This looks very interesting indeed, and I'm anticipating what the pricing will be in Canada.  If it's truly priced right they could have a little hit on their hands, but I fear something like this will still have too premium of a pricetag, and the sound outgunned by competitors. 

With only a single 4" driver handling the lows and lower midrange, I find it hard to beleive it'll have decent bass. Then again, Bang & Olufsen are known for coaxing very good bass out of small packages.  Nevertheless, I'll have to hear it to beleive it.  :)

Sadly, this isn't a market I'm interested in either, and I won't be buying one, but I really hope it does well, and I can't wait to see what other products are in the pipeline for Play.

mike

Beolit = Car Battery with leather handle

The Beolit 12 is getting some good reviews online.

Here is one with some better pictures

http://www.t3.com/reviews/b-and-o-play-beolit-12-review

Think this product may even convince to get out my iphone and get it fixed

Toby:

The Beolit 12 is getting some good reviews online.

Here is one with some better pictures

http://www.t3.com/reviews/b-and-o-play-beolit-12-review

 

 

Think this product may even convince to get out my iphone and get it fixed

".............we can’t help but feel that the plastic design of the Beolit 12 makes it feel somewhat cheap. It doesn’t scream ‘high-end’ or send out a vibe of exclusivity".

"............the bass is surprisingly strong and solid, we thought that the midrange sounded somewhat subdued and that the treble seemed to be a bit drowned and to have trouble delivering a crisp and coherent result, especially at higher volume levels".

"...............while you expect the Bang & Olufsen brand to carry a premium, neither the sound nor the design stands out in a way that warrants a price that high".

"As it stands right now, though, the Beolit 12 seems ridiculously overpriced".

I hope any bad reviews aren't any worse than the one quoted!

"cheaply made, plastic, not what you would expect from a high end manufacturer"  "subdued sound" "ridiculously expensive". Maybe this should be in the outsourcing thread!

The problem with BeoLit 12 is once again its price, it is close to a Zeppelin Air that will offer better sound/stereo perspective, but lacks the portability of the BeoLit. As a portable system, it may become a winner, thanks to its built-in battery, but as a home system, most people will probably keep buying the Zeppelin, whose design I definitely prefer by the way

And, most important to us Brits, the £699 price tag, whereas it's priced EUR699 (approx £580) elsewhere through Europe!

If I had to choose between the £699 Beolit 12 and the £890 Beosound 8 - with free B&O headphones through Jan - I'd go for the BS8 every time.

Chris:

"cheaply made, plastic, not what you would expect from a high end manufacturer"  "subdued sound" "ridiculously expensive". Maybe this should be in the outsourcing thread!

As I've said many many many many many times, the Chinese/manufacturers do not get the spec provided by B&O, Apple and other developers and reply with "we can't do this! Ok, let's remove the high-quality rubber and use plastic instead...Apple won't notice!".

There are a lot of numbskulls on this board - sadly - who seem to believe that Apple, B&O and others somehow work around manufacturers and not the other way around. Frankly, a tad shocking.

“I hope any bad reviews aren't any worse than the one quoted!”

That was one of the worse reviews it just had the best pictures of the lead storage compartment and the connection ports.

It appeals to me as something I can use when I have a BBQ on the beach, as normally just have very tinny sounding portable speakers.

Having had a bit more of a read about it, is anyone else suprised that a run time of "up to 8 hours",  is apparently halved when the wireless/streaming function is used??

Moxxey, and I have said at least once, I will wait and see it in the flesh.

But when a review that is billed as being a positive one, which then contains so many quoted negatives, it is not unreasonable to highlight this. Calling other peoples opinions as "numbskulls" etc is your right I guess, but it is a bit rich if you have read things out of context.

In my opinion you can't compare the Zeppelin Air to BeoLit 12. It has to be apples to apples comparison.

The Zeppelin should be compared with BeoSound 8. Stationary i-dock.
The BeoLit 12 is smaller, portable and is not depended on main power because of the battery. To me it's a totally different beast and should be compared with other portable devices.

In it's class i have not yet listened to other products capable of the same sound and same quality feeling.

Chris:

 Calling other peoples opinions as "numbskulls" etc is your right I guess, but it is a bit rich if you have read things out of context.

I agree completely. However, there are those who seem to have an inability to express opinions without insulting others.

Puncher:

Having had a bit more of a read about it, is anyone else suprised that a run time of "up to 8 hours",  is apparently halved when the wireless/streaming function is used??

