Bang & Olufsen
Headphones
Best Known For
Speakers
/
Used Products
267
 Available
Average Price
$1,001-$2,500
Brand Popularity
811
 of 900+
Products Listed
5
Review Count
43
Founding Year
1925
Headquarters
Denmark
Bang & Olufsen
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What's unique about the brand

Bang & Olufsen designs its products around form as much as sound, with sculptural shapes and high-grade materials that reviewers single out across the range. The Danish company, founded in 1925, makes speakers, headphones and televisions, and some of its speakers use Acoustic Lens Technology to spread sound 180 degrees horizontally. Its headphones run from the Beoplay EX earbuds to over-ear models. The Beoplay HX has an app-based equalizer for tuning the sound, the Beoplay H95 adds stronger noise cancellation, and the Beoplay H100 flagship adds a detachable cable and aptX support.

Brand overview

Jim Bray of TechnoFile heard the BeoLab 5 in a basement jazz club, with saxophonist Snake Davis playing live against a recording, and wrote that the sound did not seem to come from the speakers at all, it was "just there." That is the Bang & Olufsen idea: the listener should not have to arrange a room around the equipment. In the BeoLab 5, the midrange and treble pass through an acoustic lens that spreads them in a wide fan, so B&O says the tonal balance holds from any seat. The headphones carry the same thinking. Instead of EQ sliders, the B&O app offers the Beosonic wheel, a dot you move between Bright, Warm, Relaxed and Energetic, raising or lowering bass and treble as you go. Simon Lucas of TechRadar heard the Beoplay HX "just slightly on the rich side of neutral," and Audiophile On calls the H100 "neutral, detailed, and unfatiguing, with a subtle warmth." B&O suits listeners who want to shape the sound by ear and keep the hardware in plain view.

Start with the Beoplay H95, which B&O made for its 95th birthday in 2020. W. Jennings of ecoustics got five office days from one charge with noise cancelling on. He heard a mild bass lift and pulled it toward neutral in the app. If you want something lighter, the HX is the pick, and Lucas calls it "quite possibly the best wireless headphones Bang & Olufsen has ever made" pound for pound. The step up is the flagship H100. Esquire UK notes that its headband and cushions pull off for replacement and that B&O can service the battery and drivers. One ring on the H100 is volume and the other slides from full noise cancelling to transparency, and covering a cup with your palm lets you hear a conversation. With the EX earbuds, try every tip size. Max Langridge of TechRadar was astounded by the difference once he swapped the medium tips for the largest pair.

Peter Bang graduated as an engineer in 1924, spent six months in an American radio factory, and came home to set up with his friend Svend Olufsen in the attic of the Olufsen family's manor house at Struer, in Jutland, where in 1925 they built a radio that ran on alternating current. The Beolit 39 of 1938 was the company's first radio in a Bakelite cabinet. Jacob Jensen designed 234 products for B&O between 1965 and 1985, and Beocentral calls his Beogram 4000 of 1972 "perhaps the definitive B&O product." Its short arm rode a motor-driven carriage straight across the record, the way the cutting lathe had moved, and a second arm with a light sensor read the record's size. The Museum of Modern Art gave B&O an exhibition in 1978. The BeoLab 5 later put the acoustic lens, developed by Manny LaCarrubba of Sausalito Audio, on an active speaker. B&O has since restored original Beogram 4000s by hand in Struer for a relaunch.

Sources

https://technofile.com/articles/beolab5.asp, https://www.techradar.com/reviews/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-hx, https://www.audiophileon.com/news/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-h100-review, https://www.techradar.com/reviews/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-h95, https://www.ecoustics.com/reviews/bang-olufsen-beoplay-h95, https://www.esquire.com/uk/design/a62759329/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-h100-review, https://www.techradar.com/reviews/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-ex-review, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang_%26_Olufsen, https://beocentral.com/beogram4000, https://www.whathifi.com/news/bang-and-olufsen-to-restore-1972-beogram-4000-turntables-and-other-classics

Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

From Julian's interview with
.

Products overview

Every model pairs a sculptural shape with high grade materials, so each one looks and feels as good as it sounds. The Beoplay EX earbuds are the entry, with adaptive noise cancellation that quiets a commute. The Beoplay HX moves to full size headphones with an app equalizer, so you can tune the sound to your taste at home. The Beoplay H100 tops the range with a detachable cable and aptX support, so it also plays from a wired source.

