B&O Beolab 20 Speaker Review

[sarumbear]

I didn’t hear them in Kal’s room.
Keith

If that 10+dB boost at around 15Hz is a room mode then why the automatic DSP haven’t corrected it? What is the point of all that palaver if your FR deviation in the audio range is 25dB?

digital signal processing (DSP) to correct the room's acoustic. However, it differs from conventional correction solutions in applying not just individual filters for the Left and Right speakers, but also filters to correct the speakers' summed (Mono) output and the difference between their outputs (Side).

 

[testp]

I'm probably not the only one thinking about E.T. head here!

yes but, where did you get this pictures, it's classified and to area 51 staff only..

 

[Purité Audio]

If that 10+dB boost at around 15Hz is a room mode then why the automatic DSP haven’t corrected it? What is the point of all that palaver if your FR deviation in the audio range is 25dB?

Ask whoever set them up in Kal’s room.
Keith

 

[sarumbear]

Ask whoever set them up in Kal’s room.
Keith

It was B&O!

I was visited by B&O's Tonmeister, Geoff Martin, who confirmed that the setup was working properly. His task was then to calibrate the Active Room Compensation, or room EQ, using his PC connected to the Master BeoLab 90. You might think of it room EQ as mere icing on the cake, but sometimes it can make all the difference.

 

[amirm]

It's sometimes hard to distinguish scale online. Once we got a look at the naked beast it became apparent that the rather modest-sized woofer chamber will limit its low-frequency performance. Using/touting DSP to boost that 20 Hz region where the speaker's linearity suffers is a sin.

Yes, while rather heavy, it is a small box especially since it is cone shaped.

 

[amirm]

To whoever asked about positioning, you can't tell from the picture but I have pulled it way away from the walls. It is probably 4 to 5 feet from back wall and similar distance to side wall. The space it is in, is massive in scale (open loft with 25 foot ceiling).

 

[heflys20]

Funny looking and expensive with the performance of a speaker that's $14k cheaper... What's not to like? I feel sympathy for the original purchaser. I'm just waiting for someone to start posting how we're not "getting" it.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Have to wonder if the Beolab 90 is really the edge of the art design it's been reputed to be, given the disappointing measured performance of this speaker which costs a paltry $15k/pr.

 

[John Atkinson]

+/-10dB is superb?
View attachment 272904

Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements The BeoLab 90 is so massive that, rather than having it shipped to my home, I traveled to Kal Rubinson's place to take some measurements. I used SMUGSoftware's Fuzzmeasure 3 app running on my MacBook Pro, along with an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone and a FireWire-connected...

www.stereophile.com

Note that this graph shows the Beolab 90's spatially averaged response at the listening position in "Wide" (blue), "Narrow" (red), and "Omni" (green) modes. It is misleading to say that the response varies by +/-10dB - this is explained in the text.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

 

[Axo1989]

+/-10dB is superb?
View attachment 272904

Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements The BeoLab 90 is so massive that, rather than having it shipped to my home, I traveled to Kal Rubinson's place to take some measurements. I used SMUGSoftware's Fuzzmeasure 3 app running on my MacBook Pro, along with an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone and a FireWire-connected...

www.stereophile.com

As JA said:

I suspect that the increase in level in the low bass arises from the usual boundary reinforcement in this region—KR had each speaker situated just 18" from its respective sidewall.

That was part of the description for the previous graph, but looks applicable to this one also.

Edit: well, ninja'd by the man himself, and yes, what he said.

 

[fineMen]

It's sometimes hard to distinguish scale online. Once we got a look at the naked beast it became apparent that the rather modest-sized woofer chamber will limit its low-frequency performance. Using/touting DSP to boost that 20 Hz region where the speaker's linearity suffers is a sin.

Could you name a record or two which demand a critical level at 20Hz? I would like to investigate this further. I know only very few, namely 3 records that would request for 30Hz at -6dB full scale.

All in all it might not be the driver to set limit here, but the amp.

 

[sarumbear]

Note that this graph shows the Beolab 90's spatially averaged response at the listening position in "Wide" (blue), "Narrow" (red), and "Omni" (green) modes. It is misleading to say that the response varies by +/-10dB - this is explained in the text.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

Thank you for your comment. It’s appreciated.

Fig.3 Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90, Narrow mode, 1/6-octave responses of left (blue) and right (red) speakers with DSP correction at listening position.