I don't doubt it - Wifi is a thirsty beast. In the last months of my Android HTC phone, the wifi drained the battery so quickly I decided it was better to just use 3G only.

Theres a reason B&O included ethernet!

Puncher:

Having had a bit more of a read about it, is anyone else suprised that a run time of "up to 8 hours",  is apparently halved when the wireless/streaming function is used??

No.  Its the main reason I don't get the obsession with airplay, and would rather dock the phone on a device since I will be in the same room anyway.

Battery life on the phone will be reduced massively using airplay as well, so when you need to actually use it as a phone, you have no battery left.

I´m looking forward listening to and seeing the Beolit in the flesh. Think the darker colours as well as the blue, yellow etc colours will make it look less "retro".

Think the Beolit should be compared to Bose Soundlink Mobile, rather than the Zeppelin. I´m confident that the Beolit will outperform Bose.

Interesting that B&O brought in danish designer Cecilie Manz for this project. I have a few of her Caravaggio lamps, that I enjoy very much. Look forward to future cooperation with designers outside the "electronics domain". Hopefully it will vitalize the visual expression. However, I think we will see designs that are very different from the currenty product line.

What else out there compares, I'm not aware of any other Airplay speakers? 

Also, if the price is true does that not run against the premise that Beoplay would be an affordable brand for the mass market?

danezro:

What else out there compares, I'm not aware of any other Airplay speakers? 

There's this Nokia Play 360° device (note the name...) that has been around for a while. It uses open specifications such as Bluetooth and NFC instead of something from Cupertino, so not worth a mention I guess. Never heard them so I don't know if they're useful in practice, but I particularly like the idea that if you have two of them in range, they will automatically play in stereo.

danezro:

What else out there compares, I'm not aware of any other Airplay speakers? 

danezro:

What else out there compares, I'm not aware of any other Airplay speakers? 

 

Others - good, bad and indifferent.

This is just what looks the closest to the Beolit 12 (ie : a black box), it was announced yesterday at CES and it is an Airplay speaker too : $200 (at this price, don't expect it to be close to the Beolit...). Called ARAP50, by Acoustic Research.

I saw it this afternooen. From my point of view it looks and sounds great. No bad finish at all! Design is very Cecilie Manz. The same gently curved edges, simplicity and texture as in many of her other designs. And not retro at all. Have a look when avaible in your country and make your own judgement.

Beofan2:

I saw it this afternooen. From my point of view it looks and sounds great. No bad finish at all! Design is very Cecilie Manz. The same gently curved edges, simplicity and texture as in many of her other designs. And not retro at all. Have a look when avaible in your country and make your own judgement.

Wise words.

rednik:

No.  Its the main reason I don't get the obsession with airplay, and would rather dock the phone on a device since I will be in the same room anyway.

Battery life on the phone will be reduced massively using airplay as well, so when you need to actually use it as a phone, you have no battery left.

It's kind of difficult to us your iDevice for other things (it is more then a mp3-player) while listening, when it's docked.

Besides that, Airplay can be used in many other ways. Use your full library in iTunes, or with other apps that give you access of your NAS. DS audio (Synology) or Qmobile (QNAP) are great apps. Or how about using Spotify to discover new music. For these tasks, you really don't want to have your idevice docked. And if your running on low battery, plug in your usb-cable.

If the Beosound 8 had Airplay, I wonder how many people would use the dock. I wouldn't.

Razlaw:

Chris:

 Calling other peoples opinions as "numbskulls" etc is your right I guess, but it is a bit rich if you have read things out of context.

I agree completely. However, there are those who seem to have an inability to express opinions without insulting others

Nor stick their nose in and try and wind people up like the above, Razlaw. Like I said before, you're an interesting bloke, for a lawyer. Impartial? Nope.

Chris:

Calling other peoples opinions as "numbskulls" etc is your right I guess, but it is a bit rich if you have read things out of context.

Actually Chris, I was talking generally. Don't take things too personally. There's a bit of a stigma associated with certain things, one of those being manufacturing. Instead of us celebrating B&O's decisions, forward thinking, new brand and so on, we want the best of both worlds - both the Danish manufacturing, top quality materials, plus the cheap prices. It's near-impossible to get all three, hence my reasoning. It's frustrating.

But Razlaw likes to stick his oar in assuming that it's said personally. This is a board where we type words. I don't know you all from Adam! If I took personally some of the comments some of our customers email us, I'd have lost my mind many years ago. Razlaw would have emailed them back individually telling them all how he was personally offended. You just can't do that.