Bang & Olufsen has gone all out with the newest editions of its flagship Beolab 90 speaker. This titanic piece of audio equipment sits at the top of an impressive product roster, with a pair starting from €167,200. Yet, above the ‘regular’ edition are those offered through B&O’s Atelier customisation programme; higher still is B&O’s five-part Atelier centenary series, a collection of five editions that have doubled down on craft, design and materials.

We’ve already explored the Beolab 90 Titan Edition but there have also been Shadow and Mirage Editions of the 90s, as well as a speaker created in collaboration with Berluti. Now Bang & Olufsen has launched the final two in the series, the Beolab 90 Monarch Edition and Beolab 90 Zenith Edition.

The Zenith Edition is perhaps the most theatrical, with its six triangular panels each containing no less than 289 anodised aluminium spheres in seven different finishes. The overall effect is of a shimmering collection of surfaces, enhanced with a pearl-blasted aluminium fascia and mother-of-pearl inlays on the top of the speaker.

In contrast, the Beolab 90 Monarch Edition is more of an obvious homage to B&O's midcentury influences and origins. Working closely with a long-standing Danish supplier of woods, the Monarch Edition features angled rosewood lamellas and aluminium components.

The former have been hand-carved and angled to follow the many twists and turns of the cabinet, culminating in a solid rosewood top ring. The aluminium is given an ochre-coloured finish to align with the natural wood.

Wallpaper* spoke to Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre, senior director of design at Bang & Olufsen, about the challenges of ultra-high-end hi-fi, and how the company’s industrial design is shaped and guided to facilitate these collaborations.

Wallpaper*: To what extent was the Beolab 90 originally designed to act as a showcase for different material and craft approaches? Was it always the intention or has it evolved?

Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre: Most of our products are designed to meet specific lifecycle management requirements. This is particularly important for our Beolab-speaker portfolio, as these products remain on the market for up to ten years, or often longer in the case of Beolab 90. To support this longevity, we developed a modular system that is applied across a wide range of products.

When designing speakers – including Beolab 90 – we do not define every future expression from the outset. Instead, we establish a strong architectural and acoustic foundation, with modularity and upgradability built in as a deliberate enabler. This design approach allows the product to evolve over time – opening up for new material interpretations and craft expressions – while remaining anchored in its original design and performance intent.

W*: How were the design partners chosen for these material experiments?

KBK-B: All Beolab 90 Editions are conceived and developed by our in-house design team. Crafting these pieces requires a very close collaboration between design and engineering, where we continuously balance performance with form. For each edition, almost every element is reconsidered in terms of geometry, materiality, and assembly.

This means every part goes through an iterative process of testing and refinement to ensure it meets the strict technical requirements of Beolab 90 – and our speakers in general. Having all disciplines under one roof allows us to fully engage with that complexity, so we can explore new material directions while ensuring they are seamlessly integrated into our product’s acoustic performance and overall integrity.

W*: What were the acoustic challenges with the Zenith materials?

KBK-B: The Beolab 90 Zenith truly pushed the boundaries. We had no recipe for turning a 2D pattern into a 3D execution and therewith no established principle for the aluminum sphere panel. It's something we had never done before, and that was certainly challenging, but even more so, really exciting.

To integrate these panels, we first developed a wide range of parametric patterns and tested different sphere diameters to find the right balance between acoustic transparency and a strong visual expression. Once we were satisfied with the design, the challenge shifted to realizing in a robust and reliable way that would still guarantee the flawless sound that Bang & Olufsen stands for. That led us to develop a special mounting method that eliminates any risk of unwanted noise, what we call rub and buzz, while still supporting the complexity of the design.

From an acoustic perspective, the final – and perhaps biggest – challenge was mounting these sculptural panels in front of the woofers. Lower frequencies are less affected by what sits in front of the driver, but they move a significant volume of air during playback, so the spheres have to sit extremely firmly to avoid influencing audio quality.

That meant ensuring every single sphere stayed completely stable under those conditions while also keeping the system practical to assemble. After many iterations, we ended up with a very time-consuming manual mounting process that takes one of our technicians an entire week to assemble all six covers, but it provides the stability we need without compromising performance.

So, in the end, the most demanding part of the process was finding the right balance between long-term stability, acoustic performance, and the original design intent. But we’re happy to say we achieved exactly that. And this is perfectly aligned with our core values at Bang & Olufsen of thinking differently and constantly finding new ways to push boundaries.

W*: How long has B&O worked with the wood company? Is this the most wood ever used in a B&O product?

KBK-B: Since 1949, Bang & Olufsen has worked with the same Danish wood supplier for the Beolab 90 Monarch, reflecting a decades-long relationship built on trust and shared expertise. Their expertise played a key role in achieving the distinctive look we envisioned for the Monarch Edition.

We selected an exclusive Rosewood Palisander for its deep colour and striking grain pattern, and to further showcase the richness of the material, we increased the size of the lamellas. That allowed the wood’s natural character to take on a more prominent and expressive role in the design, while also giving the speaker a stronger sense of solidity and a subtle nod to classic Danish furniture traditions.

Achieving this vision requires a high level of craftsmanship. Each lamella has its own unique geometry and producing them is remarkably complex because of the interplay between curves and angles. But that complexity is exactly what makes them so beautiful. When all the pieces are finally assembled, they form a seamless, wavelike surface that wraps around the speaker in a full 360 degrees.

I’m not sure if it’s the most wood ever used in a B&O product, but to me, it is undoubtedly our most exquisite creation – where exceptional craftsmanship and beautiful sound are harmoniously unified.

W* How important do you feel these material experiments are to B&O’s image? Are Atelier customers helping push the boundaries of the company’s design ethos?

KBK-B: Definitely. Our company has been guided for a century by our founder’s ethos from 1925: ‘a never failing will to create only the best and persistently to find new ways’. Atelier Editions gives this spirit form – driven by curiosity, embracing new materials, and a century of pushing boundaries with artistry.

Many of the inspiring ideas that circulate in Bang & Olufsen – ideas that would be difficult to realise in a traditional production series product – can find a home in Atelier Editions. It is a space where those concepts can become limited masterpieces for our most discerning clients and Bang & Olufsen enthusiasts around the world.

