B&O Beolab 20 Speaker Review

[Axo1989]

I like the B&O stuff - I just don't like the decors!

Fair enough.

 

[anmpr1]

For me no amount of set-decoration of beautiful photography can make those speakers look appealing.

Ugly, you say? Unappealing? That's why they make (and you need) this official B&O accessory to go with those speakers. I'm telling you for sure, after you use a Bang and Bottle Opener on four or five or six Carlsberg and/or Tuborgs, they'll start looking better. And they might even sound better. It's been known to happen.

Plus, since they are already in your home, you won't have to worry about convincing them to go back with you. However, like that 'other' drinking scenario', once you wake up in the AM, reality will hit, and you'll wonder what the hell you were doing the night before.

 

[John Atkinson]

Those I remeber. Not those. (is it true that that tweeter is rather fragile?)

You can find my measurements of the RadioShack speaker that used the Linaeum tweeter at

RadioShack Optimus Pro LX5 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

www.stereophile.com

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

 

[pseudoid]

Sometimes this place degenerates into a miserable pile of argument ad lazarum.

Oh, really? That would be sad...

Argumentum ad lazarum or appeal to poverty is the informal fallacy of thinking a conclusion is correct solely because the speaker is poor, or it is incorrect because the speaker is rich. It is named after Lazarus, a beggar in a New Testament parable who receives his reward in the afterlife. This is popularly summarized as the statement, "Poor, but honest."
The opposite is the argumentum ad crumenam.
From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_lazarum>

A "speaker" named Mr. B&O?

Plus, since they are already in your home, you won't have to worry about convincing them to go back with you.

You mean B&O speakers are a "FOUR brown-bag Coyote" but only if stereo?

 

[Deleted member 48726]

The standard B&O rooms, as shown in all their advertising and websites, are universally examples of the worst possible environment for Audio!!!

News flash, a good listening room doesn't really look posh or luxorious. Also IT IS ADS!

 

[audiofooled]

Ugly, you say? Unappealing? That's why they make (and you need) this official B&O accessory to go with those speakers. I'm telling you for sure, after you use a Bang and Bottle Opener on four or five or six Carlsberg and/or Tuborgs, they'll start looking better. And they might even sound better. It's been known to happen.

Plus, since they are already in your home, you won't have to worry about convincing them to go back with you. However, like that 'other' drinking scenario', once you wake up in the AM, reality will hit, and you'll wonder what the hell you were doing the night before.


View attachment 274028

JBL loudspeakers and a B&O bottle opener, that might work very well.

 

[dlaloum]

News flash, a good listening room doesn't really look posh or luxorious. Also IT IS ADS!

Sure - but an old style carpeted room, with floor to ceiling bookcases full of books, some traditional curtains on the windows .... makes for a good listening room - absorbs many of those nasty reflections, and can also look posh and luxurious....

But if their main market is people who wish to live in spaces that look like that - then audio quality will never be a primary criteria.... it can't be!!
It is a specific "Style" of "plush and luxurious" and one that is antithetical to sound.... (or even to people who have hearing difficulties - those reflections wreak havoc on hearing aids too)

 

[pseudoid]

I just cannot stand the look of an egg-shaped bbq speaker and I just don't care if it is the best tested ever.
I am afraid, I come home one day and I am forced to ask myself:

...anyways?

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Sure - but an old style carpeted room, with floor to ceiling bookcases full of books, some traditional curtains on the windows .... makes for a good listening room - absorbs many of those nasty reflections, and can also look posh and luxurious....

But if their main market is people who wish to live in spaces that look like that - then audio quality will never be a primary criteria.... it can't be!!
It is a specific "Style" of "push and luxurious" and one that is antithetical to sound.... (or even to people who have hearing difficulties - those reflections wreak havoc on hearing aids too)

If you believe ads have much to do with reality then sure, you would have a point. I don't connect ads and real life so I wouldn't read anything regarding sound quality into what a marketing dude or dudette for B&O has had for vision.

Not once did I believe that women would come running when I sprayed AXE deodorant all over me.

 

[pseudoid]

...AXE deodorant..

Per chance; can you be confusing B&O with another B & another O?
corrected

 

[bluefuzz]

I don't connect ads and real life

But B&O are a Danish company and Scandi-chic minimalism is a thing. There are a lot of family-rooms around these parts that do look like that - bare white walls, lots of glass, wood floors with maybe a small designer rug if you're lucky and little furniture aside from an oversize dining table and sofa. The unbelievable thing about that ad is the fact that there are loudspeakers at all in the room. I've rarely seen anything larger than a soundbar or a strategically placed smart-speaker in such an environment ...

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Per chance; can you be confusing B&O with another other B & another O?

Maybe. That one went over my head?

