Bang Olufsen Beolab 5 User Manual
WWW.THEABSOLUTESOUND.COM
85
E
very audio manufacturer aspires to build a flagship.
Denmark’s Bang & Olufsen has taken that stock
dream a giant leap further with the newly introduced
BeoLab 5. Like something that plummeted to Earth
from outer space its robo-sat styling is genuine showstopper quality, and its bevy of high-tech features reads like a
NASA pre-launch checklist. But there’s nothing gratuitous or
cavalier in either its design or execution. It might have the look
of a Star Wars droid but its performance is nothing less than seri-
ously high end. B&O has reached for the stars with the BeoLab
5 and with few reservations has nearly touched them all.
Breaking The Sound Barrier?
Before discussing the technology behind the BeoLab 5 I need
to vent some of my enthusiasm for a couple paragraphs. I’ve had
two opportunities to hear the B5—the first at the factory in
Streuer, Denmark, but only for a brief session. Then, for this
review, I auditioned them in my much smaller room, under realworld conditions, wondering whether the magic would translate.
Indeed it did. The qualities that I found so striking under vastly
more controlled circumstances came to life once more.
First there was the sheer musicality of this speaker—sonics
both unbridled and relaxed. Tonally the BeoLab 5 was silkier
than warm chocolate pudding, with frequencies flowing across
the octaves unbroken by the spikes or troughs that tend to needle over extended listening sessions. The BeoLab 5 didn’t sound
especially dark or light in any range, nor did it sound hard or
brittle. Instead the music seemed thickly cushioned, as if from
a damped, velvet-curtained venue with an SRO crowd. The
speaker had a midrange that didn’t italicize particular frequencies, nor were there seams or frayed edges at the limits of its
performance envelope. The BeoLab 5 takes a good piano record-
the cutting edge
Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5 Loudspeaker
Neil Gader
WWW.THEABSOLUTESOUND.COM
87
ing like Warren Bernhardt’s So Real [DMP Records SACD] and
convincingly recreates the weight and physicality of the instrument. From single-line arpeggios to cacophonous chord clusters, pianos of any ilk, whether highbrow concert grand
Steinways or Tom Waits’ beloved, beer-stained upright, are
reproduced with the drive and sensitivity of the whole ivory,
wood, and steel instrument.
Likewise with both male and female vocalists, the B5
reproduced fully-fleshed bodies rather than an irregular mosaic
of disconnected body parts. It seemed to propel sound toward
the listening seat unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. It didn’t merely reveal a soundstage hanging like a scrim; instead the
music seemed to have texture that your fingers could almost
handle, and in live performance recordings it seemed to be gently pressing you into your seat. This could be appreciated during “1A” from Appalachian Journey [Sony
SACD] when bassist Edgar Meyer grinds
his bow into the strings extracting a
leading transient crunch followed by
deep ripples of resonant harmonics. The
BeoLab 5 put meat on the bones of music
like few other speakers I’ve engaged. Yes,
it’s a highly refined, smart speaker. It’ll
coast along all day on a diet of harpsichord and Haydn. But it’s not afraid to
boogie either. When John Lennon
shrieks the final “all right” during
“Revolution” [Hey Jude, Parlophone] the
guitar-slashing energy that the B5 expels
makes you feel for that moment that
you’re a freaking part of a genuine revolution. And as I listened to “Murder By
Numbers” by the Police [Synchronicity,
A&M] I heard all I needed to hear about dynamic gradation and
mid-bass drive. “Uncle,” I mumbled to myself.
The speaker’s effortless extension was so inspiring that I
ran to dust off the heavy cannons of Tchaikovsky’s 1812
Overture [Telarc SACD] and other woofer fodder to let them
have their way with BeoLab 5. Wave after wave of low frequencies were welcomed with unwavering eagerness and coolness under fire by the B&O. During the 1812 the cannon fusillades and the closing church bells dance through the soundstage effortlessly at any insane volume level. The impact of the
cannons, which report primarily from the left side, seemed to
twist my listening room sideways, the bells floating ethereally over the soundspace. Low-frequency definition was stunning, the BeoLab 5 utterly unruffled by complex combinations
of bassoons, strings basses, and trombones.
Transient details and harmonics were exquisite in their
delicacy, with string sections receiving special attention from
the B&O. The individuation of instruments in each section
was so extraordinary in its precision that the best way I can
illustrate it is to picture the wing span of a great bird while
seeing each feather along that span. Even in flight each feath-
er cuts the air with a distinctive attitude. This is as close to
what I heard as I can describe. It combined precision with diffusion yet it didn’t portray images with diamond-cutter certitude. The BeoLab was as exacting as a sleight of hand magician with a couple extra fingers.
Tech Background
The BeoLab project began in earnest in 1997 with a unique
directive from design-savvy B&O—rather than design first,
with the usual performance constraints, this speaker was to
merge function and form like no other B&O product before it.
The result is a fully active, remote-controlled and DSP-controlled four-way acoustic suspension loudspeaker.
Physically the BeoLab 5 is divided
into two main design elements. The bottom pod is conical and houses a 6.5"
mid-bass driver and 15" downward-firing woofer as well as the electronics,
quadruple Class D amplifier packs, courtesy of ICEpower, a subsidiary of B&O.
These compact and efficient amps were
designed especially for the close confines
of the BeoLab 5’s enclosure and run
extremely cool. The total power to each
BeoLab 5 is a whopping 2.5kW, which
breaks down to 250W to the tweeter,
250W to the midrange, and 1000W
each to the high woofer and low woofer.
A short neck connects the base pod
to the second design element: the
Acoustic Lens Technology, elliptical
structures that individually focus the reflected output of the 3"
upward-firing soft-dome midrange and .75" soft-dome tweeter.
The Acoustic Lens is said to provide phase correct, 180-degree
dispersion and smooth power response. Licensed from professor
David Moulton and engineer Manny LaCarruba of Sausalito
Audio Works, the Acoustic Lens technology, more than any
other feature, gives the BeoLab 5 its unique personality. The
large disc supporting the midrange lens helps control floor
reflections, the upper discs reducing ceiling reflections. Further
corroborating the company’s power response claims, the
BeoLab 5 doesn’t demand that your head be held in a figurative
vice to fully appreciate its tonal smoothness. In fact I could
even get away with slouching a bit.
Easy As ABC
While the Acoustic Lens controls the mids and highs, ABC
(Adapative Bass Control) optimizes the mid and low bass by
measuring the change—irrespective of room size—in acoustic
energy output of the speaker. Its job is to maintain power out-
the cutting edge
The BeoLab 5 didn’t
sound especially dark or
light in any range, nor
did it sound hard or
brittle. Instead the
music seemed thickly
cushioned, as if from a
damped, velvet-curtained venue with an
SRO crowd.
Loading...