Beolab 90 Monarch Edition/Beolab 90 Zenith Edition: Pricing on request, starting at €480,000, £410,000, 454,200 CHF, Bang-Olufsen.com, @bangolufsen

Bang & Olufsen has announced the launch of a new circularity initiative, Reloved, a way of extending the life of its products for a new generation of listeners. Reloved is a new online platform devoted to selling a selection of ‘pre-owned, authenticated, and certified Bang & Olufsen originals’.

So far, so good, for B&O has always pitched itself towards the upper end of most audiophile budgets. The Danish company has also a long history of refurbishing its more iconic and complicated pieces via its Recreated Classics series, which includes turntables and CD players. In fact, the company has accommodated out-of-warranty repairs and refurbishments for well over 60 years, but Reloved extends this commitment to circularity.

The service starts with a focus on more contemporary products at a variety of price points. The initial ‘Reloved drop’ focuses on just five products: the Beoplay P2 and A2 portable speakers, the Michael Anastassiades-designed BeoSound Edge, the BeoSound 3000 CD player (David Lewis, 2000), with its distinctive ‘curtain’ opening mechanism, and the Beogram 2000 record player, originally designed by B&O mainstay Jacob Jensen and produced between 1974 and 1976.

Even though it’s drawing on products from across the decades, Reloved works on the basis of available parts, as well as what B&O calls ‘contemporary relevance’ – hence the appearance of both a record player and a CD player in the selection. More products will be added in the months to come.

Even though they’re fully functional and refurbished, every product in the Reloved series will be graded according to material condition (mint, excellent, or good) and will be covered by a three-year warranty. Dorte Vestergaard, who heads up the Reloved programme at Bang & Olufsen, describes the initiative as the ‘continuation of a story that began a century ago – a belief that design and sound should endure. This programme allows us to preserve our heritage by refurbishing our original pieces and helping them find new homes, ready to be loved again.’

Reloved is currently open to customers in the EU, UK, Norway, and Switzerland, with other countries due to be added next year. The aim is to put out monthly product drops, so keep checking the site.

Reloved products are available at Bang-Olufsen.com, @BangOlufsen

Over-ear headphones may still offer the richest, most immersive listening experience, but there are moments when scale and circumstance demand something smaller. Enter the new generation of wireless in-ear headphones: compact, precisely engineered, and increasingly sophisticated in both form and function.

It’s been nearly a decade since Apple’s first AirPods ushered in the era of untethered listening – an innovation that transformed how we move through the world with sound. Early iterations were imperfect, often prone to sound leakage and inconsistent audio quality, but the category has since evolved dramatically.

Today’s leading models pair airtight comfort with advanced noise cancellation, refined acoustics and smart design, though their diminutive proportions still impose practical limits – namely battery life, with most offering under eight hours of continuous playback before a recharge is required. Silicone and foam tips now deliver a more tailored fit and impressive sound isolation, though some listeners may still find prolonged wear less than effortless.

What we’ve tested

In this article, we’ve tested a selection of the best in-ear headphones, looking at elements such as comfort, sound quality, design, charge case, performance, software, and compatibility; every product has undergone extensive testing, and meets a quality benchmark that means we’re happy to recommend them to you.

Running Spotify Premium on the latest Android and iOS devices, we’ve tried out the following in-ear headphones:

• Apple AirPods Pro 2
• Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Eleven
• Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen)
• JBL Tour Pro 3
• Nothing Ear
• Sony WF-1000XM5

Whether you’re looking for the highest degree of comfort, a secure fit, ultimate sound quality, or the most effective active noise cancelling (ANC), these in-ear headphones provide an excellent choice, whatever your needs.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)

Apple AirPods Pro 2

Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Eleven

Sony WF-1000XM5

JBL Tour Pro 3

Nothing Ear

Bang & Olufsen takes a leap into the super-premium market with its newest flagship earbuds. At a price point that makes Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 look like a budget option, the Beo Grace earbuds promise class-leading audio quality matched with meticulous engineering and finishing.

These are not your typical mass-produced earbuds. Each Beo Grace is made from polished aluminium, as is the charging case. The company describes the earbuds as ‘a study in wearable sculpture’, and while we wouldn’t go quite that far, they have a polish and a presence that you won’t find in low-end devices, let alone in a typical branded pair.

Luxury doesn’t just mean the price point, it also means performance and durability. In the case of Beo Grace, the pearl-blasted aluminium finishes are paired with an acoustically advanced 12mm titanium driver. B&O’s own EarSense noise cancelling is now four times more effective than earlier iterations and the company has also incorporated Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos into the earbuds.

Battery life has been substantially improved. B&O has teamed up with Breathe, a UK-based start-up dedicated to improving battery performance through better monitoring and adaptive charging. This focus on 'battery intelligence' tailors energy use to each individual cell, improving both life and charge speed. For Beo Grace, the inclusion of a custom-designed battery management system has seen results of more than 2,000 charge cycles, more than four times the expected baseline.

As with all premium earbuds, the Beo Grace also offers gesture control, with the ability for users to control the volume by tapping just in front of the ear. Play controls require more force, with a touch and accompanying click to pause, play and skip back and forth, as well as switch between the noise cancellation and transparency modes. The latter uses the six high-precision microphones within the earbuds to create a striking, hiss-free soundscape that's intended to do away with the feeling of wearing earbuds altogether.

The fully charged Beo Grace earbuds should deliver 4.5 hours of listening, with the case adding an extra 12.5 hours. For another layer of tactile luxury, B&O offers a bespoke leather pouch for the charge case, available in Infinite Black, Cranberry Red and Seashell Grey.

Bang & Olufsen Beo Grace, £1,000 / €1,200 / $1,500, leather charge case pouch, £250, Bang-Olufsen.com, @BangOlufsen

It’s a beautiful June evening in Copenhagen. A light breeze drifts across the Nordhavn docks and ruffles the stand of firs and birches that fringe the edges of a new office block rising up at the end of Sundmolen pier. It would be a peaceful scene, but for the unmistakeable sounds of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Intergalactic’ emanating from deep within the building.

Welcome to a product launch of a different kind, courtesy of cutting-edge technical fashion brand Vollebak. Within the concrete walls of this impressive structure there’s a fashionable crowd, swelled by the ranks of the bright young things who work here, as well as some of the city’s finest and most inquisitive minds.

The building is BIG’s HQ, opened just over a year ago to provide the Danish studio with a fittingly bracing lab and location from which to deploy its trademark structural gymnastics and architectural pyrotechnics, courtesy of its wunderkind leader, the iconoclastic Bjarke Ingels.

