A. Robinson review of the Beolab 8

[XavierItzmann]

This is one of the vanishingly few mid-scale (400k subscribers) YouTube hi-fi reviewers who not only covers B&O products, but is actually a fan.

I found the review frank and interesting.  I was surprised at his comments regarding the floor stands —or rather, not his comments, but the stands themselves!

[L1no]

Not agreeing on his loathing review of the app, quite questionable response (sponsored?).

[XavierItzmann]

Clearly he gets on loan the new B&O equipment he reviews.

 

That said, like he explains on the video, que has personally made very modest purchases of older B&O.

[Stan]

L1no wrote:

Not agreeing on his loathing review of the app, quite questionable response (sponsored?).

I do not understand your loathing comment. I believe he said it’s the “standard by which all apps should be measured”.  I think this comment says more about the generally bad state of most speaker apps vs how great the B&O app is.

[L1no]

The B&O app is not great, not by any measurement. And by extend any software endeavor has been mediocre.

[20cen]

Regarding the sound quality, my understanding from this review is that beolab 8 sounds (as expected) great, but compare to other B&O product like Balance or A9 (with similar price), the beolab 8 might be slightly behind.

However, if you combine, sound quality, usabilty and flexibility, beolab 8 is the best B&O shelf speaker ever.

I have never had the chance to listen at all these speakers, but I ll be interesting to get more opinions on that topic.

 

 

cheers

[NQVHNWI]

I think you can watch/read these type of reviews and come to a black and white /2D conclusion but in essence you are comparing different capabilities and price points. You may as well throw in the BL50 or 90s to push the little Blights down.

I have the opinion that they are very competent speakers in stereo pair (Balance can’t do that) and a more compact piece of equipment than a couple of A9s. At the end of the day, you can always buy something bigger, more powerful, more expensive, more drivers, more amps.

Go and listen to all 3 sets. I don’t think you will be disappointed when comparing against each other.

[Stan]

Why do you say Balances cannot be “very competent speakers in stereo pair”?

I’m very happy with my stereo pair of Balances.

[NQVHNWI]

I guess simply because they were designed as a standalone single speaker. A lot of work has gone into into making them pairable rather than the BL8 which was designed from the get-go as a stereo pair speaker.

i have my preference when listening/comparing to the Balance and BL8 and although I had a definate bias in wanting the 8s, the Balance did not please me sound-wise. But that’s just an opinion. If you are happy with the Balance…good. Enjoy.

look, rather than get triggered over a comment, please read the point I’m trying to make…..you simply can’t say the BL8 is not as good as the A9 or Balance because it has less power, less drivers etc…it patently does not. But it is a generation or two ahead of both the A9 and Balance, and I would have thought the tech and the in-house development would be superior to both if there was an equality in hardware?

[20cen]

I understand your comment, but actually I think we are biased by the B&O marketing

There is no way to know if BL8 is 1 or 2 generation ahead of A9 or Balance (actually I would not be surprised that they share more hardware than what we think). Software wise, they look all equivalent, as they all get the same software updates.

 

[TinusAMS]

Well hardware wise, they’re ahead. All the chips are newer (Bluetooth 5.3 vs 5.0, WiFi6 vs 5, etc). And you definitely notice it using them too, the 8’s are much faster than Balance (and other Mozart based speakers I have here like 28’s and Theatre).

[L1no]

I’m glad the technology (hardware) inside is going well, i’m hoping for a software jump. The 8’s look too much trophy to me. Also the glass top (fingerprints!) screams generic, where is the aluminum micro-lasered or edged top from the Beocentre 2?

• This reply was modified 1 week, 2 days ago by L1no.

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