Bang & Olufsen Beolit 12
Bang & OluFsen’s $900
Beolit 12 looks like nothing so much as a compact picnic basket. Available in
four colour combinations — dark grey/dark grey, blue/dark grey. yellow/light
grey, and light grey! light grey — It’s a rounded-edged, rectangular box with a
leather strap around the top. Oh, and it’s also a speaker system designed For
AirPlay and direct playback (via USB) from iPhones, iPads and iPods.
Physical
chassis
The Beolit 12 weighs 2.8kg
and measures 13.3cm by 23cm. and 18.8cm high. That makes it Fairly portable; we
could carry it one- handed using the leather strap.
On the right-hand side of
the unit sit a USB port, a 3.5mm line-in jack and a battery-charging status
light. On the rear is a long rectangular door. Push in to unlock, and you
expose an ethernet port and a connection for the included power cable. The
space is large enough to store the AC cable.
This compartment was a
source of Frustration, however. first, the AC point is deeply recessed and
positioned against the top, making it difficult to connect the power cable.
There’s a hook to the left of the plug, where you’re supposed to thread the
power cord — “For safety” according to the manual — but our fingers couldn’t
make it happen.
At the bottom-left corner
of this back door, there’s a small cutout for threading your cables if you want
to close the door. The power cable fits, but if you want to leave an ethernet
cable connected, as well, it becomes a very tight squeeze.
You’ll need to use
that ethernet port at least once if you Intend to take advantage of the Beolit
12’s AirPlay functionality. To configure the unit to your Wi-Fi network,
connect the Beoit 12 to your desktop computer using the included ethernet
cable, use your web browser to access the speaker’s built-in, web-based
configuration panel, and provide your network’s details. The Beolit 12 restarts
and connects to your network, You can then ignore the ethernet port unless you
want to update settings. such as the speaker’s network name you can’t
access it via Wi-Fi.
On top of the
speaker, you’ll find four touch-sensitive. backlit buttons: Power, Internet,
Volume Up and Volume Down. There’s no remote included, but Bang & Olufsen
says that you can use a Beo4 or Beoó remote wth the unit. A clever Feature is
that the on- board Volume Up and Down keys dim when you can’t go any louder or
softer. You can also control volume from your audio source.
AirPlay
performance
Streaming audio to the
Beolit 12 via AirPlay was painless. We tested AirPlay streaming with iTunes on
our Mac, as well as from our iPhone and iPad, and didn’t experience any audio
dropouts In hours of streaming. You can also connect an iPhone, iPad or iPod to
the Beolit 12’s USB port. In this configuration, the dock-connector cable
Functions much like a dock cradle: on an iOS device, you launch the Music app
and play your music: on a traditional iPod, you just press Play.
The Beolit 12 will charge
your iOS device when connected this way, even when the speaker is running off
battery power, although it can’t charge an iPad unless the iPad is asleep, and
even then It charges more slowly than the iPad’s own charger. lFyou connect
multiple sources to the Beolit, the speaker system uses a built-in priority to
determine which source to Favour: AirPlay first. then USB. and finally line-in.
Bang & Oluften
recommends you charge the Beolit For eight hours, which should earn you eight
hours of USB or line-in playback, or four hours of AirPlay audio.
Despite its small
size, the unit employs a Class D digital amplifier packing a total oF 120W. The
Beolit 12 can get hilariously loud as in, “I need to go into a second room
before I turn the volume all the way up” loud. The system uses two 2in tweeters
and a single 4in woofer. Without a subwoofer, you shouldn’t expect floor-shaking
bass, and you don’t get it. That said, we were impressed with the audio the
Beolit churned out music sounded full, rich and clear, and while bass presence
wasn’t jaw-dropping, it was substantial Given the unit’s compact size.
One sound issue we experienced
is that if you leave the Beolit 12 powered on without music playing. it makes a
noticeable hum, even tf you reduce volume to the minimum. The hum is masked
when you’re playing music, and it’s pretty quiet even when you’re not, but it’s
there.
We’d like to see AirPlay
battery life longer than Four hours, but overall, the Beolit 12 is very good:
AirPlay Functionality is
great, and portability is impressive. The real doubt concerns the price tag. IF
you just need a good portable system, there are plenty of quality transportable
alternatives around at a third of the price, offering good sound quality—albeit
without AirPlay. Still, if you’ve got the money, this is the 1rst system we’ve
seen that offers this combination of quality sound. Portability and AirPlay
support. Cliff Joseph
The Skinny
Likes: Impressive sound
quality: AirPlay Feaure: pleasingly portable
Dislikes: AirPlay
battery life: some issues with awkward ports: price tag
Rating 4 stars