  • Start here. If you want a first pair on a tight budget, the Beoplay EX is the cheapest model and still has six microphones for clear calls.
  • Sweet spot. The Beoplay HX gives a daily listener full size comfort and up to 35 hours of playback for a price under $1,000, well below the H95 and H100.
  • All in. The Beoplay H100 is a big jump in price over the H95, and its Spatial Audio with head tracking keeps the soundstage fixed in front of you as you turn.
Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi Writer

What reviewers are saying

We read all the reviews, and here's what stands out:

  • Bang & Olufsen products exhibit exceptional build quality and use premium materials, resulting in a luxurious feel and sophisticated aesthetic.

Quotes we liked:

  • "If you're looking for some of the best-sounding wireless earbuds, then you can end your search here. The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX exceeded all my expectations in the sound department to the point where I had to question how good my own pair of Apple AirPods Pro 2 actually were." (https://www.techradar.com/reviews/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-ex-review)
  • "Serving up perfect levels of bass and treble in my opinion, the Beoplay EX offers one of the best musical experiences I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. Key to Beoplay EX's success is the sheer amount of sound profile customization you can perform from within the companion app." (https://www.techradar.com/reviews/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-ex-review)
  • "The H100 mid-range is the best I've heard on a pair of consumer noise-cancelling cans. Vocals jump out, and everything else that sits within that part of the EQ range is wonderfully detailed." (https://markellisreviews.com/reviews/bo-beoplay-h100-review-what-does-2200-sound-like)
  • "The audio performance is nothing short of brilliant, with a wide soundstage, lots of detail, and a warm, bassy sound that lends itself to pretty much any music genre you can think of. And, if that sound isn't quite to your liking, the app's EQ is designed to make customization super easy." (https://www.techradar.com/reviews/bang-and-olufsen-beoplay-h95)
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Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

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Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

Our own amplifier technology sets our TDAI streaming amps apart. It is a so-called digital amplification which amplifies digital audio directly, without the common analogue conversions, signal paths, and side effects within the unit. We also have a unique, absolutely lossless way of volume control, whereas in most amplifiers the incoming music signal is attenuated.

Our second key innovation is RoomPerfect, available in our stereo and home cinema products. This calibration measures and addresses room acoustical issues, which affect even the best listening rooms, yet without linearizing and neutralizing the sound too much.

What's your approach to customer support?

Every Lyngdorf dealer can be contacted no matter where one bought the product, but we are proud to also offer direct support by our team here at the headquarters in Denmark. They have direct access to all Lyngdorf products in our demo and test rooms. Furthermore, a Backup function in our amplifiers and processors allows us to mirror customer settings remotely on our device, so we can literally look into it and give better advice — for example, for setting up or finding faults along the audio chain.

Last but not least, we can offer support and repairs even for the first Lyngdorf products made here decades ago, which includes a 24-hour burn-in test — not only to verify functions but to measure the performance-relevant specs. [email protected]

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

Three? You mean three hundred?

Odetta – Hit or Miss. This is an old but excellent recording from 1970. It requires a good system and room to make it sound realistic and alive. Listen for well-separated instruments, good timing, and a tuneful bass. Everything is alright production-wise, so any shortcomings rather come from the listening room and audio system.

Vestbo Trio – Italian Movie, Portuguese Wine. This is a reference for capturing the sound and dynamics of real instruments in a good recording studio. No compression or autotune involved. Listen for the space, soundstage, and realism as the song shifts up one gear. You should almost have the guys playing in your room.

Gidge – Quasar. Electronic music can be quite challenging because there are no microphones as a filter. Someone with a computer and synthesizer can just go crazy, and the audio system has to cope. This Swedish duo will test the limits of your speakers. Listen whether it sounds powerful yet pure and defined at the same time. This kind of music is rather done for clubs, so it requires good speakers, speaker placement, and ideally some degree of calibration to control the energy in a normal living room.

What other products pair best with yours?

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Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
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Used Products
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Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

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Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
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Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page
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Our interview with the brand

What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?

What's your approach to customer support?

What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?

What other products pair best with yours?

Website author headshot
Julian Shapiro
ExtremeHiFi
Brand Page

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