Our focus is a small silvery craft parked up in the towering atrium, a vehicle that is about to be launched. Yet unlike a conventional rocket launch, there’s no countdown. Nor do we have to retire to a safe distance to avoid the blast.

This is the world debut of the Vollebak Spaceshop, an intriguing hybrid of material innovation, cinematic scope, excessive wattage and naked chutzpah. It’s perfectly on brand for the small but mighty tech-centric clothing company, founded in 2016 by twin brothers Nick and Steve Tidball. Both are here tonight, overseeing their next step into the future.

The Vollebak Spaceshop is a fusion of material science, out-of-this-world design and pure retail theatre. Designed by Copenhagen-based Saga Space Architects, the Spaceshop is essentially a retail concept on steroids (‘an ice cream truck on crack’, according to Nick Tidball), intended to be deployed around the world as the ultimate evolution of the pop-up shop.

It’s making its debut here in Copenhagen thanks to several solid Danish connections. For a start, there’s Vollebak’s ongoing work with Ingels. A few years ago, Nick approached the architect out of the blue to help shape a potential island retreat. They got on famously, although the project itself – a proposal for a ‘Vollebak Island’ off the coast of Nova Scotia – hasn’t yet made it off the drawing board. I wouldn’t bet against it.

Significantly, there’s another Great Dane in the mix. The other dimensional bass that fills the BIG HQ is provided by one of the most admired names in audio, Danish legends Bang & Olufsen. Instead of rockets, the Spaceshop packs more than 12,000 watts of power, courtesy of four Beosound 2 speakers at the front and four Beolab 5 ‘boosters’ at the rear. Total output? Well over 12,000 watts and around 120 decibels. That’s not the kind of noise you want to be around for long (although the launch of Nasa’s Saturn V generated sounds of this magnitude at a distance of 1.5 miles).

All this power makes for a great party, even if it won’t get you into orbit. Spaceshop’s mission is of a different kind, to create the dazzling glow of publicity as it introduces Vollebak to new territories and new customers.

Mission designer Saga Space Architects is also based in Copenhagen. The consultancy firm, co-found by designer Sebastian Aristotelis, has very real space credentials – it works on lighting modules for the ISS and habitat designs for astronaut training. The Spaceshop, however, is more of a flight of fancy, albeit a highly informed one.

Carrying more than a hint of the craft from Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, or the video games Elite and Wing Commander, the Spaceshop is science fiction brought to life. Designed to slot into a standard shipping container, the craft is smaller in person than in pictures, especially when one considers the awe-inspiring scale of science fiction's most memorable ships, let alone the unimaginably empty void of space.

Whether or not Saga will be first in line as designers of the interstellar fleet of the future, as Nick seems convinced, is another matter. As it stands, the Spaceshop certainly fulfils its brief as an alien object that can touch down in any city around the world, loudly announce its presence and open up to display the clothing of tomorrow.

The original brief was simple – imagine a craft designed to resupply a Moon or Mars colony of the future. For Saga, whose interest lies in the infrastructure of space rather than the science of rocketry, Vollebak offered an opportunity to blend pure engineering with theatricality.

There are real, ongoing collaborations here, as well as the kind of materials science beloved by the Tidballs and their approach to clothing design. How did B&O get involved? Again, serendipity played a part. Tidball describes finding a sample of the company's anodised aluminium in a materials library and being intrigued by its rough, weathered texture, as if it had the patina of use.

‘It started as a happy accident,’ says Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre, B&O’s creative director of design. ‘We originally wanted a deep black surface, but something happened with the process that we didn’t understand.’ Could this be applied to a speaker? ‘It does actually look like something that’s been in and out of the Earth’s atmosphere,’ Krab-Bjerre admits, ‘we have perfected the imperfection.’

The result is a limited edition of the Beosound 2, similar in ethos to Bang & Olufsen’s recently launched Atelier service, only this time no two speakers are alike.

At this point, the stars aligned. Nick Tidball’s dream of a ‘spaceshop’, rather than a regular pop-up, became inextricably linked to the B&O edition when it was decided to include speakers in the sci-fi design. ‘The way Vollebak work with materials is very similar to what we do,’ says Krab-Bjerre. ‘Maybe they’re more expressive than how we were in the past, but we’re certainly becoming more daring.’

The surface of the Spaceshop is made from anodised aluminium, a process undertaken in Bang & Olufsen’s own workshops in Struer, about 270km to the west. Having agreed to anodise the panels of the Spaceshop itself, Krab-Bjerre found himself in the midst of complex logistics as bits of the installation went back and forth between Denmark’s west and east coasts.

So should we forget drop-shipping and try spaceshopping instead? This mission isn’t just about raising profiles and selling product. Nick Tidball sees the anodisation process as just one way of making clothing smarter. ‘Inevitably, over the next ten to 30 years, fabrics will be bathed in substances to give them different properties,’ he explains. ‘Our early material explorations lead you to the science. There are things like shielding fabrics that resist phone signals – we’re in the early zone of experimentation around conductivity.’

Pointing out that cotton has been used for 3,000 years, whilst nylon and polyester have been around for just over a century, Tidball explains how he wants Vollebak to operate on the fringes of material and fabric science.

To that end, the Spaceshop’s initial cargo includes Vollebak’s Martin Aerogel Jackets, constructed using the hypersonic parachute fabric created to land Nasa's Perseverance rover, as well as its ‘Full Metal Jackets’ made from copper thread (11km per jacket).

Launched alongside the speaker and Spaceshop is a small batch of new anodised jackets, available in red and grey. In keeping with the Vollebak philosophy, these began with an aesthetic and might ultimately end up with an application. ‘You put [one] on, and you feel like you’re in the original Blade Runner,’ Tidball enthuses. ‘It’s a material experiment – we’re trying to give birth to multi-decade ideas.’

The Spaceshop is a project that embraces all the facets of a modern multi-modal campaign, something that exists across social, physical, audio and visual media. In weaving together high-end brands with music, starchitects and science fiction, Vollebak is pushing boundaries both real and imagined.

For Saga's Sebastian Aristotelis, it was a rare chance to mix science with showmanship. ‘Nick is a difficult client, but one the best clients,’ he says. ‘He likes to take risks. He wanted it to be wilder, so we went through ten iterations of the design.’

