Review on 🔊 Top-notch Bang & Olufsen Beoplay A9 4th Gen: Wireless Multiroom Speaker in White with Oak Legs by Dave Russell

The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay A9 is a great speaker (a range of speakers, to be precise), so let's get rid of it right away. But let's also digress from the fact that this is an expensive speaker and whether it's the right one for you depends on whether you value those two things: style and sound quality. He has both in abundance, so let's start at the beginning. Beginning: 1.) The unpacking process is relatively simple. The product itself comes in its own box surrounded by another brown box. Considering the package weighs the bulk of the 40lbs, expect some damage to the outer box, but since the speaker is so well packaged inside (although it's styrofoam, sigh), it's unlikely to be damaged in shipping becomes. .) The speaker is not fully assembled. That means you'll have to (in this case) wrap a black cloth cover around the speaker and attach the feet. To be honest, unzipping the black stretchy cover wasn't fun at all. You insert the material between the speaker and the back panel, so to speak, and then stretch it around the entire perimeter of the device. If you're not very good at it, the elastic cover can come loose from where you already inserted it and you'll then have to start over. You'll be comfortable with it - and to be honest, if I had to do it all over again, I'd probably do it in less than 30 seconds. However, if you have a second pair of hands to help you with this, it's a lot easier. 3.) The three included feet rotate on the back of the speaker and no tools are required. It only took a few seconds for each leg. At this point you realize, wow, this is a heavy speaker. At 32.4 pounds with legs (30.9 pounds without - if you wall mount it) it does have some weight. Luckily, the subwoofer's port on the back doubles as a handle, so once assembled it was easy to move around my music room. So let's get to the specs: Beoplay A9 Gen 4 is 1" tall (with legs attached) and 16.3" deep (with legs attached). It consumes about 0.3W in standby mode and 23W during operation. 1 x 400 W Class D bass (8" woofer) Class D power midrange (3" midrange x 2) 2 x 200 W Class D full range (1.5" full range x 22 x 150 W Class D for treble (3 /4" Tweeter x 2 ) Setup is pretty easy at this point. After I connected the device, it showed up on my Wi-Fi networks on my iPhone XS Max and I was able to click on Beoplay from there and automatically close it add to my network when i click on it great the speaker shows up on my phone as an airplay 2 compatible speaker and i can play it with no problems i haven't had any connection issues or audio dropouts since using it and i use it for watching and watching Setup / configuration You need to install the Bang & Olufsen app This allows you to adjust settings such as bass, treble etc. and set up active room compensation (this is the quickest process that only takes a few seconds) m to turn on bluetooth settings so that after your devices you want to allow are connected (the speaker only "appears" to everyone with an active BT connection), you can block other people from connecting. Theoretically, if you don't turn off this setting, someone could walk near your house, connect to the speaker via Bluetooth, and blow up your house with frantic metal/rock/classical/kids music. Oh God. So block this after you've connected all the devices that have access to the speaker. Anyway, after the setup was completely done, I listened to a lot of music all day and, well, blew up. First off, it's one of the clearest tones I've ever heard from a speaker, period. What I thought the speaker was off was actually something odd about the recording. For example, the track "Consequences" by Camila Cabello has this weird reverb/hiss for the first few seconds that I thought the speaker just couldn't handle a certain frequency. No, it's in the track itself, but the B&O's speaker is so good it just makes it stand out. "Old Churchyard" Wailin' Jennys. Wow. "Without Me" Halsey. bass, oh bass! I wasn't expecting the bass to hit me but it does make my floor shake quite a bit but let's face it this speaker isn't for action movies and will never be compared to a dedicated subwoofer but it's very very great. Yes, very three. You'll likely notice a drop in bass after running Active Room Compensation, but you can adjust this in the app. Oh, and Rufus Wainwright is great on this speaker. So if you're a Rufus fan, welcome to the party. What else? The speaker had an instant update that was accessible through the app and it only took a few minutes to get it up and running. The speaker controls are behind and are touch sensitive. However, if you're just using your phone, just adjust the volume there. I do not recommend using Bluetooth over AirPlay 2 as there is a noticeable degradation in sound quality. AirPlay 2 complete. yes it is expensive Yes, the black grille trim costs about $0.27 (B&O sells it and other colors for $70, which is unfathomable, and even more expensive at $130). But, but, but - that's a damn fine speaker. The walnut legs are beautiful, the way they twist/tighten by hand is delightful and the whole experience is absolutely phenomenal. Also note: you can crank this speaker up to maximum volume, enough to completely shatter your eardrums, and the speaker will not distort shape or form in any way. That's great. So is it worth the price? Yes. Is it worth buying? Well yes, if you can afford it. If you can't afford it, then no - don't buy it. Useless, but the best thing I could do and probably the truest thing I've ever said. 5 out of 5 stars. Terrific.