Frederik wrote:

I didn't say the Stage is cleaner, it does have a deeper and more refined bass, but I agree that overall the Beosoud 2 sound is more crisp. =

I think the BeoSound has deeper bass, if set to 'free' and sat on the right kind of flooring - try a wooden floor, for example. It has more of an impact than the Stage for music, for me.

BeoSound 2 is a better speaker than the Stage for music, but the Stage has a 'wider' sound and more suited to movie audio where the sound is designed to be 'separated'.

moxxey wrote:

I think the BeoSound has deeper bass, if set to 'free' and sat on the right kind of flooring - try a wooden floor, for example. It has more of an impact than the Stage for music, for me.

Placement and room properties definitely have some impact. Will do some further testing. I typically test with Massive Attack's Angel or Nick Caves' White Elephant, for both songs the base line is more clear and separated on the Stage compared to BS2 and also A9 in my experience. But again, overall I agree with you that the BS2 is the better speaker for music.

I think the strength of the BS 2 is how good it looks and for ambient music. It is also quite versatile in that you can move it around. However, to me the alternatives to the BS2 would be the Level or Balance. Back in the day I had picked the BS1 over the BS2 because I felt the battery was more important since I use that speaker outdoors. Later, I picked a Balance over the BS 2 because it fit better with our dining room decor.

My point is that it depends on your purpose. The Stage is however, designed to be a HT set up, the BS2 is more for ambient music. Like others have said, the bass on the Stage is incredible.