The whole structure weighs in at just over a tonne, with the hefty speakers counterbalancing the long cantilevered ‘container’ at the front of the Spaceshop. ‘We wanted to keep it honest and raw, with the discoloration of the welding marks,’ says Aristotelis, who explains that the form was inspired by the idea of a separate container and engine unit coming together.

‘Running a company is like conducting an orchestra,’ Tidball tells me. ‘It’s like having a symphony in your head.’ This particular project spans disciplines, genres and scales quite unlike many other so-called ‘creative collaborations’, with an organic drive and authenticity at its heart.

Tidball’s own background hints at the origins of these grand gestures. After studying architecture at Newcastle, then at the Bartlett under Peter Cook, he went into advertising (as did Steve), overseeing big statement projects like Airbnb’s floating house. ‘I’m happy that we’ve practised doing clothes for eight years so that we can have a project like this – it’s what I personally believe is the future of retail.’

Funnily enough, the project brings to mind another iconic Danish brand (one that also has a Bjarke Ingels connection). In 1978, Lego introduced its first space-themed sets, including the 918 Space Transport. Suddenly, construction pieces like cones, cylinders and sirens took on other meanings, repurposed as rock parts, thrusters and boosters.

Vollebak’s Spaceshop is akin to a giant Lego set, demonstrating the power of play and imagination at work, all pointing to a future that’s both unknown and endlessly intriguing.

Vollebak.com, @Vollebak

Bang-Olufsen.com, @BangOlufsen

Saga.dk, @Saga_Space_Architects

Bang & Olufsen continues to leverage the bespoke abilities of its new Atelier program with the launch of a new finish, shown here on the Besound Level.

Beosound Level Frosted Green takes the minimal brilliance of the Level portable speaker and spritzes it up with a custom fabric cover featuring a shifting gradient of green. According to the company, the cover was ‘inspired by the shift from winter to spring, when green slowly returns to the world,’ with a transition that feels slightly pixellated.

Within this slender box are five speakers, placed in such a way that the level can be deployed either horizontally, vertically or even mounted on a wall. The Frosted Green edition pairs the new fabric with an aluminium frame that combines both polished and matte textures (‘mirroring the tension between frost and thaw’).

Bang & Olufsen’s Atelier editions mark a major departure for a company known for so long for its fervent adherence to minimal, modern and muted tones. The Atelier Limited Edition Beosound Level Frosted Green will be made in an edition of just 85 units, representing the part of Atelier dedicated to limited editions that showcase new approaches and traditional craftsmanship.

Inside the Beosound Level are sensors that adapt the device’s acoustic performance depending on its location in a room and its configuration. There’s an onboard 16-hour battery that allows it to be taken from room to room, or even outside, and like all B&O’s recent products, there’s a strong commitment to repair, reuse and recycling, with components that can easily be replaced or even upgraded.

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Level Frosted Green, €2500, an edition of 85 engraved and numbered pieces, available online and at selected stores, Bang-Olufsen.com, @BangOlufsen

The audio realm remains divided, with the convenience of streaming continuing to trump all over formats. That hasn’t stopped a steady progression of new devices aimed at adherents to old-school vinyl, CD and even cassette. In the world of speakers, bigger isn’t always better, but the most significant systems this year were about sculpture and form, not just their sonic signature. Read on to discover our ten favourite audio stories from 2024.

01. Brian Eno's Turntable II

Art or entertainment, or a mash-up of the two? Brian Eno’s Turntable II explored the realm of ambient light, with the newest version of the legendary producer, musician and artist’s on show at the Paul Stolper Gallery.

READ MORE

02. Revo SuperCD music system

It might not have the raw artistry of an Eno deck, but Revo’s ultra-functional SuperCD system made up for it in terms of function and joined the CD player revival. A simple wooden box that contains multitudes, it was the most convenient all-in-one device we saw all year.

READ MORE

03. Ruark R610 music console

Ruark continues to forge a path as a purveyor of both high-quality craft and high-end sound. Its newest console, the R610, condensed its warm, familiar approach into a neat table-top or shelf-based system.

READ MORE

04. Goldmund Pulp speakers

Designer Cécile Barani has paired with audio specialist Goldmund on several projects, including these compact Pulp speakers. We also admired her take on the Swiss manufacturer’s monumental Gaia speakers.

READ MORE

05. Nocs Monolith Aluminium speaker

Along with Transparent’s mighty Brutalist Speaker we had this architectural heavyweight, the Nocs Monolith Aluminium. For the music-loving minimalist.

READ MORE

06. Tom Fereday Cast Loudspeaker

Another foray into the art of extreme speaker design, industrial designer Tom Fereday paired with Tasmanian speaker maker Pitt & Giblin to create Cast, a mighty metal object that celebrates sound and material.

READ MORE

07. Fiio CP13 cassette player

High quality cassette players, especially portable ones, are still thin on the ground – advocates of analogue tape reckon the second-hand and refurb market is a much better bet for true fidelity. Still, new Fiio’s CP13 showed there was still life in the 60-year-old cassette format.

READ MORE

08. Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker

The Pill is mass-market sound design done well. We spoke to Apple’s Oliver Schusser about the speaker brand’s latest model.

READ MORE

09. Bang & Olufsen Beosystem 9000c music system

B&O continued to bang the drum for sustainable tech design with devices like the Beoplay H100 headphones. It also delved into its archive to create the 9000c, a stacking CD system that’s been reborn for the modern age.

READ MORE

10. Google Pixel Buds Pro 2

Finally, a recommendation for one of the year’s most dependable accessories, Google’s Pixel Buds. Now available in Pro 2 spec, they’re the in-ear choice for those who want to feel at one with their increasingly smart device.

READ MORE

December's festive season tends to come with an excuse to shop - for friends, family and ourselves. Gift buying is a true skill that might take a while to perfect, but one that once honed, is both fun and rewarding. Yet, even those better versed among us in its art sometimes need a little bit of inspiration; and it helps to remember that often the best present for somebody is one that the recipient is least expecting.

Wallpaper* Gift Guide: architecture & environment director Ellie Stathaki’s picks

The list below balances things and experiences, offering a blend where there's hopefully something for everyone - and I would certainly welcome every single thing on it. Whether you are looking for something for your days in or days out, something to eat or to learn, the perfect gift is out there; scroll down for some food for thought.

Gift Guide: ideas for 2024

We check out the latest in Bluetooth speaker style, including a trio of eccentric collaborations, from yacht builders to prog rockers and Danish fashion brands, plus three new devices that offer up new form factors and functionality.

Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5 and Beosound 2 Riva Edition

First up, yet another collaboration from those accommodating Danes. Bang & Olufsen’s newest partners (following a frequent hook up with Ferrari) is another Italian icon, this time Riva Yachts. The new Riva Edition versions of the Beosound A5 and Beosound 2 are speakers fit for the quayside, beach or above or below decks.

Riva is all about nautical glamour, with B&O taking on board the yacht and speedboat specialist’s well-established palette of materials, most notably mahogany, maple and aluminium. The speaker covers themselves have been made at the company’s shipyard in Sarnico, on the shores of Lake Iseo. You’ll also find splashes of Riva’s signature aquamarine blue to round off the connection between the two brands.

Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5 Riva Edition, €2,400/£1,999, Bang-Olufsen.com, RivaBoutique.it
Bang & Olufsen Beosound 2 Riva Edition, €5,000/£4,299, Bang-Olufsen.com, RivaBoutique.it

Heliot Emil x Monolith

This mighty new edition of the Nocs Design Monolith speaker comes courtesy of a partnership with Danish fashion brand Heliot Emil. Daniel Alm, founder of Nocs, explains that the new edition comes out of a ‘mutual fascination with the raw, industrial character of steel, and our shared commitment to modernism.’

The speaker, developed in collaboration with Heliot Emil’s creative director Julius Juul, pairs Nocs’ 5-way driver array with a case milled from a hefty chunk of stainless steel, hand-made and hand-finished in Sweden. A pure streaming experience, up t eight mighty Monoliths can be linked together for a colossal sonic experience.

Heliot Emil x Monolith edition x MONOLITH, £4,000, NocsDesign.com, HeliotEmil.com

Audio Pro T3+ Mikael Jepson Edition

Musician Mikael Jepson isn’t a household name outside of Scandinavia – his band, The Ark, was one of the region’s biggest rock bands. Whether or not you’re piqued by the histrionic Scandi-glam of the Swedish group is immaterial to your enjoyment of this Jepson-infused T3+ speaker from Audio Pro.

Building on the guitarist’s second career as an artist and designer, the compact Bluetooth speaker is a riot of very non-tech colours. Offering over thirty hours of playback, it’s a welcome diversion from the industry’s obsession with matt black and grey.

T3+ Jepson, Audio Pro, £ 180, AudioPro.com

Edifier D32 Tabletop

For a rather more retro experience, Edifier’s D32 is a desktop offering that takes visual cues from pre-war radiograms and even old school car interiors. The piano key selectors on the front, brown, black walnut and white and gold colour schemes and cloth-style grille conceal a thoroughly modern 60 watt three-speaker system. Apple AirPlay2 connectivity comes as standard, as does a USB and Aux connector, and there’s 11 hours of standalone playtime if you don’t want to keep it plugged in.

Edifier D32 Wireless Speaker £179.99, Edifier.com, Amazon.co.uk

Artizta Ferro

The Artizta Ferro speaker was successfully crowdfunded earlier this year. The cylindrical speaker actually contains a total of 10 speakers within its fluted form, six of which are active and four passive. At just 28cm high and 18cm in diameter, the Ferro packs a lot of power (130 watts) into a compact footprint. We especially like the traditional round volume dial – a welcome return to an analogue form that offers an instant snapshot of the output level. Battery life is around 21 hours.

Artizta Ferro, further details at Artizta.Audio

VQ Halo Speaker and Lantern

The VQ Halo Bluetooth speaker doubles up as a power bank and portable lantern. The British brand has come up with a simple concept that’s suitable for home or garden use, with added functionality that’ll come in handy at festivals and campsites.

The Halo offers up 22 watts of 360-degree sound, three-stage illumination for the lantern (full bright, reading mode and nightlight) in addition to a separate ‘candlelight’ mode, and IPX4 water resistance. It’s available in six very contemporary-sounding colourways, Sapphire Noir, Slate Chic, Crimson Radiance, Natural Elegance, Mint Majesty and Azure Ambiance.

VQ Halo Bluetooth Speaker, £69.99, MyVQ.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk

This is the second collection and collaboration between Danish audio specialists Bang & Olufsen and Ferrari, established purveyors of Italian sports cars. The duo’s debut collection, launched last August, focused on three key pieces of B&O gear that were then thoroughly Ferrari-ised, the Beoplay H95 headphones, Beoplay EX earphones and the Beosound Explore portable speaker.

With sound taken care of, it’s now the turn of vision. The new made-to-order collection consists of another three contemporary Bang & Olufsen icons, the Beolab 50 speaker, Beosound Theatre Soundbar and Beovision Theatre TV. For the Ferrari edition, each component takes on a subtle but unmissable element of Ferrari’s signature red, along with an overall charcoal Grigio Corsa colourway.

For our second collection together, we wanted to pay tribute to aluminium, which is a hallmark material of both our brands,' says Bang & Olufsen CEO Kristian Teär. 'The result is pioneering sound and vision that blurs the line between Italian passion and Danish elegance.' Beolab 50 and Beosound Theatre now incorporate aluminium lamellas, or fins, for the first time, further enhancing the fluid, organic shapes of the speakers and soundbar.

The latter contains twelve custom drivers placed to fill a room with sound. Dolby Atmos surround is included. The Grigio Corsa painted object has the Bang & Olufsen logo silk-screened onto the glass top surface, with a laser engraving prancing horse to remind you of the Ferrari tie-in.

Beolab 50 are compact freestanding speakers, designed to pair with sources like televisions, turntables and streaming boxes. Beolab 50 is designed with adaptive sound delivery, an 'adjustable acoustic lens,' that targets the sound depending on the size of the audience. This means that solo listeners get their own precisely directed sound beam, while a room full of people opens the soundscape out to fill the available space.

Ferrari's involvement is highlighted by a single red vertical lamella down the front, paired with the jet-black speaker fabric and precision-milled Grigio Corsa aluminium lamellas on the sides. The acoustic lens itself bears the Ferrari logo.

Finally, there's the Beovision Theatre Ferrari Edition, a 4K television with build in Dolby Atmos surround sound. Available in three screen sizes, 55”, 65” and 77”, the television is entirely formed from aluminum, with just a hint of red covering the tweeter ring, concealed behind the array of aluminium lamellas on the front speaker system. The motorised stand and Beoremote One are also finished in matching Grigio Corsa aluminium.

