New Wireless Speaker Beosound A5?

[cds]

tph wrote:

cds wrote:

The power supply concerns me a little – the output is rated at a combined 280W RMS and yet it appears that the USB-C module can only handle 45W.

It is 280 W non-clipped peak power, not RMS. You’re only ever going to see very short bursts where the amplifiers are going to output that much. The battery capacity is rated 66 Wh (9000 mAh, before safety buffers that are created in software) and the product should play about 4 hours at maximum volume, which also gives some indication of power consumption.

Great info, thanks. Four hours at maximum volume is pretty good! Especially considering I get less than an hour out of Beolit 15s at the same setting.

I don’t doubt what you say about non-clipped peak power, but I have to wonder if the Beolits are measured using the same standard – originally the 15 was marketed as 240W of peak power, and this was later changed to 2 x 35W which I had assumed was the RMS figure in contrast – is this actually non-clipped peak power too?

[EgonOlsen]

For me it is an advanced beolit. And why so much portable speakers? The product philosophy is confusing me.

greetings

[Millemissen]

EgonOlsen wrote:

For me it is an advanced beolit. And why so much portable speakers? The product philosophy is confusing me. greetings

To me it is the first portable Mozart-based speaker/soundsystem.

MM

[Stan]

EgonOlsen wrote:

For me it is an advanced beolit. And why so much portable speakers? The product philosophy is confusing me. greetings

I assume they’re making another portable speaker because they sell well.

As far as philosophy, I see it as a replacement for the BS1 following the more recent styling cues (wood and fabric vs. steel) of the balance, level and emerge.  Also, it showcases trickle-down beam-forming technology from the BL90 (or at least from the Balance if the jump from BL90 to A5 is too great).

[Mbee]

Millemissen wrote:

To me it is the first portable Mozart-based speaker/soundsystem. MM

No, that was the Level!

[Millemissen]

Mbee wrote:

Millemissen wrote:

To me it is the first portable Mozart-based speaker/soundsystem. MM

No, that was the Level!

You are completely right – I hang my head in shame ?

MM

[tph]

To be fair, there’s some truth to MM’s comment – Beosound A5 is more comfortable to be taken on the go thanks to its design (handle, it stays upright more securely, tactile buttons for operation).

[AdamS]

Saw and heard one in the flesh in Harrods today.

Not impressed by looks or sound, to be honest.

[VoronServer]

Can’t find any frequency response tests anywhere. Do you have one? Just wondering how linear it is, since it’s being recommended to turn off EQ. Which actually say that graph must be awesome.

Looked at it’s wireless module – quite an upgrade compared to Level and Emerge – AW-XM458 with native Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6.

Wondering if LC3 or LE Audio support to come – asked tech support. Since they already use some flavor of LC3 for the stereo pairing.

Can’t figure CPU and RAM specs as yet.

[VoronServer]

Got a response from B&O that they will consider LC3 codec implementation for the future firmware updates. Please remind them to do so by querying from time to time. I suppose all of us do need to have better sound with low-energy consumption.

[VoronServer]

Found good review with frequency response test. Quite non-linear. But seems to be balanced with frequency range, overall.

https://www.lesnumeriques.com/enceintes-portables/bang-olufsen-beosound-a5-p73400/test.html

[AlexW]

Considering a Second for Stereo Pairing – Insights?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been loving my A5 speaker and considering getting a second for stereo pairing. Any thoughts on how this setup performs for music and movies? Does it notably enhance the experience or present any drawbacks?

Appreciate your experiences and advice!

Cheers,
Alex

[cds]

Hey Alex,

I have a couple of these that I use mostly with my phone. To answer your question: it does enhance the experience, and there are drawbacks. I would say that if you like the sound of a single one, you’ll like the sound of a pair and can enjoy true stereo with a bit of added SPL headroom/longer playback time at the same sound level. A single A5 has impressively expansive sound with mid/side processing, but it’s not going to give you the same experience as a proper stereo setup.

The drawbacks:

There is some added latency (I recorded approx. 100ms), which means lip-syncing issues for video playback unless the player allows you to adjust for this. For me, the lip-sync issue is a bit too noticeable.

The stereo pairing isn’t great and sometimes I will have sync issues that present themselves in different ways: one channel playing, latency between channels, high-frequency choppiness/stuttering that results in a warbling sort of sound. More often than not I will have no issues at all and they are rock solid, but some days are worse than others. Mine are probably only a metre apart. I have been advised that the stereo pairing operates on the 5GHz wifi band, so connecting them to a 2.4GHz network can potentially help as there’s less interference. I haven’t done any extensive comparisons, but this is how I have mine connected.

They can only be paired/unpaired while connected to wifi. This is part of a broader problem which you may have discovered – the app can only configure the A5 over wifi. I find this a bit of an oversight for a ‘portable’ speaker; you can only change the sound profile and stereo pairing at home, then have to hope the bluetooth works while you’re out with them. I took one round to my parents and tried connecting via bluetooth – it didn’t work. I had to factory reset the speaker and connect to their wifi (losing my custom presets in the process), and then finally I could connect and play through them. Quite a faff for a portable speaker that one expects to work at the push of a button. I have a pair of Beolit 15s that I had planned on replacing with these for camping trips – I think I’ll keep them for that purpose as the app simply connects through bluetooth, and although you can use that to pair them in stereo, it’s not required as the device buttons can be used instead.

[AlexW]

Hey CDS,

Thanks a lot for your quick and detailed response.

