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Bang & Olufsen is a seriously high-end audio manufacturer that makes speakers and televisions that cost more than a nice car in many instances. The company has announced the launch of three new high-end wireless speakers. The new speakers include the BeoLab 17, BeoLab 18, and BeoLab 19. The BeoLab 17 is a speaker designed […]

This is a sort of hardware / software announcement for Spotify, a hardware partnership with a number of big names in audio like Philips, Pioneer, Bang & Olufsen, Denon, Marantz and Yamaha that allows you to keep the party going on those Spotify playlists. Start playing one on your handset, click play on a compatible speaker system, and it will keep streaming on the speaker without interruption — even when you take a call or leave the vicinity of your WiFi network. The audio system will actually start streaming music directly from the cloud. That means you can, say, turn on an iPad in another room and let your party guests skip songs — though, granted, that might not be the greatest idea, depending on who you invite.

Specific devices have yet to be named, though compatible systems will be branded with a Spotify Connect logo, so you’ll know what you’re getting yourself into. Those should be arriving in a late-October / early-November timeframe. Spotify will be holding up its end of the bargain by rolling out a software update for iOS ahead of those launches. Android and other operating systems will be receiving it at a later date.

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When it comes to quality audio systems, regardless of whether it is at home or somewhere else, you know for sure that the name Bang & Olufsen is synonymous with quality and clarity, and there are no two ways about it. Well, it seems that the folks over at Bang & Olufsen have done it again, this time around with the delicious sounding BeoLab 14 surround sound speaker system, which also ushers in an entirely new category of speakers to the Bang & Olufsen family of devices.

The BeoLab 14 surround speaker system is said to be able to revolutionize the marketplace, where it would come across as a conveniently packaged, all-inclusive solution which delivers compact aesthetics, exceptional audio quality and a high-end surround sound performance. The BeoLab 14 will come in a 4.1 or a 5.1 digital surround sound set up, where you will get up to half a dozen individual active speakers, where each of them has its own amplifier, resulting in an unprecedented level of sound quality, never mind that the speakers themselves come in such a compact form factor. Not only that, the BeoLab 14 is also said to be able to play nice with the slew of other TV brands, making it non- exclusive to just Bang & Olufsen televisions alone, now how about that?

The BeoLab 14 is said to continue from its predecessors’ successes, where stunning performance is still delivered despite coming in a compact form factor. The satellite speakers on the BeoLab 14 happen to feature diminutive circles of anodized aluminum with exchangeable fabric covers in a range of colors (white, black, silver, dark grey, red and petroleum blue), where they can be easily integrated into even the most stringent interior design schemes. Not only that, the sculptural subwoofer holds separate amplifiers for all speakers in the system, which should allow it to pump up the bass volume from a beguilingly slender footprint. The new BeoLab 14 surround sound speaker system will cost $3,995 and $4,395 for the 4.1 solution and 5.1 solution, respectively.

Press Release
[ Bang & Olufsen launches BeoLab 14 surround speaker system copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Danish style-merchant Bang & Olufsen has revealed its latest beautifully crafted, painfully expensive surround sound system, the BeoLab 14. Consisting of four aluminum speakers – which can be wall- or ceiling-mounted, or equipped with slender desk or floor stands – and a tapered subwoofer with an 8-inch bass driver, the BeoLab 14 setup pushes out a total of 840W.

280W of that comes from the class D amplifier in the subwoofer, which automatically adapts its output to the shape and size of the room. Each of the satellite speakers gets 140W to play with, and tips the scales at 800g. Formed from pressure-treated aluminum – in fact 170 tons of pressure is involved – they can be fitted with a choice of six colored fabric fronts.

The subwoofer body comes in white only, though the top fabric section can be switched out to match with your decor. Hooking up to a B&O surround-capable TV is a matter of plugging in the A/V multi connector, but you can also use an A/V receiver and any other brand of TV or projector.

Since you might not want to hide the vase-like sub under a table or behind the sofa, as per many blockish rivals, B&O includes a “positioning dial” which can quickly set it to the right sort of settings for whether it’s in the corner, against a wall or bookcase, or in the middle of the floor. There’s also peak volume protection, so that none of the cones burst from unexpected highs.

B&O says the BeoLab 14 surround sound speaker system is on sale globally this week, priced at €2,995 ($3,855).

Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 14: Surround speakers you probably can’t afford to hide is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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