Beolab 50 Ferrari Edition speakers, £75,000 the pair, Beosound Ferrari Edition Theatre Soundbar, from £15,000, Beovision Ferrari Edition Theatre with stand and Beoremote One, from £20,700

Available at Bang & Olufsen Stores, Bang-Olufsen.com, @BangOlufsen

Bang & Olufsen's Beoplay H100 headphones are the new flagship personal audio product from the Danish masters. After thoroughly conquering the world of upscale hi-fi, B&O started making headphones in the late 1970s and only diversified into wireless systems in 2015 with the BeoPlay H8. With the new H100, the company was starting from an enviable position, with products that continue to be admired and coveted.

‘We are very much defining our own targets and challenges,’ admits Tiina Karjalainen Kierysch, Bang & Olufsen’s head of design, ‘comfort is a big focus, as is creating an immersive sound experience. But it’s also about modularity [of design].’ The latter, which allows components to be upgraded and replaced to prolong the life of the device, can be tricky to achieve with headphones and their tightly packaged electronics.

‘We started modular design with larger products like speakers,’ Kierysch says. ‘Now we have a couple of user-replaceable parts, like the inner headband, which gets a lot of wear and tear. This can now be removed and washed or even replaced. Likewise, the H100’s inner earcups are detachable, using magnets.’

The new Beoplay H100 certain maintain B&O’s high audio benchmark in addition to marking this milestone on the company’s route to circularity. With the modular design approach ensuring user-friendly replaceable parts and components, there’s also a software platform that’ll evolve and update over time. Throw in the optional five-year warranty and you have a pair of headphones that should endure for decades.

Another aspect of the modular design is the bond it brings between the company and user. ‘It’s a little bit captivating for consumers to be able to look inside the product,’ Kierysch says. ‘You’ll also find a little secret hidden message from our founder.’ Other key serviceable parts include the circuit boards, drivers and batteries.

Design-wise, the H100s continue the company’s rich tradition of quality and simplicity. The aluminium-framed headphones have a textile headband and lambskin leather earpads, with tech including Dolby Atmos and B&O’s own adaptive audio processing, EarSense. ‘We work with material circularity in many ways,’ says Kierysch, adding that B&O began its collaboration with the Cradle to Cradle Institute several years ago to help drive sustainable product development.

Relatively easily recyclable materials like aluminium are a start, but as Kierysch says, ‘we can always improve. It’s the same with plastics’. She continues, ‘There’s something interesting about the new biobased materials, for example. We love working with materials for their specific characteristics.’

Bang & Olufsen’s head of product circularity and portfolio planning, Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, explains that the company has ‘prioritised longevity, maintenance and repairability through modular design… the headphones can adapt and evolve with new technologies for a truly timeless design.' Hansen hopes the headphones will get approval on the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard, becoming the third B&O product to get the nod.

All this ties in nicely with a revival of interest in longevity, patina, and a less clinical, warmer relationship with our technology. ‘Natural materials often age very beautifully,’ says Kierysch. ‘The patina can tell a story about itself. The H100s are operated via a touch interface on each side, while there are no fewer than ten microphones to compute the noise-cancelling algorithm, along with a twistable dial to raise or lower the transparency effect. Finally, the H100s can detect when they’re being worn or removed so there’s no need to switch them on or off.

Finally, there’s format. A pair of headphones is format agnostic, of course, and B&O’s recent output has included remastered versions of classic record players (the Beogram 400 Series) and even the 9000c multi-CD player. Does the company track trends in how customers listen to music? ‘We pay attention, for sure,’ says Kierysch, ‘LPs are a very clear trend, especially amongst musical artists. Perhaps CDs are not there yet, but the 9000c was quite an unconventional icon. We changed the CD player from a black box to showing off CDs as art. Might there be a way of doing this for streaming? Maybe.’

Ultimately, the H100 headphones tap into a growing desire to preserve and maintain the best examples of technology for as long as possible. ‘I believe that over time, longevity will become more and more relevant,’ Kierysch says. ‘New materials will only be used if they last. At Bang & Olufsen, we want to move away from products becoming obsolete too quickly. Our products are made to last and keep.’

Beoplay H100 in Infinite Black, Hourglass Sand and Sunset Apricot, £1,299 / €1,499 US$1,549 / CA$2,199, from Bang & Olufsen stores or Bang-Olufsen.com, @BangOlufsen

Bang & Olufsen is one of many high-end brands engaged with a creative rediscovering of their past. The Danish audio brand's Recreated Classics series takes icons from the past and updates them for the modern era. The programme started with the reboot of the celebrated 4000c turntable, first revisited in 2020, then as part of the limited edition Beosystem 72-22 music system in 2022. 

Beosystem 9000c joins Bang & Olufsen’s Recreated Classics

Now there's another revival in town. This is the Beosystem 9000c music system, a meticulous update of the 1990s-era Beosound 9000 CD player. In the pre-streaming era, the 9000's stack of six discs allowed you to cue up hours of music, with B&O's trademark theatrical mechanisms on show in the form of the moving CD clamper. 

Designed by the late British industrial designer David Lewis, who oversaw many of B&O's designs during the 1980s and 1990s, the player was unique in the way that it exposed the discs, normally hidden away inside the mechanism of the player. The motorised glass lid was another vivid illustration of Bang & Olufsen's 'magical' approach to product design.

The Beosystem 9000c includes a pair contemporary Beoloab 28 speakers, making this a sophisticated all-in-one system for those of us still wedded to our sizeable CD collections. In fact, with the digital disc making something of a comeback amongst collectors and musicians alike, the new Beosystem 9000c is perfectly placed to go straight to the top of every CD aficionado's wishlist.

They’ll have to be quick. The manufacturing process began with sourcing 200 examples of the original Beosound 9000 units and brining them back to Bang & Olufsen’s facility in Struer, Denmark. Here the company’s technicians stripped each unit down to clean, repair and replace (where necessary) every single component. The original workbenches were brought back into use, with some long-standing technicians even reliving their role in bringing this elegant CD player to life once again.

Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, head of Product Circularity & Portfolio Planning at Bang & Olufsen, describes the Recreated Classic series as a way of 'showcasing how Bang & Olufsen’s unique capabilities within sound, design and craftsmanship are creating long-lasting, circular products. We want to demonstrate that a second-life product can be just as attractive as a new product and that a high-quality item such as the Beosound 9000 doesn’t need to have an end date,' he continues.

