Tough Outside, Subtle Inside
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) as a brand is synonymous with luxurious high audio products for home audio and car audio, often seen in cars from luxury automotive brands like Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini and Audi’s flagship models.
While very few get to experience the Bang & Olufsen sound signature, the company has brought in the Beosound Explore, a small portable Bluetooth speaker that offers the B&O experience.
Priced at Rs 20,000 in India, the Beosound Explore is one of the most affordable B&O products and yet it’s packed with features. Let’s start with the IP67 dust and waterproof rating, 27 hours of battery life, Bluetooth 5.2 with multi- point pairing, and fast pairing support with Apple, Android and Microsoft devices.
The Beosound Explore has a tough and premium build. The device has a Type II Anodised Aluminium construction with Fabric and Plastic used at some places, making it feel very dense and weighty. The IP67 rating also means you can take it out on camping trips and not worry about water or dust getting inside. The Beosound Explore could easily cope with the Delhi rains, and trips to the swimming pool. Being a Bang & Olufsen device, you would feel like taking care of it, but the Beosound Explore is tough enough to withstand rough conditions.
The Beosound Explore comes with two 1.8” Full Range Drivers, which are powered by two 30 Watt Class D Amps. The cylinder shape of the device pushes out the sound in 360-degree which makes the speaker sound great wherever you position it. After running in the device for 48 hours, the sound signature was still impressive. While other small-sized speakers have trouble reproducing a balanced sound and end up cranking the treble or bass to high, the Beosound Explore produces a rich balanced sound, the bass is not over powering, yet it can be felt, the mids are warm and the treble is detailed, yet not too shrill. Unlike other compact sized speakers, even at full volume the sound did not crack one bit.
This is however, not a party speaker as the total volume of the Beosound Explore is a little low, probably because of the waterproofing and the compact size. The bass, although very crisp and balanced, is not punchy enough for EDM, Hiphop and other bass heavy genres.
The sound doesn’t feel expansive enough, for the output does sound like it is coming from a small single unit, which is fair enough, considering the overall size of the device. We tested the 27 hours’ advertised battery life multiple times and the Beosound Explore consistently returned 22-27 hours of battery life depending on the volume.
Bang & Olufsen also supplies a carabiner inside the box in case you want to hang the speaker on your backpack. The B&O mobile application seamlessly works with Android or Apple devices and allows stereo pairing with other Beosound Explore devices. experiencing. This Bluetooth speaker can take the rough with the smooth.