Regarding the latency issue you mentioned, I’ve primarily used a single speaker with my MacBook and a projector outdoors without noticing any latency while streaming movies via AirPlay. Your experience prompts me to wonder if the latency becomes noticeable only when two speakers are connected in stereo mode?

I’m also curious about the soundstage when listening to music with a stereo pair. Could you share your thoughts on how the soundstage expands or differs with two speakers compared to using just one? I’m particularly interested in how well it reproduces stereo separation and depth across different genres.

Considering your overall experience with the Beosound A5 and the stereo pairing, would you recommend investing in a second speaker?

I truly appreciate your detailed insights and experiences; they’ve been immensely helpful in considering whether to add another speaker to my setup!

[cds]

Hi Alex,

Yes, the latency issue is only there when they are paired in stereo. I presume it’s necessary for the left/right syncing. If I connect a single A5 via Bluetooth, I don’t notice any latency. I’m curious as to your projector setup – do you stream video from your Mac to your projector with Airplay, then connect the A5 to your projector with Bluetooth/USB? If I use Airplay for audio only, I get a very noticeable delay to any device, which I understand is part of that protocol – Airplay with video seems to have been designed with lower latency in mind, which makes sense, but I wish there were a low-latency audio version.

Regarding the soundstage – well, it’s a proper stereo soundstage, so if a particular track has an instrument playing on the left, you’ll hear it on the left as intended. It’s definitely a better experience than a single A5 if you want to sit down without distractions and listen to some music. It would be better for movies too, if you could get around the latency problem (some video players such as VLC let you adjust the delay between audio and video so that you can sync them up; Netflix of course won’t let you do this). I haven’t found any directivity plots and I haven’t done any blind tests with these vs any other speakers, so I couldn’t really tell you how accurate, deep, or wide the soundstage is. They sound good to my ears, but only when I move away from the ‘Optimal’ EQ as that’s big on bass and treble, and scooped out in the middle – definitely not my preference.

Would I recommend a second one? I think that depends on your use case. For me in hindsight, probably not; they stay pretty much in the same place in my office, and some very decent ‘fixed’ equipment can be bought for less. Perhaps they’d be more justified if they were the only sound system I had as I could just stick them wherever I wanted music, but the reality is that I have a very nice ‘main’ stereo system in my living room that’s calibrated at the listening position, and Nest Audio speakers in the bedroom and kitchen, which are unreasonably good. Now that I’ve said this, I might start swapping some stuff around…

[AlexW]

Regarding my projector setup, I directly connect my MacBook to the projector using an HDMI cable for video. For sound output, I exclusively use AirPlay without encountering noticeable delays. I primarily stream movies from platforms such as Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Sky Showtime, and Disney Plus. So far, I haven’t experienced significant sound delay issues when utilizing AirPlay for sound output with these streaming services.

Similar to your experience with VLC, I’ve also noticed occasional slight sound delays when playing movies through that platform. However, adjusting the settings within VLC allows for synchronization. I encounter the same with my stereo HomePod setup as well.

Your mention of the potential delay issue with movie streaming services, especially in stereo mode, is a valid concern—especially on platforms like Netflix, which lack adjustment options for syncing audio and video. Achieving synchronization without such adjustments can indeed pose a challenge. This consideration has prompted me to rethink whether adding another speaker for stereo use during movies on these platforms is a good idea…

If you have further suggestions or insights on compensating for this delay or any alternative solutions you might have explored, I’d greatly appreciate hearing about them.

Once again, thank you for your detailed responses and for sharing your experiences!

[VoronServer]

I have my single A5 paired with Samsung Freestyle projector. And, unfortunately, delay is present, and it’s kinda troublesome in the multiple scenarios (like YouTube and Netflix). There are no options to configure that from the projector itself. If it goes way beyond in the stereo mode, then I suppose it would be barely useful for movies.

I would suggest B&O to address that, or another option is to search for some HDMI-> USB converter that would fix such behavior via ARC if device can’t adjust delay by itself.

[cds]

I did some testing today.

Something I wasn’t aware of, being relatively new to the Apple world, is that AirPlay delays video streams to sync with the audio. So while there is a high latency of almost three seconds for the audio stream, the video stays paused until the audio starts playing. No good for interactive content, but it meant watching Netflix or YouTube on a Mac had no discernible lip sync issues while using a single Beosound A5, and matches Alex’s experience.

Next, I tried the same thing with two A5s paired in stereo – no lip sync issues! It looks like AirPlay accounts for the extra latency there, and again, only starts the video when the audio starts playing.

Of course, when I unpaired them I had all sorts of issues getting the second speaker to play audio again, eventually having to factory reset it when everything else had failed (losing presets and needing to configure WiFi and Chromecast again), but that’s down to B&O’s frankly horrible software. Such a shame they don’t seem to be able to get that bit right.

[AlexW]

FLASHING GREEN LIGHT STUCK

I placed my Beosound A5 on the charger last night, and it started flashing its green light. Since then, I have been unable to use the speaker. The app shows it as offline. The speaker is still on the charger, with the green light still pulsating. It’s been almost 24 hours, and it’s still stuck like that. Any ideas on what I can do? I tried to reset, but nothing happened.

[mcatterall10@hotmail.com]

Apologies if this has already been dealt with elsewhere but… what is the reason for not being able to run room compensation when not mains powered? This really impacts portability for me – I want to just pick it up and put it down wherever with zero friction, not limited to where I already have a charger plugged in.  I’d happily sacrifice extra battery drain if that’s the issue. Could this be resolved through a software upgrade? I have no idea what causes the limitation so maybe that’s a ridiculous idea, I don’t know.

[Author]

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