BANG & OLUFSEN BEOSOUND THEATRE Review
Bang & Olufsen’s latest creation, the Beosound Theatre, is undoubtedly one of the most impressive soundbars we’ve seen and heard. However, it comes with a hefty price tag.
The Beosound Theatre delivers a massive, wide, and precise soundstage with an impressive surround effect. It integrates well with various TV models. But have you seen the price tag?
Calling Bang & Olufsen’s latest creation a soundbar might seem like an understatement to some. However, that’s what the manufacturer calls this ambitious speaker, which the B&O team in Struer has spent several years developing!
Soundbars are typically simple devices: a sleek speaker that you place under your TV to get something that resembles real sound. Add a subwoofer and a couple of rear speakers, and you might even get something that resembles surround sound.
Bang & Olufsen, as usual, has taken a more sophisticated approach, elevating the term “soundbar” to a new level. The Beosound Theatre is, of course, sleek to look at, but it’s more than that. After spending a few days in the listening room with the Beosound Theatre and an LG OLED TV, our ears are equally impressed with what the Danish team has achieved.
Can a Soundbar Be True Hi-Fi?
Although soundbars have replaced many old stereo systems, they are still somewhat overlooked by hi-fi enthusiasts. Everyone knows you need a pair of proper stereo speakers to listen to music, right?
At the same time, soundbars have become immensely popular and an essential part of the audio market, comparable to headphones and other modern audio products. This means some of the industry’s brightest audio minds are working hard to make them better and more versatile, even for music.
Beosound Theatre: A High-End Soundbar
The Danish manufacturer already has the Beosound Stage in its lineup – a flat, beautiful, and decorative soundbar. The Beosound Theatre is a different beast altogether, in terms of price, size, and performance.
The Theatre hides 12 drivers, including twin woofers, tethered to a rated 800W power plant
With a dozen speaker elements, including two powerful bass speakers, the Theatre can move mountains sonically. Additionally, B&O offers numerous options for customization, cosmetic changes, and upgrades, allowing you to tailor the system to your liking.
Much of the technology is borrowed from the flagship speaker Beolab 90, with an advanced audio brain/DSP (B&O TrueImage) and several patented solutions aimed at controlling how sound disperses in the room. However, with a crucial difference: much of the sound is directed away from the listening position to provide a more airy and distinct surround perspective.
7.1.4 Channels, 12 Speaker Elements, and 800 Watts
The Beosound Theatre features a 7.1.4 configuration and supports Dolby Atmos 3D surround sound, though not DTS:X. It has seven dedicated elements for left, right, center, surround side, and back, plus separate top-mounted speakers for the height channels. The crucial center channel has a coaxial tweeter/midrange.
Theatre is also equipped with two 6.5-inch bass elements, ensuring ample bass down to 28 Hz, even without a separate subwoofer. It is powered by a 12-channel built-in amplifier totaling 800 watts.
If you wish to upgrade or add more surround channels, there are plenty of options. Theatre can wirelessly send sound to up to eight extra surround speakers, and another eight via cable (B&O Powerlink).
A measurement microphone is included for optimizing the sound based on the room and various listening positions. Everything is controlled remotely from the B&O app, which offers excellent preset sound modes (TV, Film, Music, Game, etc.) and a range of more advanced adjustment options.
For those who like to dive deep into settings, we recommend reading B&O’s Technical Sound Guide for Beosound Theatre.
Made to Integrate with Your TV
Beosound Theatre is designed to work in various TV setups. It can be placed on a bench or wall-mounted on its own, but the real fun begins when combined with a TV.
B&O has designed a special mount that allows the speaker and TV to merge into a single unit, rather than two separate boxes. You can then choose to mount the whole setup on the wall, place it on a bench, or use a motorized floor stand. This gives a completely different visual and functional look.
Tailored for LG OLED – But Usable with Other TVs
Bang & Olufsen and LG have a long-standing TV partnership, where LG provides the screens and B&O handles everything else. For example, Beovision Eclipse and Beovision Horizon are built around an LG OLED TV.
Beosound Theatre takes the concept further, focusing on the audio part. It offers flexibility in choosing TV models and brands.
TV and speaker can be purchased separately, but B&O dealers also offer complete, pre-assembled packages. This allows the LG TV to be controlled with B&O’s beautiful aluminum remote, Beoremote One.
Our test system featured a 55-inch LG OLED G2, but it can also accommodate a 65-inch OLED C2 or a 77-inch Z2.
We also tested the system with a motorized floor stand, a B&O specialty. It allows the TV screen to stand freely on the floor and rotate to the desired angle at command. A press of the remote or in the B&O app rotates the TV to pre-programmed positions – for example, towards the dining room, kitchen, or sofa. The solution is ergonomic, practical, and visually appealing, unlike many other TV setups out there.
It Comes at a Price…
But there’s that price detail. A Beosound Theatre alone costs roughly ten times what you’d pay for a typical, good soundbar. And that’s for the simplest version in silver with fabric upholstery.
