Sitting in a room imbued with the
magnificent sound of the BeoLab 5, the
overriding impression is of walls disappearing
and the ceiling opening up to
let the sound flow. The sound is big,
natural, but not loud – even at the
highest sound levels. The 2500 watt
sound delivery is totally free from
extranaeous noise. The
complete music experience is there,
from the deepest to the highest tones.
“From the outside, BeoLab 5 is nothing
less than a sensation that sets new
standards for loudspeakers. The
performance and technology make it
very hard to do comparisons with other
loudspeakers in the market,” states
President & CEO Torben Ballegaard
Sørensen, Bang & Olufsen. He continues:
“Internally, however, BeoLab 5 represents
a natural evolution for Bang &
Olufsen – or to put it differently, it’s a
result of the way we work. Many of the
technologies used are already present
in our existing loudspeakers and this
speaker, BeoLab 5, we believe is among
the very top-performers of the world
today.”
Behind this unique product lies 20 years
of intensive acoustic research, a meeting
in a hotel suite in Los Angeles and a
young Danish engineer’s dedicated
work with bass control.
Since the early 80s, Bang & Olufsen
engineers have worked with the scientific
development of acoustics under
the theme “What constitutes good
sound?” and “How do people perceive
sound as good?” As it happened, a
young Master of Science student, Jan
Abildgaard Pedersen, had begun to
study bass control while, at the same
time, across the Atlantic, an Associated
Professor and a young Recording
Engineer were working on a new
technology that delivered sound at a
horisontal angle of 180 degrees.
Jan Abildgaard Pedersen subsequently
joined B&O as a technology specialist in
order to continue his work with bass
control while the two American sound
experts, in 1996, had their first meeting
with Bang & Olufsen in Los Angeles.
They knew that Bang & Olufsen had
been researching into loudspeaker performance
for some time – and Bang &
Olufsen soon realised the potential in
combining several cutting-edge technologies
into one unique product.
BeoLab 5 does not only stand out
acoustically. With its cone shape with
three circular discs on top, it also differs
enormously from existing loudspeaker
designs. The shape underscores the new
technology, Acoustic Lens Technology
patented by Sausalito Audio Works and
licensed by Bang & Olufsen. By means
of two ellipse-based shapes Acoustic
Lens Technology delivers the sound
from treble and mid-range at a 180
degree angle in the horizontal plane.
A long-throw bass driver of 15 inches
for the deep bass and a 6.5 inch unit
for the upper bass is supported by two
1000 watt ICEpower® amplifiers
occupying two thirds of the unit from
their position at the base of the cone.
Once the loudspeaker is positioned in
its desired location, or you have made
changes to the content of the room,
you press a small button at the top
after which a small, moveable microphone,
the Moving Microphone System,
measures the room’s bass properties by
analyzing the emitted soundwaves and
adapting the bass in accordance with
the loudspeaker’s position.
The Adaptive Bass Control system,
coupled with Acoustic Lens Technology,
ensures optimum sound experience
regardless of the listener’s own
loudspeaker’s position.