"There are still some room effects visible—the lack of lower-midrange energy and the peak at 105Hz in the left channel—but these are mild, especially when you consider that there was no spatial averaging in this graph."

Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements The BeoLab 90 is so massive that, rather than having it shipped to my home, I traveled to Kal Rubinson's place to take some measurements. I used SMUGSoftware's Fuzzmeasure 3 app running on my MacBook Pro, along with an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone and a FireWire-connected...

www.stereophile.com

Not only there is 15dB boost at low frequencies but also +/-5dB between 200-600Hz. Spatially averaged or not there is a huge level difference across the audible range that other speaker does not exhibit

As a comparison, here are a couple of your measurements. Neither has anywhere near as much deviation.

Fig.4 KEF Blade Two Meta, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the complex sum of the nearfield woofer and port responses (black trace below 300Hz).

Fig.4 Revel Performa F228Be, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with complex sum of nearfield responses plotted below 300Hz.

 

[test1223]

To whoever asked about positioning, you can't tell from the picture but I have pulled it way away from the walls. It is probably 4 to 5 feet from back wall and similar distance to side wall. The space it is in, is massive in scale (open loft with 25 foot ceiling).

It looks like the Revel speakers and other stuff is quite close.

Have you tried these or other omnidirectional speakers placed more or less symmetrically in the middle of the room with a wider stereo triangle? IMHO it is worth the experience. You get ready good envelopment, which is very hard to get with any standard speaker even if you take a lot of care of the room acoustics (which most of us can't since it is still a living room and no hifi room). Even good atmos systems usually don't provide this grade of envelopment.

 

[amirm]

Could you name a record or two which demand a critical level at 20Hz?

Try this album:

Winter Songs, by Terje Isungset, Lena Nymark, Sidsel Walstad, Nils Økland, Espen Jørgensen

11 track album

terjeisungset.bandcamp.com

And the first song, Fading Song.

 

[amirm]

Have you tried these or other omnidirectional speakers placed more or less symmetrically in the middle of the room with a wider stereo triangle?

This is not omni directional. It looks that way but the woofer and midrange are front-firing. And the tweeter has a circular, closed back. Here is the beam width:

It narrows to 50 degrees at lower treble. And hugely narrows above 8 kHz.

 

[test1223]

This is not omni directional. It looks that way but the woofer and midrange are front-firing. And the tweeter has a circular, closed back. Here is the beam width:

It narrows to 50 degrees at lower treble. And hugely narrows above 8 kHz.

Yes it is still much more omnidirectional than 95% speaker designs. As I said I don't know if that speaker can provide this but my guess is that it can bring this to the table since it is wide enough.

 

[sarumbear]

Yes it is still much more omnidirectional than 95% speaker designs.

Why do you think so. Here is a comparison to a standard floor stander. What is different, other than the smooth response, that is?

 

[Axo1989]

Thank you for your comment. It’s appreciated.

Fig.3 Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90, Narrow mode, 1/6-octave responses of left (blue) and right (red) speakers with DSP correction at listening position.

Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90 loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements The BeoLab 90 is so massive that, rather than having it shipped to my home, I traveled to Kal Rubinson's place to take some measurements. I used SMUGSoftware's Fuzzmeasure 3 app running on my MacBook Pro, along with an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone and a FireWire-connected...

www.stereophile.com

Not only there is 15dB boost at low frequencies but also +/-5dB between 200-600Hz. Spatially averaged or not there is a huge level difference across the audible range that other speaker does not exhibit

As a comparison, here are a couple of your measurements. Neither has anywhere near as much deviation.

Fig.4 KEF Blade Two Meta, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the complex sum of the nearfield woofer and port responses (black trace below 300Hz).

Fig.4 Revel Performa F228Be, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with complex sum of nearfield responses plotted below 300Hz.

Rooms behaviour at 20-30 Hz for the B&O vs well above that for the KEF and Revel examples could be the explanation. I get ~15 dB boost from my room's first and second long modes (~25 and 50 Hz respectively) but things are quite different at 70-100 Hz.

 

[test1223]

Why do you think so. Here is a comparison to a standard floor stander. What is different, other than the smooth response, that is?

View attachment 272972

View attachment 272974

Sound power DI is around -5dB or lowe for the important frequencies. There aren't many other similar speakers out there. Yes the revel are also pretty wide.

 

[LMDA1]

Never thought these sounded good in the Benz's I'd be in. Always suspected they were more an "audiophile-y" company than a serious audio fidelity one.

They fixed that with the Burmester setups.