B&O Beolab 20 Speaker Review

[fredoamigo]

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

Generally speaking, well designed speakers that measure well, never make the show.
Free has you, in continuation, with the assistance of the eq to give them the tonality which is appropriate to you if you like the colorations.

 

[mathman]

Oh!
I just found it's little brother at IKEA ^^

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vappeby-bluetooth-speaker-lamp-outdoor-gray-40515281/#content

 

[Rewind]

Generally speaking, well designed speakers that measure well, never make the show.
Free has you, in continuation, with the assistance of the eq to give them the tonality which is appropriate to you if you like the colorations.

Next pathetic turn for this industry: An A.I. identifies you, checks your music tastes on various streaming services and sets the EQ to make the speaker irresistable to you only. B&O and Bose will sell so many speakers.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Next pathetic turn for this industry: An A.I. identifies you, checks your music tastes on various streaming services and sets the EQ to make the speaker irresistable to you only. B&O and Bose will sell so many speakers.

Yeah. That AI bursts into flames when it sees my playlist on Spotify. Let it have a go..

 

[Mart68]

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.)

I quite like them, to me they are quite similar sort of balance to the old BBC related designs from Harbeth and Spendor, although they are more advanced technically.

Foams go on the woofers, you can get replacement drivers or new foams though. I wouldn't pay more than £300 for a mint pair and a lot less if the foams are gone.

 

[dr0ss]

I quite like them, to me they are quite similar sort of balance to the old BBC related designs from Harbeth and Spendor, although they are more advanced technically.

Thanks, that's interesting; I like the Spendor sound. Of course the RL45.2 speakers I passed up are newer/smaller/uglier, so I'm not going to change my mind and go get them, but when my Beosystem gets to its final home I will keep my eyes open for a pair of the MC120s

 

[Mart68]

Thanks, that's interesting; I like the Spendor sound. Of course the RL45.2 speakers I passed up are newer/smaller/uglier, so I'm not going to change my mind and go get them, but when my Beosystem gets to its final home I will keep my eyes open for a pair of the MC120s

They do look good especially with the grilles on.

On the 'Classic Albums' TV show I noticed that one of the Def Leppard blokes had a pair in his home studio.

 

[Baudrillard_J]

Was there a comment anywhere regarding the configuration of the speakers for the testing? I understand that depending on the room size and use of the speakers, there are different settings. Do these speakers need to be in a pair (at least) to work as designed vs. testing a standalone speaker? I know I should have bothered to read through the 12 pages of comments but guilty I am, I didn't.

Oh!
I just found it's little brother at IKEA ^^

An IKEA lamp? I haven't listened to B&O equipment since the early 00's but I am willing to bet $1 that these speakers sound incredebly good when properly set-up.

 

[DSJR]

I quite like them, to me they are quite similar sort of balance to the old BBC related designs from Harbeth and Spendor, although they are more advanced technically.

Foams go on the woofers, you can get replacement drivers or new foams though. I wouldn't pay more than £300 for a mint pair and a lot less if the foams are gone.

Very late reply but WHAT????? The RL45's are absolutely HORRIBLE and the nearest speaker we had to them which you may remember was the Linn Index. Both had screaming mids and subjectively no top and bottom to help out. Nothing remotely like a Spendor, Rogers or whatever, let alone a Harbeth...

Or are you talking of the MC120s? I'm confused now.. I never heard the top models (maybe a set of M70's which weren't too bad). You should have got a set of 5702s which was a compact version of the Celestion Ditton 66 and a very serious speaker, especially in the early 70's when they were current. I was always fond of the Goodmans based 3800 but the tweeter was always just a little 'hot' I remember.

The RL60 was better and the RL140's actually not bad at all I remember. In all three, peeps on Beoworld upgrade the cheap electrolytic caps routinely and I remember B&O did an upgraded DIN speaker caply rather than the bell wire usually provided.

 

[dogmamann]

I quite like them, to me they are quite similar sort of balance to the old BBC related designs from Harbeth and Spendor, although they are more advanced technically.

Foams go on the woofers, you can get replacement drivers or new foams though. I wouldn't pay more than £300 for a mint pair and a lot less if the foams are gone.

I had harbeth p3esr and Spendor s3/5se. Harbeth had more top end detail. They both had very sibilant free vocals. I had the beolab rl45 and 60 also. Rl60 is a better speaker, but both 45 and 60 are nothing to do with bbc sound. Their similarity ends to me with the fact that they are both loudspeakers!!

 

[Mart68]

I had harbeth p3esr and Spendor s3/5se. Harbeth had more top end detail. They both had very sibilant free vocals. I had the beolab rl45 and 60 also. Rl60 is a better speaker, but both 45 and 60 are nothing to do with bbc sound. Their similarity ends to me with the fact that they are both loudspeakers!!

Those B&O speakers are very different designs to the MC120.2 which is the model I was referring to in my post. https://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=645