Bang Olufsen Beosound A5 - Portable Bluetooth Speaker with Wi-Fi Connection Carry-Strap Oak

The B&O Beosound A5 exceeded my high expectations for an aesthetically beautiful product that could deliver full bodied, nuanced sound in a portable fashion whether indoors or outdoors. It is unquestionably a luxury audiophile quality product targeted at the unusual niche customers seeking exceptional sound quality from a portable, wireless, bluetooth, weather reisistant device that can move effortlessly from room to room, or to the patio or a picnic in the great outdoors. That is what I was hoping for, and that is what I got. I'm a member of two audiophile listening groups and really don't tolerate poor sound quality in any environment, even on the patio for so-called casual listening. I really only want to hear top quality sound or, second best, perfect silence. I felt this unit would deliver a good casual listening experience for entertaining audiophile friends on my patio on summer evenings. However, I didn't really expect that it in would deliver a critical listening experience to my patio or to virtually every room with so little compromise from the quality of my primary, far more elaborate, stereo system. Amazing volume, too. This unit is better than most high quality bookshelf speakers on the market with surprising bass and great separation of voices along the full spectrum of any genre of music. The B&O app also includes an equalizer for fine tuning sound to the user's preference, but I just selected optimal and feel I'm getting optimal. I hesitated before laying out $1,000 for this somewhat gimmicky looking picnic basket styled speaker, but now find it tastefully elegant in person and wonder if I should buy a second for a full stereo experience that could easily serve as a primary stereo system for most critical listeners. It aesthetically pleasing finish is like a piece of nice furniture that you don't want to knock around, but in a refined envronment with respectful treatment, it's perfect. This product is very, very good. And even the app is reasonably organized allowing me to stream from Tidal and Qobuz very quickly after an easy setup, and with striking fidelity. I'm sold on it and will probably buy a second one to add the stereo dimension as soon as I can massage the budget enough to pay for it. Read more

The Beosound A5 is absolutely stunning in every way. The design esthetic is gorgeous and the sound blows me away with each and every song I throw at it. I listen to a lot of instrumental, jazz, lo-fi, alternative, electronic music and the speaker is so crisp with a powerful low end to help give warmth and body when listening. While the speaker sits on the counter plugged in mostly, the fact that the speaker can be portable is an added bonus. And boy can this speaker get loud! The build quality is also impeccable, as is everything I’ve purchased from B&O. The only issue I ran into initially was getting the speaker to connect to the B&O app and synced up with Apple HomeKit. After a quick and easy factory reset of the speaker, everything synced right up and I was on my way enjoying hours of beautifully crafted music. Read more

This is my third Bang and Olufsen product and some days its my favorite speaker in my collection and other days I want to throw it out a window. I'll start with the great. First this is a very premium product and the quality of materials is outstanding. No plastic, just all wood and metal. Feels great and even more importantly it looks great, by far the most stylish speaker I own but not in a flashy way which I appreciate. It is a heavy speaker though so keep that in mind if you want to carry it around everywhere. Sound quality is also excellent with its biggest advantage being how balanced it is. There is deep punchy but controlled bass, clear mids and excellent highs. It does a great job of keeping everything seperated without any range overpowering the others. Battery life is just okay, it will get you through a listening session but I would keep the charge cord handy. If your using this at home I strongly suggest keeping it plugged in. The wireless charger built into this speaker is a nice touch I really love but it does drain the battery quite a bit faster. Now for the bad, the software is half baked and is full of bugs. When I first started using this speaker I almost returned it because there was this unpleasant scratching sound from the bass if you turned the volume past 40%. It also disconnected randomly and I would have to turn the speaker off and on again to get it to connect to my bluetooth again. I ended up factory resetting the speaker again and going through the setup process a second time. Same steps I took the first time but this time the speaker sounds way better, gets way louder without distortion and seems to have resolved its disconnecting issue. But for a product this expensive the software needs to be perfect as well, if the budget brands can do it than Bang and Olufsen certainly could put more effort into this. I'll end with this final though, if you need a portable speaker or a cheaper one in the Bang and Olufsen line up the Beolit 20 is a much better choice. Its about the same size as the A5 but much lighter and easier to carry around. Sound quality is still excellent with it being about 80 to 85% as good as the A5 but at half the cost. Read more

I been buying B&O products for a while. Great sound but very poor quality. This speaker broke after a week. Does not turn on. For this price I would not buy it again. Thanks god was still able to return it. Read more