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Is the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5 the best speaker made today?

post #1 of 47
4/26/05 at 12:04pm
Thread Starter 
I know there are some subscribers to The Audio Critic lurking around here. I have been since its inception, until the last issue. If you were a reader, you'd know that its publication schedule was - well, let's just say that it was leisurely. A couple issues a year was the best it ever did. And now it is no more! At least, there's no more print version. In its place is a subscription (one time fee of $12.95, if you weren't a paid-up subscriber of the print version) web `zine. The introduction to the web `zine explains why they took this route. I joined, but, unfortunately, it's currently difficult for me to recommend the site to others simply because there is so little content. But what there is is as interesting as anything they have ever published.

The Audio Critic, to those who have never encountered it, was the audio magazine all the other audio magazines hated. It continually harped on the tweaks and charlatans of the audio world - perhaps excessively so - and backed up their opinions with science, measurements, the support of top professionals and, I think, excellent writing. It is a major proponent of ABX double-blind testing (although not at the beginning).

Anyway, to the subject. Recently The Audio Critic tested the Bang and Olufsen BeoLab 5, their $16,000 top-of-the-line loudspeaker, and made the following comments (because it is a subscription site, I will only quote from the review):
Quote:
The low-frequency response was utterly smooth, effortless, powerful, without the slightest lumpiness, and extending all the way down to dc—or so it seemed. Unbelievable bass. The wide horizontal dispersion of the frequencies above 500 Hz also resulted in a unique listening experience—you can sit anywhere in the room with these speakers, as long as they are somewhere in front of you. The aiming of the midrange and tweeter has become totally uncritical. That alone is worth the price of admission.
and
Quote:
The fact is that the overall sound was superb, as transparent, defined, and alive as I have ever heard out of any speaker
and
Quote:
The BeoLab 5 is, on the whole, a masterpiece in sound, as well as in electroacoustic theory
.

I was as flabbergasted as I ever have been after reading this review. I have never associated Bang & Olufsen with superior loudspeaker engineering, or superior engineering of any sort. I have always believed their main concern was styling and nothing more. To find that the only audio publication I have ever respected has given a B&O product such a glowing review - heck, more than a glowing review - floors me. Now I have to find this speaker (in Minnesota, I believe the only place I might find it is at the B&O store in the Galleria in Edina) and decide for myself, although at 16 big ones, a purchase is out of the question (come on lottery!).

Has anyone listened to this speaker? Got an opinion?
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post #2 of 47
4/26/05 at 12:38pm
Alan, as I also live in MN I have had the chance to listen to them at the Galleria and they were pretty impressive. And they were NOT in a special listening room ala Bose.

They have had them at several different positions around the room. My wife was shopping so I was able to listen to almost a whole cd's worth of music. I don't remember who it was but it did sound great. Then the guy threw in a cd to show the range and yes the bass was amazing.

And when my wife came in and saw what I was listening to she said "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!" "Those things are big and ugly" Oh well dream dream dream.


Go and give them a listen.

Pat
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post #3 of 47
4/26/05 at 12:49pm
While I was not a subscriber, I was always on the lookout for The Audio Critic, the most honest audio-related publication I have had the privilege of reading. I think it's about time I signed up!

When it comes to speaker reviews, the qualifications of the reviewer must always be taken into account. Furthermore, there must be objective data that is properly analyzed, so that correlations can be made. Only then can the review be taken seriously. If I may ask, who was the reviewer, and was objective information available to support the claims made? I have always been extremely skeptical of non-North American speaker companies, so I am just curious if B&O really "earned" the praise.
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post #4 of 47
4/26/05 at 1:35pm
Thread Starter 
Vinh: Peter Aczel, publisher and owner, did the review. Same old Aczel review style; I like it. Measurements and graphs were included, as well as a better photo of the speakers than was featured on the B&O site.
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post #5 of 47
4/26/05 at 2:05pm
Certainly a surprise to hear B&O getting such high praise for a $16,000 speaker. Good as it might be however, the competition in the over $10,000 price range is very tough. The Wilson Watt-Puppy has been the biggest seller in that price range for years.

I have to think that the resale value of the B&O is going to be pretty bad. The sound everywhere type design keeps popping up but never seems to be popular in the high price range.

Still, it is a treat to hear a fine sounding speaker though you can start to take such fantasies too seriously. After all, we are talking about the price of a nice car.
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post #6 of 47
4/26/05 at 2:15pm
I am surprised to hear about the fate of The Audio Critic, to which I had been subscribing since the first issue in the spring of 1977. So it's a Webzine now? How about that!

It should be noted that, in the beginning, Peter Aczel was just as "golden eared" as any other "high end" reviewer. But, sometime after his magazine first ceased publication in 1980 until it resumed in 1987, Aczel made a complete turnaround and became a furious believer in measurements and objectivity. Interesting to read.

