These luxury speakers get all smart on us
Bang & Olufsen has stuck to its promises by bringing built-in Google Assistant voice controls to its luxe Beosound 1 and Beosound 2 speakers. It’s effectively turned these two super stylish, high end devices into smart speakers and the new models will be available to buy from mid September (Beosound 1) and early October (Beosound 2).
The $1,750 Beosound 1 with Google Assistant is designed to be semi-portable (it has a rechargeable battery) while the $2,250 Beosound 2 meanwhile needs main power.
Both now have five microphones to pick up your voice commands with a control panel on top to let you swipe for next or previous tracks, turn it to adjust the volume plus four buttons you can program to launch things like calendar, weather, radio, music playlists via Google Assistant compatible services – nice touch.
When we spoke to Bang & Olufsen, execs told us that by 2019 they want all new devices to not only be platform agnostic but also voice enabled. The new Beosound 1 and 2 speakers will have both Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 built-in which is a good step in that direction. Bang & Olufsen has also said that it’s happy to work with Amazon Alexa too.
The conical shaped speakers, which look like mini skyscrapers floating above the surface, were designed by Torsten Valeur of David Lewis Designers. We haven’t tested them yet but look out for our reviews.
