problem with this arrangement is that you have to connect the stage to your TV using HDMI ARC (or eARC). If your TV only has an optical output, you will need to purchase an optical to HDMI adapter (B&O does not sell it). You cannot control the volume with your TV remote control, you will only be limited to 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

There are also two ethernet ports. Typically, when this is shown on a device (such as a Sonos port), one port acts as an Ethernet input while the other allows you to share the network connection with another device.

On the Beosound stage, the second port is actually used to communicate with a 2019 or newer LG OLED TV, for control of both the TV and soundbar via the intricately designed (and affordable) Beoremote One for $ 375 to enable.

Even though the stage does not have an optical input, it is puzzling that it has an analog 3.5 mm stereo jack. These days I'm not exactly sure what you would use it for, but it's there when you need it.

B&O sees the Beosound Stage as a completely independent sound system. There is no way to add additional components.

The stage only offers you a single HDMI input, which we assume is intended to compensate for the one input on your TV that the soundbar needs. This input lets you pass signals up to 4K @ 60Hz in full Dolby Vision HDR, but it's still only one port. I would have loved if B&O included a few more, but in fairness the rear connector panel is as tight as it is.

A much more worrying omission is the inability to add additional speakers to the capabilities of the Beosound Stage. Most of the sound bars we tested either come with their own wireless subwoofers and satellite surround speakers, or can be added later if you wish.

This is not the case with the stage. B&O sees it as a self-contained sound system and there is no way to add additional components for an even more immersive experience.

We'll discuss in a moment whether or not this is an issue for overall sound quality.

In addition to the cable connections, the Beosound Stage offers you all three major wireless audio standards. Bluetooth, AirPlay 2 and Chromecast are available.

During my testing, I ran into a strange bug where the stage refused to give me TV audio after I turned on my TV. It only happened twice and both times I was able to solve it by unplugging and plugging the power cord. B&O took the speaker back and tried to duplicate the problem, but it didn't recur.

App, streaming and controls

The B&O app works well, but it also feels like work in progress at times. There are four tabs: Home, Multiroom, Music and Radio.

Here you can control all the Beosound Stage settings from EQ to speaker alignment. Multiroom allows you to group multiple B&O speakers together. However, since I only had one speaker, I was unable to test this feature.

The Music tab allows you to choose music from the sources that B&O was able to incorporate. However, the list is limited: tracks on your phone, tracks on your home network if you have a DLNA server or Deezer. Spotify is also listed, but this is just a shortcut to the Spotify app.

A search tool will appear but will only work with Deezer, not your personal music sources.

Thanks to the Beosound Stage's 4-inch woofers, you'll get plenty of thundering bass – no sub needed.

The Radio tab is where you can find streaming terrestrial stations from TuneIn.

In all fairness, compared to the power and control of a system like Sonos, the B&O app isn't a way to find and hear music. You're far better off choosing your favorite music app and then streaming it to the Beosound Stage using AirPlay 2, Bluetooth or Chromecast.

Sound quality

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The Beosound Stage doesn't disappoint in terms of sound quality. Whether you're listening to the soundtrack of a Marvel action movie or streaming your favorite music, you'll get a silky smooth performance that allows you to easily capture and reproduce the entire frequency range.

Soundbars generally have problems with deep, low-end bass, which is why so many of them come with a wireless subwoofer. Thanks to the Beosound Stage's four independently operated 4-inch woofers, which have been grouped together in pairs, you get plenty of thunderous bass – no sub needed.

The speaker's remaining seven drivers and amplifiers (four mid-range speakers and three tweeters) do the rest with excellent separation and definition. When you start some Norah Jones tracks, you can hear her voice float effortlessly over the instruments without missing a single piano note or a resonance note from a bass.

The app's equalizer and listening modes give you tremendous control over the sound. Not only can you set bass and treble independently, but you can also choose between four preset modes such as TV (which improves dialogue), Movie (I bet you can guess this one), Music and Night Listening, which reduces large jumps in volume.

My favorite area, however, is B&O's mood-based EQ surface, which allows you to move a selection dial between four quadrants: bright, energetic, relaxed and warm. Well worth spending some time here to see if you can find a mix that you like.

But there is one area where the Beosound Stage falls short: Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround Sound.

Make no mistake, the Stage is a Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar and can play that sound back through Dolby's 24-bit TrueHD lossless format when connected to a Blu-ray player.

However, it is not a discrete 5.1.2 channel soundbar. There are no soaring height duct drivers that bounce sound off the ceiling for a dramatic over-your-head effect, and no dedicated surround drivers.

As a three-channel loudspeaker, it relies entirely on virtualization for both Atmos and 5.1 surround sound. Virtualization means that B&O used some very sophisticated psychoacoustic techniques to get your brain to believe that there are extra speakers in your room.

Unfortunately, this doesn't quite work.

If you think of your TV screen as a source of sound, the Beosound Stage convincingly expands that screen into a much larger rectangle, making it look like there are speakers in the top and bottom corners of your room (and also in the middle). But this sound doesn't really extend very far and is barely recognizable for me in the height or surround position.

This isn't the soundbar for those looking to replace a 5.1 surround sound or Dolby Atmos home theater setup.

Here we come to the problem with B&O's decision not to make the Beosound Stage expandable. Typically, when you want to improve the level of immersion in a soundbar, add additional speakers. LG, Samsung, Bose, and Sonos offer this as an option. But the Beosound Stage is a determined soloist – you either appreciate what this speaker has to offer or you choose something else.

What should we do with this situation? Let's put it this way: As a room-filling music speaker, the Beosound Stage is a real joy to hear. And if you want to give your movie and TV soundtracks an exciting boost without cluttering your room with subwoofers and surrounds, this is an unqualified success.

However, this isn't the soundbar for those looking to replace a full 5.1 surround sound or 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theater setup. If this is your goal, you can save some money and get a much more haunted sound elsewhere.

Our opinion

The beautiful but very expensive B&O Beosound Stage is a fabulous one-speaker solution for room-filling music or TV audio. But it's not enough to add the immersive properties of Dolby Atmos.

Is there a better alternative?

Since the Beosound Stage doesn't actually deliver Dolby Atmos, you can get the excellent $ 800 Bose Soundbar 700 for less than half the price. I think it looks great and has the advantage of being expandable via wireless subwoofers and surround modules, and it would still cost less than the mid-priced Beosound Stage.

If Atmos is a must, you can't go wrong with the Sonos Arc. It's the same price as the Bose Soundbar 700 and can also be easily expanded with optional wireless speakers.

Both the Bose and Sonos soundbars offer you the choice between voice assistants: Alexa or Google Assistant, which the Beosound Stage lacks.

How long it will take?

Beautifully finished and solidly built, I expect the Beosound Stage to last for years, if not decades. It is backed by a 36 month warranty from B&O, which is one of the longest warranties in the industry.

Should you buy it?

If you care equally about how your audio and video equipment looks and how it sounds – and your pockets are deep enough to support that approach – then definitely buy the B&O Beosound Stage. As long as you are aware of its limitations, you will be very happy with it. Everyone else should consider the many other great (and less expensive) options.

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