As for B&O's speaker, who knows? There are so many, many decent speaker systems out there. But for B&O, a somewhat lifestyle-oriented manafacturer, it's surprising.
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post #7 of 47
4/26/05 at 4:02pm
I don't think in this price range there is a "best" speaker. I've heard a pair Beolab 5's and they do have great bass and extended highs and a big sound but they weren't better than the best speakers i've heard which are the Kharma CRM 3.2, Dali Megaline, JMLab Nova Utopia Be, and the Verity Audio Parsifal at least to my ears. They are very worthy of an audition though and do have a unique look to them.
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post #8 of 47
4/26/05 at 4:08pm
Thread Starter 
Jack: I only found out was to do a search on Google. I had done this before without coming up with anything, but suddenly there it was. If anyone's interested, The Audio Critic also gave a bang-up review to another, cheaper (but far from cheap, although if you're a DIY'er handy with tools, it could be) loudspeaker, the Linkwitz Lab Orion. To tell the truth, after reading both reviews, between the BeoLab 5 and the Orion, I think I'd prefer the Orion.
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post #9 of 47
4/26/05 at 4:09pm
Nothin' beats Bose
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post #10 of 47
4/26/05 at 5:54pm
My advisor this year knows the guy who designed the Beolab 5, Dave Moulton. He certainly knew what he was doing, and I trust that it's a competitive "statement" speaker. I have personally heard a big MBL speaker which used a similar idea (speaker elements pointing up into round diffusors), and they had a great spacious and coherent sound. It is definitely a good idea if the other design issues can be addressed as well as they have been in some of the other high-end speakers. Besides, for the sake of diversity it's good to see something with an omnipolar response pattern, compared to that of: regular speakers, bipoles, dipoles, horns, arrays... For some tastes and setups it might be the best type of speaker!
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post #11 of 47
4/27/05 at 9:11am
I had the chance to listen to the Beolab 5's once... Very impressive - to me at least LOTR:Two Towers was freighteningly real and in-room bass response was utterly flat - wow.
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post #12 of 47
4/28/05 at 8:15am
Aczel does occasionally wax a bit poetic. Were there any measurements on that model provided?

Like Scott said, at that price point, there's more than a few speakers worth giving a listen to. Also, if you're into the omnidirectional sound, then you might as well give Ohm a try. Out of curiosity, does anyone recall a long defunct brand called Cosmostatic? They had a hybrid quazi-omindirectional, electrostatic design that I vaguely rememeber as being very compelling.
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post #13 of 47
4/28/05 at 12:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quite a number of measurements were taken and several graphs presented. Wish I could link to the review or post it but I don't believe I should.

I know Azcel had some sort of involvement with Ohm at one time. I don't recall what it was exactly, but he did mention this involvement in one or more issues.

Waaaaaaay back before I knew anything about hi-fi, my first "stereo" was a cheap Zenith turntable with built-in amp. The speakers operated on the same principle as the BeoLab 5's but, of course, used about the cheapest components and construction possible.

Never heard of Cosmostatic. The speaker with the most uncanny imaging I have ever come across were the old Beveridge 2+2SW's (which you can still buy), a speaker Azcel once considered the best speaker made.
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post #14 of 47
4/28/05 at 2:16pm
He considered the Beveridge to be state of the art in the very late '70s.
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post #15 of 47
4/28/05 at 6:01pm
This is a terrible pic of the Cosmostatic.

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post #16 of 47
4/29/05 at 10:08am
I heard a pair of these last week



and they were simply breathtaking. What's the onion, you ask?

The Radialstrahler concept includes a circular vertical arrangement of lamellas around an axis for each frequency range (tweeter, midrange driver and subwoofer). On the upper side, these lamellas are firmly glued in a thrust bearing and on the lower side, they are connected to a moving coil. If a pulse of music is now transmitted from the amplifier to the speaker, these slightly bent lamellas (therefore the Radialstrahler is also called “Biegeschwinger”) are oscillated – they radiate sound waves, in this case music. The result is a sound of unusual acoustic space and realism that is absolutely free from coloring, that is neutral and homogenous. (more reading, and a pricing)

in fact it was the whole setup, listed here
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post #17 of 47
4/29/05 at 9:03pm
I've always wanted to hear a pair of MBL's but they don't have a dealer here in Kansas City.
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post #18 of 47
4/30/05 at 5:09am
I guess I was lucky - in fact, if not for a friend of a friend I wouldn't even have gone into the shop. MBL's Singapore rep were going to fly up to install the system in Hong Kong (this guy's dad bought it)
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post #19 of 47
5/1/05 at 6:16am
I was just flipping through a recent American Express Rewards catalog and noticed that you can actually get the BeoLab5's with reward points. For a miniscule 4,925,000 points you can get the BeoLab5's along with a 42" B&O plasma screen. What a bargain!?!?!
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post #20 of 47
2/14/08 at 3:42pm

Re: Is the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5 the best speaker made today?

