Kob Monney
2024-07-19 10:16:49
www.trustedreviews.com
Pros
- Extravagant design
- Big room-filling sound
- Google Assistant smarts
- Plenty of app customisation
Cons
- Extravagant price
- Compromised Tidal Masters performance with Chromecast
- Not the most dynamic performance
The B&O Beosound Balance is an ornate looking smart speaker that comes with a high price tag to match.
As expected from a B&O product, the Balance has an immensely minimalist design, complete with a natural wood base and speaker housing wrapped in knitted fabric that feels lovely to touch. Inside is space for seven drivers with two 2-inch full range drivers, two opposing 5.25-inch bass drivers and one ¾ tweeter for high frequencies in the front of the speaker, while around the back are two 3-inch full range drivers that act as ‘sound enhancers’.
It’s a hefty speaker at 7.2kg, and one we found best to set down and leave once a good place has been found as carting the speaker around can be rather tiresome. There’s a choice of Natural Oak, Black Oak, Nordic Ice and White Marble to fit your décor.
The Balance comes in two version, one with Google Assistant and one without (both, strangely, cost the same). Google support brings built-in Chromecast, but the likes of AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Bluetooth 5 are available to increase the number of ways to send audio to the speaker. If you have deep enough pockets, a stereo pair of Balance speakers can be created in Google Home for a bigger audio performance.
The B&O app is one we found simply laid out and easy to operate, offering the means to adjust the direction of the speaker’s sound, control playback and change EQ settings in a fairly intuitive manner.
It’s no real surprise the audio is good, as we found the presentation to be clear, detailed and natural in tone. While the soundstage is not be the widest, predictable given its conical shape, it at least is consistent from all angles when in its 360 mode.
We would recommend placing the speaker against a wall to firm up the sound, but overall this is a high quality speaker, that performs well across a range of music genres. The volume scaling could use some more finesse, sliding from low to high can result in sudden jumps in loudness that aren’t welcome.
Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full review: Bang & Olufsen Beosound Balance