In addition to the six-CD charger, the Beosound also incorporated an AM/FM tuner. Additional sources are catered for by the Beolab 28s, the Beoremote One remote control and B&O's own smartphone app, which allows music streaming services and wireless playback through the speakers via Airplay 2, Chromecast or Bluetooth 5.0.

The restoration process reversed the original colourway of the Beosound 9000 and paired it with new aluminium lamellas on the cylindrical form of the Beolab 28 sculptural speakers. Black and natural aluminium finishes abound, offset by the red LED display of the CD player. 

'We also wanted to celebrate the revival of physical media that has taken place in recent years,' says Hansen. 'Vinyl and CDs have returned to being something special, where people invest time and energy to connect with the music and artists they love. Longevity in design and the passion for music listening are essentially what we are celebrating with the launch of Beosystem 9000c. It is all about keeping listening choices alive.'

Beosystem 9000c, 50,000 EUR / 45,000 GBP / 55,000 USD, limited to 200 units, available from Bang & Olufsen's new flagship Mayfair store, further information at Bang & Olufsen, Bang-Olufsen.com, @BangOlufsen.com

MonoNeon is a Grammy-winning American musician, best known for his innovative and experimental approach to bass playing. As well as working with Prince, George Clinton and Nas, the prolific artist has worked across rock, jazz and psychedelic music, with a bold visual style to complement his unconventional technique.

MonoNeon brings colour to the Beosound A9

Now MonoNeon (real name Dywane Thomas Jr) has teamed up with Bang & Olufsen to create a speaker that references his eclectic approach. This limited-edition Beosound A9 takes MonoNeon’s personal aesthetic and translates it into a dizzying patchwork pattern that appears to explode from the centre of the A9’s circular form, turning the sculptural speaker into a piece of audio art.

For the musician, it was an opportunity to create a synesthesia-like effect. ‘Whenever I see a painting, I can interpret it musically,’ he says, ‘For some people, it may be just a picture, but I look at it thinking: “I can play that”. I wanted the speaker to be able to play without playing. Bringing me inspiration and telling me a story just by looking at it.’

Bang & Olufsen’s previous collaborators include Danish Studio Norm Architects, but this is the first time the company has explicitly reached out to a recording artist. 

The Beosound A9 is a perfect canvas for self-expression. The freestanding speaker rests on three sturdy oak legs, with its circular form containing seven room-filling drivers. The regular model is available in a number of coloured fabric finishes, including Kvadrat wool. In addition to featuring on a limited-edition model, the cover can be bought separately for existing A9 owners.  

Beosound A9 in collaboration with MonoNeon, Bang-Olufsen.com, cover available separately for £450

If only electronics were for life and not just for Christmas. The relentless pressure to upgrade and enhance, plus the lack of repairability are the Achilles’ heel of too much modern technology. Our top 10 audio products of 2023 err towards the long-lasting, combining high-quality sounds and well-crafted hardware.

Top 10 audio of 2023: Jonathan Bell’s picks

01. The Dark Side of the Moon Turntable

Pro-Ject’s Dark Side of the Moon turntable is an intriguing 50th-birthday spin on Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece.

READ MORE

02. Tivoli SongBook

Tivoli’s rugged SongBook range adds an authentically rugged edge to the Bluetooth speaker genre, with the added bonus of a built-in guitar amp.

READ MORE

03. Ruark Audio R410

Ruark’s impeccably stylish R410 is at home in the smartest interior, with walnut finishes and a huge range of audio sources to choose from. 

READ MORE

04. Linn Sondek LP12-50 turntable

A passion project combining Jony Ive’s love of vinyl with Linn’s long-standing classic, the LP12-50 is a supremely stylish way of celebrating a half century. 

READ MORE

05. Wrensilva Standard HiFi Record Console

Another entrant in the hi-fi-as-furniture category, Wrensilva’s hand-made teak Standard HiFi Record Console will hook with Sonos and add warmth to any room. 

READ MORE

06. Loutd Musegg speaker

Austrian manufacturer Loutd piqued our interest with the upgradeable Musegg, a standalone speaker that stood out in our round-up of sculptural soundmakers.  

READ MORE

07. Nocs Mini speaker

Nocs in another company investing in solid hardware that encourages longevity and repairability. The Nocs Mini is the company’s latest Bluetooth device. 

READ MORE

08. Bang & Olufsen Beolab 8

B&O’s approach needs no introduction, and the Beolab 8 is just one of a range of devices that look as good as they sound. The Danish legend delivered yet again with the wooden-finned Beolab 8.

READ MORE

09. Denon PerL Pro earbuds

Of all the earbuds that crossed our desks in 2023, Denon’s PerL Pro were both sleek looking and exceptionally advanced. The Adaptive Acoustic Technology tailors the sound for your ears. 

READ MORE

10. A.bsolument Prodige Bluetooth speaker

A.bsolument’s Prodige speaker was a pleasant diversion from the status quo, featuring Focal components and a minimal, recycled aluminium fascia. 

READ MORE

The new Bang & Olufsen London showroom on New Bond Street is the Danish sound brand's flagship space in the city, immersing their high-tech, cleverly-designed sound objects in a world of culture and sustainability. The space was conceived to showcase the full range of Bang & Olufsen's products, but also to create a bridge with the local creative community and establish a culture of collaboration and creativity. 

Step inside the new Bang & Olufsen London showroom

Set over three floors, the space was sensibly designed by the Bang & Olufsen team, led by Nikolaj Bebe, with a focus on modularity and display systems in wood and aluminium, that can adapt to the store's evolving needs and also be disassembled after use. Among the space's defining elements are a bespoke shelving units fitted with LED lighting, and a series of curving wooden panels that offer a plethora of dynamic displaying possibilities along the walls. 

'Since 1925, Bang & Olufsen has brought magical experiences to the lives of people all over the world,' says the company's CEO, Kristian Teär. 'We wanted to extend this feeling to our new London flagship store by becoming the destination where you can hear, see, and feel the magic of Bang & Olufsen, experience our products and unique heritage.'

The ground floor is the customer's first approach to Bang & Olufsen, with the brand's most popular portable products (including headphones and portable speakers) on display, and a more intimate private area at the back with modernist-inspired furniture designed by Bebe and his team. 