 

[Axo1989]

Sure - but an old style carpeted room, with floor to ceiling bookcases full of books, some traditional curtains on the windows .... makes for a good listening room - absorbs many of those nasty reflections, and can also look posh and luxurious....

But if their main market is people who wish to live in spaces that look like that - then audio quality will never be a primary criteria.... it can't be!!
It is a specific "Style" of "plush and luxurious" and one that is antithetical to sound.... (or even to people who have hearing difficulties - those reflections wreak havoc on hearing aids too)

If the room is large enough (like the example at post #191) a near-field listening arrangement like the old Joachim Gerhard concept (a somewhat wide triangle with toe-in, everything including listening position a long way in from all the walls) should work nicely. Or absorption can be had in white finishes.

Advertising materials for stylish Euro speakers rarely feature the latter. But most of those setups are layered Photoshop compositions sans cables and wires, the featured speakers have never actually set foot in those spaces.

Given this interior design context, I was amused by Herb Reichert's recent reflections on listening rooms:

... I was alienated by the disembodied clarity of those early Audio Physic speakers.

As I stared between those thin towers, my attention wandered. I looked around distractedly, noticing how everything in the room—including my chair—had been arranged for no other purpose than to facilitate what I felt was an excessively cerebral form of man-machine interaction. All feng shui lines pointed at that lonely Le Corbusier chair. No sofa, no scantily clad lovers, no pets, no cluttered coffee table.

My taste in listening environs leans toward plush, Bohemian-style couches with silk-embroidered pillows, candles, colored lights, and various forms of temple incense. Heretics feel at home in that environment.

He was ruminating on some suitably old-school looking Heretic AD614s. I expect his views on B&O and Scandi-modern listening spaces would be similarly alienated. His expressed decor preferences aren't to my taste, but suit many.

 

[dasdoing]

Advertising materials for stylish Euro speakers rarely feature the latter. But most of those setups are layered Photoshop compositions sans cables and wires, the featured speakers have never actually set foot in those spaces.

these rooms don't even exist. it's all rendered. even most speaker pictures are

 

[fineMen]

Whoa, that first song is crazy!
Thanks for the recommendation @amirm !

Seems more and more studios dare to extend the spectrum downwards. Maybe to the detriment of more pedestrian speakers with 40Hz+ port tuning.

 

[dr0ss]

Disappointing. Thought they would be better. I'm fan of the brand and use the MC120.2 on my TV system. https://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=645

Are they any good? I just turned down a pair of RL45.2 (without listening to them) because I am drowning in vintage speakers and because they look ridiculous. (I didn't turn down the now-functioning Beosystem 3300 that accompanied them, however.)

 

[dr0ss]

I listened to a similar speaker but larger and lore expensive, at the Bang & Olufsen store in Oslo.

How friendly were they to casual browsers? I used to stand out in front of the one near the skating rink when I was living in Oslo a few years ago, but didn't go in because I was certainly not going to buy anything and I didn't want to waste anyone's time.

 

[Rewind]

How friendly were they to casual browsers? I used to stand out in front of the one near the skating rink when I was living in Oslo a few years ago, but didn't go in because I was certainly not going to buy anything and I didn't want to waste anyone's time.

I was almost alone in the store. There was a demo going on, and I just casually listened while it was playing. I think you will find most people will agree to demo something for you, even if you are open about not having the half a million kroner necessary to be a customer. Even the old guy at the store Lyrik, which has moved now. But actually trying to buy rectifier tube that they had in storage was a big no-no. Not the most customer friendly environment.

 

[dr0ss]

I think you will find most people will agree to demo something for you, even if you are open about not having the half a million kroner necessary to be a customer.

This had usually been my experience in Norway, but a few years ago I was treated like slime at a B&W dealer in Oslo, even though I was actually planning to buy something. (an MM-1). After that I've given audio dealers there a wide berth, even for brands which I own (like Klipsch and B&O). And restricted my electronics browsing to stores like Elkjop (which was easy anyway since I lived by the one in Ulleval).

 

[Rewind]

This had usually been my experience in Norway, but a few years ago I was treated like slime at a B&W dealer in Oslo, even though I was actually planning to buy something. (an MM-1). After that I've given audio dealers there a wide berth, even for brands which I own (like Klipsch and B&O). And restricted my electronics browsing to stores like Elkjop (which was easy anyway since I lived by the one in Ulleval).

I walk into the store with a hidden card up my sleave. I brew my own! I have been nagging my friend who has Arendal 1721 and XTZ subs to build himself a horn system like me.
Arendal, which got a nice review here on ASR with the 1961 center, is nice for movies, but too dull for music, IMHO. He says 1721 has much more powerful sound character, after comparing subjectively against 1961 series.