The flexible part of the equation is that you can choose your TV, change screen size, and potentially upgrade bit by bit over time.
How Does the Beosound Theatre Sound?
So, how does it sound? After using the Beosound Theatre in two different listening rooms for an extended period, we can say it sounds like a soundbar, but bigger!
Firstly, it has excellent speech clarity from the crucial center channel, the first litmus test for a soundbar.
Voices are clear, full, and direct from the speaker. Whether it’s a hoarse gangster or a feminine seductress speaking, it sounds very believable and present. The Theatre will definitely work well as a center channel in a larger system.
Lip sync with the LG TV is also spot on. You get drawn into the action and become more engaged with what’s happening on the screen. With the first and most crucial test passed, we can relax in our Stressless chair and soak in the rest of the fine sound.
Beosound Theatre also shows it has firm control over the other front and side channels. It paints a massive, wide, and large soundstage that extends far beyond the speaker and TV screen. When the Formula 1 cars roar past the screen, it truly feels like things are in motion.
The size and channel separation are sometimes so good that you might think it’s a genuine system with separate speakers! This suggests that it will likely pair well with larger screens than the modest 55-inch model B&O lent us.
However, we sometimes miss more sound from behind. Theatre doesn’t quite close the “sound bubble” behind us and could benefit from a couple of surround speakers to perfect the soundstage.
Bass reproduction is excellent. We’re usually skeptical of soundbars with built-in “subwoofers,” but the two 6.5-inch drivers deliver a tactful and punchy bass that digs deep enough to shake the test room’s walls.
It’s also fascinating to hear how the Beosound Theatre can scale the soundscape from scene to scene and how it affects the atmosphere in different productions. The differences in tone between a cramped cave and a vast open landscape in “The Rings of Power” are very clear. Not to mention Jeffrey Dahmer’s dark, haunted apartment. You can really hear and better appreciate how sound producers intended the scenes. Sound truly is half the experience!
At the same time, Beosound Theatre, like most good speakers, is quite revealing of less-than-stellar productions. There were times we noticed slight distortion in dialogue, but it turned out to be in the recording rather than the speaker. Beosound Theatre can play loud while maintaining crystal-clear focus, without distortion.
How About Music?
Soundbars are not known for delivering great stereo sound, but of all we’ve heard, Beosound Theatre is probably the best so far. The soundstage is large and wide, with impressive placement of instruments and vocals, aided by deep, juicy bass.
There are various listening settings for music, which impressively simulate the breadth and depth of traditional stereo. You can sit in the “sweet spot” and feel like you’re between two stereo speakers, not just “mono” straight ahead!
When playing Aurora’s “Stjernestøv,” the vocals stand strong in the center, and the string accompaniment fans out in front of us. The fine vocal reproduction makes Future’s mumbled rap lines sound unusually strong and clear.
The drums hit tight and precise while the guitar riffs are as distorted as they should be in Metallica’s “Lux Æterna.” When we crank up “10:35” by Tiësto and Tate McRae at high volume, the party atmosphere is not far off. The music repertoire is broad, and the tonal balance is excellent across all genres.
Overall, Beosound Theatre feels more like a real music system than other soundbars, especially when combined with a pair of proper front speakers. This is because the DSP system handles everything automatically, without cumbersome switches or setup procedures.
AV INFO
| Product | High-end single-box Dolby Atmos soundbar |
| Position | B&O’s flagship, above the Beosound Stage |
| Peers | Devialet Dione; Sennheiser Ambeo |
| Wesbite | www.bang-olufsen.com |
SPECIFICATIONS
| DRIVERS: | Coaxial center with 1in tweeter and 5.25in mid-range; 2 x 6.5in woofers; 2 x 3in mid-range and 2 x 1in tweeters (L/R); 4 x 2.5in drivers (side L/R and Dolby Atmos upfirers) |
| ONBOARD POWER (CLAIMED): | 800W (2 x 100W + 10 x 60W) |
| CONNECTIONS: | 4 x HDMI inputs, including 1 x eARC; Ethernet; Powerlink speaker outputs |
| DOLBYATMOS/DTS:X: | Yes/No |
| SEPARATE SUBWOOFER: | No |
| REMOTE CONTROL: | No |
| DIMENSIONS: | 1,222(w) x 197(h) x 157(d)mm |
| WEIGHT: | 18kg |
| FEATURES: | RoomSense setup microphone; upgradable design; proximity based UI; True Image up/downmixing algorithm; wall and floorstand mounting options; 4K/120 passthrough; B&O app; Spotify Connect; Apple AirPlay 2; Chromecast; Wi-Fi; Bluetooth; fabric or oak finish |
Verdict
Beosound Theatre is an ambitious soundbar from Bang & Olufsen. It sounds fantastic and looks amazing! Our only reservation is the high price, which might deter some potential buyers. Nevertheless, B&O has definitely created something special.
Beosound Theatre Overview & Features
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