Rightly or wrongly, I also always associated B&O with styling and nothing more. And then I heard the Beolab 5s. They blew me away, and just as importantly, after three years of ownership, they still do. They are absolutely awesome. It may be a cliché, but they have literally, not metaphorically, had the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Expensive, for sure, but not for what they are, and can do. Pound for pound (or dollar for dollar) they have brought me more joy than anything I have ever purchased in my life. Be wary of auditioning them, though. Once you have, you won’t rest till you own a pair.
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post #21 of 47
2/15/08 at 8:05am

Re: Is the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5 the best speaker made today?

So you work for B&O huh?
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post #22 of 47
2/16/08 at 6:38am

Re: Is the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5 the best speaker made today?

Sure sounds that way, but, no, I don't work for B&O. Just giving credit where it's due.
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post #23 of 47
2/16/08 at 7:11pm

Re: Is the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5 the best speaker made today?

i think goldmunds at $268.000.-- a pair might sound a little better the the b&o's
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post #24 of 47
2/17/08 at 3:27am

Re: Is the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5 the best speaker made today?

One would certainly hope so...
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post #25 of 47
9/29/09 at 7:56am
I finally bought a pair, lucky me.
Are they worth it? Absolutely and some.
When you buy something like BeoLab 5 it's a purchase that should last you 20 years minimum, do they sound so expensive now?
Whats a 16K car worth in 20 years time?
Every time I play an old CD through these things It's like a whole new listenening experience.

How nice to see forums debating on whever or not these are the best speakers in the world, all I can say is if they are the second or third best they are certainly a bargain comparded to whatever is supposedly "the best".

Yes they are worth every penny and no I do not work for B&O.
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post #26 of 47
9/29/09 at 5:20pm
I liked the sound of them when I heard them - but not fond of the aesthetics.
I've been a B&O fan for a while, I've still got a B&O turntable and my amps use the same B&O ICEpower modules used inside the BeoLabs and a couple of channels power my IB sub, so I'm not surprised by the quality of the bass.
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post #27 of 47
9/30/09 at 6:19am
Quote:
When you buy something like BeoLab 5 it's a purchase that should last you 20 years minimum, do they sound so expensive now?
Whats a 16K car worth in 20 years time?
 

Well considering this thread is getting on 5 years old, we're well on our way to knowing.
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post #28 of 47
10/13/09 at 2:27pm
5 years ago, when a friend of mine got married, he managed to get these speakers to his wedding. It took place in a tent... So there was no real 'room-sound'. And we calibrated the speakers (they do it automatically by putting out a small mic and adjusting the sound to the environment.

After this we had time to do some serious listening before the guests arrived. It was an awesome experience. My brother who never takes care of his things turned up the volume to levels where I was sure they would explode! I have heard KEF 107's tried at much less than these soundlevels, and they sounded just like sorry boxes. The elegance totally lost them at high volumes.

NOT SO WITH THE BEOLAB 5. During the test, that to me was done at way to high volume to be safe for the loudspeakers, they performed completely in control and with an enormous control of the bass. I dont like mushy bass. And the BeoLab 5 really removed my prejudices about the B&O brand. I had always thought that they were only design - not serious Hi-Fi. Boy was I wrong.

I had read about the new technologies like the lens system, invented by a British inventor, and the ICE-power amps invented by a student at the University of Aalborg, Denmark. All this sounded very promising during the 1990'es. But then they released the BeoLab 5 employing these technologies together in, what I think is quite bold design (WAF is quistionable if you do not have a huge living-room). And I went twice to hear them in  a shop. But I never could find an opportunity to stress-test them and find their limits.

But during that wedding preparation I sure got the opportunity to carefully listen to themat all volumes. Ever since I have wanted to win the lottery. And they are absolutely just what I would rush out and order on the spot.

I think I absolutely lost my heart to Hi-tech loudspeakers at this listening test.

15 years ago I was very much into Hi-Fi. I've had loudspeakers from KEF (104-2), Magneplanar (electrostats) and STAX headphones (also electrostats). Before my BeoLab 5 experience my best loudspeaker experience was from these STAX headphones. I just missed the feeling in your stomach from the bass at high volume. The classical 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' fades when you cannot feel the bass in the belly... But they sounded fantastic.
Edited by excalibur - 10/13/09 at 2:41pm
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post #29 of 47
10/14/09 at 7:23am
Gee, another 1 post count poster in the Beolab thread, to go along with all the others (not to mention the 3 post guy where 2 out of the 3 were to deny he works for B&O ).  Thanks for keeping it to one thread guy(s)!
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post #30 of 47
12/31/10 at 7:20pm

how many people sit between a sound source and the wall. give me my E.V pa's ,B & W DM4's',yamaha studio moniters or as j marshall discovered CELESTIONS are just the deal .compare _marshall on stages every where WHY ,do i need to spell it out ,b&o spot one if you can.people who waste their money on a $16-20000 darlek all money no sense .BUY A DECENT NAD PRE/ POWER SET UP WITH A SET OF $2000 SPEAKERS .also a speaker is only as good as it's source system. how many people walk around stage during a concert i never have, ANYBODY  HERE WHO HAS THOUGHT NOT .so get you hands of your d### and spend your money on a car/or donate it to a charity

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