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A couple of weeks ago I got myself a pair of Beolab 8 to replace an older setup consisting of Beolab 17 connected to a Beosound 5 Encore. The BL8 are meant to be the successor of BL17, but I could not find many real-world reviews about them, let alone a direct comparison. So it was a bit of jumping in at the deep end, because you never know how a product really sounds in your living room unless you have it installed. This totally biased review is for everyone who faces a similar decision.
I use the speakers for listening to music only, it’s the only stereo pair in our living room, no sub attached. There is no TV, either (hence no problems with synchronizing audio with the TV). In another life and another house I had a pair of Beolab 9 and loved them. But my preference for music has changed a lot over the last twenty years and it just doesn’t make sense to let two big speakers collect dust when I don’t really need a huge bass, because the music I mostly listen to doesn’t have much bass. It was intentional to get smaller.
The BL17 already had DSP (digital sound processing), so they are comparable to the BL8. DSP means that the BL17 convert the incoming analog signal into digital, process it, then convert back with their internal DAC, everything in real-time. DSP is obviously the way how modern speakers work. But it never occurred to me why one would convert a digital audio file into analog, then have the speakers convert it twice again, before it goes to the amps. The BL8 are connected speakers, meaning: they don’t receive an analog input, but get the digital audio file over the network directly. Saving the extra digital->analog->digital conversion can’t be a bad thing, can it? No matter how good the DACs are. The BL8 have everything built in to handle the original source directly and decode all common audio formats, up to 24 bit / 192 kHz.
The BL8 offer a lot of DSP options, certainly a playground for sound engineers, but I am not a huge fan of this processing. After trying all the options, I settled with “narrow” sound dispersion and a neutral tone, with just a little emphasis on the bass. That’s pretty much the same setting as the BL17 had, I guess.
So, how do they sound next to each other?
I had expected them to sound very similar with this setup, but there are differences. For testing the sound of my audio setups, I have a couple of older recordings in excellent digital quality, which I know very well. Jazz albums in highres quality (e.g. Claire Martin) or a “Super Audio Surround Collection” from Linn Records. For quick tests I often use two signature recordings: “Casticais” from Ive Mendes and “Lay Down” from Caravan Palace.
The voice of Ive Mendes, at the very moment she starts singing, reliably causes me goose bumps. Bluetooth audio transfer are no bumps at all, the same speaker over Airplay makes them appear. The second song from Caravan Palace starts flat and muffled, then suddenly jumps to live. The moment the bass sets in with full force gives me a satisfying “hmmmpf” feeling in my stomach. The old Beolab 9 excelled at that exercise, but I kept being astonished how well the BL17 played the bass, too. And I expected the BL8 to be quite the same.
Well, BL17 – goose bumps with Ive Mendes, the BL8 as well. Not much difference, both not utterly strong, but this works best with headphones anyway. The bass came as a surprise: despite the BL8 have slightly smaller bass drivers, they create a more satisfying “hmmmpf”. Mind you, the BL8 sound processing was all neutral, similar to how the BL17 are built.
Midranges are different, too. On the BL8 very clear and present, right into your face, almost hard sometimes, but not unpleasant. Not so much on the BL17, which sound a bit “warmer” to my ears. Maybe that does in fact translate to “less treble” and has something to do with the directionality of the BL17. They were the most directional speakers I’ve ever had and I did not always like it: if you moved out of the sweet spot, they sounded quite different. Even getting up from the sofa made a difference. In this department, the BL17 were really weak – compared to the old Beolab 9 with their acoustic lens. The BL8 do a much better job at that, despite the sound dispersion was set to “narrow”. It obviously is not as narrow as the BL17 are by their very nature. I do appreciate this feature of the new speakers.
To sum it up, the BL8 are in most regards very similar to the BL17 and in some they are better. Plus, you can employ their DSP to your liking and make the sound dispersion “broad” if you prefer that. For party mode, it’s certainly great to be able to switch between them.
What I like
The looks! Almost unobtrusive, a decent piece of decoration that just sounds good without dominating the room. Wife-acceptance-factor is very high (“Hello handsome!”). Last, not least: the Mozart programming API and their fully digital signal chain.
What surprised me
The punchy bass, stronger than BL17. And the fact that they sound absolutely clear and precise in the sweet spot while not losing it when you roam around. I have no idea how the sound engineers accomplished that, but it seems to work.
What I miss
The Beolab 9. And a better app. I heard, the current B&O app is a huge improvement over previous versions. Still don’t like it though. The touch panel on top of the speakers could be more responsive. Although the proximity detection is ultra-sensitive, the buttons feel as sluggish as the crappy touchscreens in Volvos five years ago: you never know if you hit or missed them unless you look twice. For the price of a BL8 I’d like to have an Audi Q8 like touchscreen.
The ultimate question is: would I buy them again or opt for a different setup? When I consider the looks: it’s definitely Beolab 8. Relatively small, yet powerful enough. And I am going to fully employ their digital signal chain with the REST API, that’s another plus. If I had older analog equipment that needs to be connected, the answer would be different. For this price you can get a pair of Beolab 20 in good condition and add a Beoconnect Core to it, which upgrades the BL20 to the same functionality that the BL8 have built-in. Minus the touch-panel on top, that is, which doesn’t win a prize anyway. The BL20 then still have one spare Powerlink to connect the analog stuff. Sound will probably not compare, I’d assume the BL20 to win. I just never warmed up to their look.
On a side note, unrelated to the comparison …
The Beolab 8 have a USB-C port, which can be used (with a special cable) as an analog line input. Apart from that line-in functionality the USB-C is not of any use, at least not officially. That’s not entirely true: I connected them with a USB-C data cable to both my Windows PC and a Mac. It immediately appeared as an external speaker/sound device calling itself “Beolab 8”. So the USB port is a way to connect them to a computer, if required. And they played! Caveat: they played very loud. Having the system volume at 10% was already too much. It was not possible to fully control the volume of the speaker with the volume slider on the computer, as you normally can with external sound cards. I cannot tell whether this is a missing software feature or a hardware issue.
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