Bang & Olufsen Beosound Stage Review: Soundbar

Despite its great age and acoustic pedigree, Bang & Olufsen had never attempted a soundbar until the Beosound Stage — a luxurious, connected, Dolby Atmos-compatible model. This review is based on the published test of the Beosound Stage, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

It took until 2020 for the first soundbar bearing the Bang & Olufsen name to appear. The Danish manufacturer applies its familiar recipe, marrying modern features with a very pared-back design in a resolutely high-end product it says was "specifically conceived to bring the Bang & Olufsen sound signature to your television". That promise translates into a particularly powerful, ample and immersive sound — without the help of a separate subwoofer or rear satellites. To give itself the means, the Beosound Stage packs no fewer than 11 drivers, each powered by 50 W of amplification, and claims Dolby Atmos compatibility despite carrying no dedicated height drivers: everything rests on the built-in signal processing. Connected features — Google Chromecast, Bang & Olufsen Multiroom, AirPlay 2 and more — are present as well. The bar comes in several finishes at different prices, including the natural/black version examined in the published test.

Bang & Olufsen products are not in the habit of being showy, and that does not change here: for its first soundbar the Danish firm plays its usual card of discretion. Whether or not the restraint appeals, the build quality is beyond reproach — the aluminium frame, the front grille dressed in Kvadrat fabric and the very dense plastic of the rear panel all feel thoroughly robust. That solidity and the all-in-one acoustic design do have a consequence: this monolith weighs about 8.3 kg and measures 110 x 17 x 7.7 cm, so allow some space on your furniture or wall before installation. A wall-mounting kit is included, along with two covers to conceal the cable channels on either side. The Stage seems above all designed to sit against a wall, though its height remains restrained enough for placement on a TV stand.

Wired connectivity is not the most generous, but the essentials are here: beneath the bar sit an HDMI input, an HDMI output compatible with eARC, a 3.5 mm mini-jack input and two RJ45 ports — one for the local network, one to link an LG C9 television for advanced integration with the Beoremote One remote. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 handle wireless duties. Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and Atmos streams are supported; DTS:X is not.

Initial setup is quick and simple provided you have a Google account, as the Bang & Olufsen app hands over directly to Google Home — a curious choice, since that interface is usually reserved for products with direct Google Assistant access, which this bar lacks. Users without a Google account do get alternatives, via an RJ45 connection or Apple's WAC configuration on iOS. Past that small surprise, the experience is fluid and pleasant, though newcomers should set aside time to learn the app's many possibilities — all the more important because everything rests on the mobile app and a few touch buttons on the bar itself. Devotees of the good old conventional remote will be left wanting, unless they pay a further substantial sum for the maker's complete and pleasant Beoremote One, which regrettably is not supplied as standard.

Customisation options certainly abound in the app: each listening mode (TV, Music, Film, Night and so on) can be configured with its own equalisation profile and functions such as upmixing or virtual surround, and modes can be assigned to individual sources for automatic switching. Further options set default and maximum volume, add an alarm, toggle Chromecast, display information about the current audio stream and control the LEDs.

The multimedia possibilities are fairly varied: AirPlay 2, Chromecast, DLNA and Spotify Connect are all supported, alongside B&O's own BeoLink multiroom. No connection or usage problems arose across these protocols in the published test, and apart from a few small omissions and French translation slips, the interface is intuitive and responsive. Direct in-app access to streaming services is more limited, though: beyond Spotify Connect, you must make do with Deezer and TuneIn web radio.

Eleven drivers handle reproduction: the centre channel groups four 4-inch woofers, two 1.5-inch units and a 0.75-inch tweeter, while the left and right channels each carry a 1.5-inch woofer and 0.75-inch tweeter. On first contact the Beosound Stage stands out for a rather rich delivery. It produces very deep bass without any dedicated subwoofer, reaching down to 35 Hz for a solid foundation, and extension at the top of the spectrum is very good too, giving a fine sense of space and air and a fair perception of subtle effects. Left untouched, the midrange sits naturally forward, guaranteeing excellent vocal separation at the cost of a slightly nasal tinge; the app's equaliser can partly correct that imbalance without eliminating it. There is also a very handsome power reserve — generous listening levels are comfortable even in a good-sized living room of 15-20 m² — and the bar is audibly happier mounted against a wall than standing on furniture, where presence and spatial reproduction both improve.

Extended listening reveals the weaknesses, some anecdotal, some genuinely frustrating. The extreme low end enjoys lovely depth but suffers a real precision deficit, largely down to poorly managed distortion: even at reasonable volume, overhang is frequent, producing unlovely resonances and masking effects across the bass and lower mids. The behaviour is clearly audible after an explosion or on kick-drum hits, and in complex action scenes or bass-rich music it becomes difficult to pick individual sources apart. Trimming the low frequencies softens the problem but quickly costs depth and foundation. Distortion also intrudes on the mids and highs, lending the treble a sharp, almost glittering edge as soon as the volume rises — and the equaliser cannot erase it. The upshot is that the bar's substantial power reserve is only marginally usable, which is a great pity.

Stereo staging is handled rather well: the image spreads generously in width, just beyond the physical limits of the bar, somewhat less in depth, and immersion is perfectly respectable. Push further, though, and the limits return. Virtual spatialisation of 5.1 and higher signals is particularly timid — the stage widens more than with plain stereo, but genuine lateral envelopment never arrives, still less anything behind you. Atmos is more disappointing yet: barely a hint of elevation is felt, even on mixes deliberately spectacular in that regard, and positioning the bar differently changes nothing. The maker's algorithm is still far from compensating for the absence of dedicated height drivers — something rivals of its era managed with real skill.

Given the Beosound Stage's ambitions, it is hard not to be a little disappointed by its sonic performance. The bar certainly provides real listening pleasure, but a markedly more impressive and better-controlled sound was expected — particularly in virtual spatialisation and Atmos, the maker's headline argument for this model. That is all the more frustrating because the user experience it offers is relatively complete and genuinely agreeable.