Beolit 20 launched!

62 replies

Sandyb wrote:
And Apple are seemingly happy to improve a products capability over time, which they will be the HomePod line.
Apparently not: The brand-new Homepod Mini doesn't support Bluetooth audio, either, although the BT antenna is inside for setup purposes & handoff feature.  Walled Garden Must Be Maintained At All Costs.  (Edit: Will some future Homepod ][ have a battery and support Bluetooth audio? I wouldn't take bets...)

But to your sister (and to me) original Homepods are pleasant and unostentatious -- way less fancy but a charming shape and surface, relative to the Balance -- and they sound OK, even as compared to the Beosound 1.  Alas, tone controls are not supported at all(!) which makes people complain about the bass boost their auto-mics apply.  Worse, personal login with 2FA is required, even to act as an open Airplay endpoint -- there is no "speaker only mode" to not use Siri & not control your Homekit devices.  (Edit2: Back on topic: Certainly she chose Homepods over the chunky lunch-pail Beolits!  Regardless of whether or not she wants to take them outside or talk to them...)

 

trackbeo wrote:

Apparently not: The brand-new Homepod Mini doesn't support Bluetooth audio, either, although the BT antenna is inside for setup purposes & handoff feature. Walled Garden Must Be Maintained At All Costs. (Edit: Will some future Homepod ][ have a battery and support Bluetooth audio? I wouldn't take bets...)

But to your sister (and to me) original Homepods are pleasant and unostentatious -- way less fancy but a charming shape and surface, relative to the Balance -- and they sound OK, even as compared to the Beosound 1. Alas, tone controls are not supported at all(!) which makes people complain about the bass boost their auto-mics apply. Worse, personal login with 2FA is required, even to act as an open Airplay endpoint -- there is no "speaker only mode" to not use Siri & not control your Homekit devices. (Edit2: Back on topic: Certainly she chose Homepods over the chunky lunch-pail Beolits! Regardless of whether or not she wants to take them outside or talk to them...)

Of course, they are not without their Apple specific quirks.

But I’m pretty confident that having established at least some presence in home audio, over the coming years Apple will broaden the range of their home speakers from the less to the more capable.

Thats the path that many Apple lines have followed, and they’ll do the same again with home audio devices. Thats what i meant by improving their offering over time.

And therein lies the issue - ecosystems are powerful as we can all see, and the tech firms will leverage existing product relationships to promote new lines of products. Add to this that the trend for the last 20 years or so is, for many, to have home audio gear that disappears into the background (more than before). HomePods and the like do this, and while I wouldn’t be happy with a bunch of them, their sound isn’t so bad.

For my sister, pretty well funded, the choices between one BS1 or a bunch of Homepods was not a long thought process. My other sister went for a Bluesound streamer and additional BlueOS speakers - the comparison here being the BlueOS app / software is pretty good now (not the stripped down bare bones offering from B&O).

Jaffrey2230 wrote:

Let’s admit this was a missed opportunity and move on.

Maybe B&O should provide some sort of consistency in terms of ecosystem.

All of the lineup should easily and seamlessly connectable to each other, that it is not the picture we see today.

Beolit 20, together with the B&O products placed at the lower price point, might have been some sort of “Trojan horse” for new customers if it had some specific B&O feature, other than the beautiful design.

Right now it is just another Bluetooth speaker in the game and too close to the previous Beolit 17 (5 W Qi charging surface is a nice but not revolutionary feature).

My 2c.

Olivier

My B&O Icons:

Beoremote-Beo4.png Beoremote-Beo4.png
Beosound.png Beosound.png
Beoplay-V1.png Beoplay-V1.png
Beoplay-S3.png Beoplay-S3.png
Beoplay-A1.png Beoplay-A1.png

Anyone have any idea if the Beolit 20 is also going to come in pink? Not really keen on either of the currently available colours. Did the previous versions launch with the pink on day one or did it only come later? Just trying to get an idea on the likelihood of it happening.

I could just get the Beolit 17 I guess but I very much like the battery life upgrade and the wireless charger can definitely come in handy so I’m kinda leaning towards the Beolit 20. I guess the “grey” one looks okay but I’ll definitely regret buying it if they do eventually decide to release the Beolit 20 in pink so I’m a little stuck now and I’m in need of another speaker and preferably sooner rather than later.

My dealer apparently has lots of stock for the Beolit 17 in pink though, so not sure how well this colour is selling. 

Pink was not a standard colour, it came later.

Will it come in Beolab 20?

Hard to say, but the same special colour in two different gen products have not been seen before if I remember correct. So dont count on in. 

Michael wrote:

The only reason it wasn’t a success on 12 was that it wasn’t well working. Nowadays WiFi is better.

 

I have many small Bluetooth speakers for mainly portable use. As I wrote I see beolit 12 as a more stationary speaker.

 

I have the beolit 15 and wish it had airplay 2 and b&o multiroom. My beolit has never left home, but does move between rooms and occasionally out to the garden in the summer. I don't use bluetooth on it, instead I have a chromecast audio dongle stuck to the back. What the beolit desperately needs is the M3 internals. Without hesitation I would upgrade it if b&o did this and it would certainly get more use than my Beolit 15 does. It would need the ability to remain on standby when powered on mains so it can be woken up from wifi - the current auto power off timeout on mains is an annoyance.

Location: Eastbourne, UK

Both the Beolit 15 & 17 came in pink, so I’m somewhat optimistic that the 20 might get it eventually. Didn’t know it wasn’t a launch colour though, oh well. I might wait a couple of months (I believe the pink A1 Gen2 came out about two months after the original colours).

Battery life is going to be a big deal for my specific use-case for this speaker so I think I’d rather wait than get the Beolit 17 for now.  

There is a cheap fix for this. I have actually talked with Leo’sgonewild about it for the A6. Just buy a Chromecast audio dongle (they are quite cheap on eBay) and it gives you fabulous streaming quality and capabilities. I bought three of them and have been very happy with them. They make the Beolit 15 much more useful and probably would do the same for the Beolit 20, depending on whether it has a 3.5 mm Jack.

I just don't get why they can't put a radio in there too, an AMFM circuit must cost like 2 Euros or something. I remember when the first version of came out first back in 2012 [?] and I would have gotten one if I had the ability to listen to the radio, without having to stream an app from my phone (which would kill the battery in about an hour or two).  I love listening to sports and talk radio when I'm working outdoors and right now my only option is the BeoSound 3 (the original tall one from 2006 with its SD card reader). And that is a fantastic little kit, especially now that I made up a collection of 20 SD albums. But I'd rather drop $1000 and a modern bluetooth device that also had radio.

FM and AM will be dead very soon. That’s why B&O gave up on them many many years ago (I guess the BeoSound 4 was the last product with FM?). And you’d have to factor in the need for extra controls, design, antennae placement etc. Retail would go up with 50 euro at a minimum. That’s a lot for a feature that almost no one needs and will be obsolete soon.

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