For the London opening, the Danish company commissioned London maker James Shaw, who created two benches for the space. based on recycled plastic extrusions, Shaw's work fittingly embodies Bang & Olufsen's considered approach to circularity and the collaboration with Shaw is a first step towards a wider conversation with the local creative community. The space will in fact serve as a canvas for a series of cultural initiatives including live music events, podcasts recording, streamed panel discussions and art exhibitions. 

The lower ground floor is dedicated to a unique sound experience: accessed through an aluminium staircase and a soft pink antechamber, the space is a 'sensorium for the ultimate sound experience.' Kvadrat curtains enclose the space, which features soft carpeting and special, paper-based and recyclable sound proof coating to ensure a pristine sound effect. Here, customers can explore Bang & Olufsen's ultimate sonic experience and immerse themselves in the cutting edge sound technology. 

The first floor, meanwhile, is dedicated to Bang & Olufsen's bespoke offering, with an apartment-like setting overlooking Bond Street and allowing customers to explore the infinite possibilities of the company's customisation opportunities. 

'A strong retail presence in cities such as New York, Paris, and London is key to our future growth, and we will continue to expand our footprint in other key cities in the years to come,' says Sidonie Robert-Degove, Head of Global Retail at Bang & Olufsen. 'We have had a strong commitment to London for years, and our new flagship store complements our existing presence in the city, including Harrods and Selfridges. With our global network of more than 400 Bang & Olufsen branded stores, we have a unique opportunity to give our customers a full product and brand experience like no other in our industry.'

Bang & Olufsen
72 New Bond Street
W1S 1RR

bang-olufsen.com

The Bang & Olufsen Beolab 8 is much smaller than the other speakers in the prestigious Beolab range – think sculptural objects that form a real focus in a room. Instead, the company has chosen to make its newest standalone speaker a compact affair, allowing it to be as versatile as possible, without compromising the strong aesthetics that define its siblings. 

'Drawing inspiration from the high-end Beolab range, our aim for Beolab 8 was to distil the acoustic essence of these impressive speakers into a compact offering,' says Michael Henriksson, B&O's vice president of product marketing. ‘Beolab 8 is a scalable speaker that is all about flexibility, performance, and innovation and fulfils our goal of creating powerful and immersive listening experiences for our customers.' 

As with all contemporary Bang & Olufsen equipment, the Beolab 8 has been crafted with longevity in mind. Available with either Danish manufactured wooden lamellas or a fabric front wrapped around a one-piece aluminium body, the speaker has been designed to be updateable (with a replaceable streaming module) and completely repairable, as well as using materials and surfaces that will patinate over time. 

It's rare to find a piece of electronic equipment that's been designed with these so-called 'Cradle-to-Cradle' principles, but the fact that the Beolab 8 can combined with older speakers from the company to form a home cinema set-up shows that longevity is very much a core part of how the company does business.

The Beolab 8's portability makes extra-good use of the Room compensation mode, which 'tunes' the speaker depending on where it's placed to optimise the sound distribution. It can even use your phone location to create a special 'acoustic sweet spot' right where you're sitting.  

Controls are set beneath a glass-covered interface on the top of the speaker, or you can use the Bang & Olufsen app, and there are four different stand options depending on whether the Beolab 8 will sit on a table or be mounted on a ceiling. A full wireless connectivity suite allows you to stream practically anything through this finely crafted, compact device, and you can also wire it up to existing systems as well. 

Beolab 8, available in Silver / Natural Aluminium, Gold Tone or Black Anthracite, with speaker covers in oak, light oak, dark oak, or fabric, £2,199, Bang-Olufsen.com

Bang & Olufsen is no stranger to collaboration. The Danish audio brand has worked closely with both consumer electronics brands and car makers to bring its audio know-how into everything from HP laptops to Lamborghinis. This, however, is a different kind of partnership. 

The Bang & Olufsen Ferrari Collection sees one of the most fabled automotive symbols of all time attached to the meticulous geometric forms of Bang & Olufsen's most accomplished model, the Beosound 2 home speaker. There are also new Ferrari-branded versions of three key pieces of portable audio, the Beoplay H95 headphones, Beoplay EX earphones and the Beosound Explore portable speaker.

We spoke to Bang & Olufsen’s SVP business development & brand partnering, Christoffer Østergaard Poulsen, about the genesis of this collaboration and what it means for both brands. 

‘It’s been in talks for quite a while,’ Poulsen admits from the company’s HQ in Struer, Denmark. ‘Ultimately it’s a strategic partnership that goes further than these products. We always look to build long-term relationships.’ 

For now, Bang & Olufsen X Ferrari is represented by these four devices, led by the flagship Beosound 2. ‘With this collection, we wanted to address sports GT owners, which is an interesting segment for us as a brand, as well as fans of Ferrari,’ Poulsen explains. While the Beosound 2 is one of the company’s most premium products, the headphones and portable speaker are far more affordable, tapping into Ferrari’s vast global fanbase, all hungry for merchandise of all shapes and sizes. 

Naturally, the dominant colour is red, although this is not just a straight application of Ferrari’s famed Rosso Corsa. Paired with anodised black and laser-etched logos, it gives B&O's aluminium finish a rich lustre. 

Beosound 2 is the supercar of speakers, designed to be placed somewhere where it will be noticed, as well as heard. A carefully polished aluminium body gives the red a deep lustrous finish, with a subtle prancing horse set beneath the grille. 

It's joined by the special edition of the Beoplay H95, Bang & Olufsen’s flagship headphones. Here the red has been reduced to a subtle accent in the titanium speaker grilles, with laser-etched logos. Finally, there is the Beosound Explore portable speaker and the Beoplay EX wireless earphones.  

‘You could go out and design a completely new speaker, but that would of course take years,’ says Poulsen. ‘We’re lucky to be in a position where our designs are so good that people want to work with us. This project is where two great design institutions meet.’ 

As Poulsen notes, this is the start of a long partnership, and nothing has been ruled out. 'Maybe there could be something available exclusively for Ferrari owners – who knows?' he says. 'We know there's a lot of overlap between our customers.' 

Although Poulsen's personal preference for favourite model is the brutish 1987 Ferrari F40, he acknowledges that both brands have created era-defining designs that continue to resonate many years later.

Bang & Olufsen Ferrari Collection, Beosound 2: £4,449, Beoplay H95: £1,149, Beoplay EX: £449, Beosound Explore: £219, available from Bang-Olufsen.com, Store.Ferrari.com

Bang & Olufsen unveils its new Beosound A5 portable speaker, designed by Copenhagen-based, Danish-Italian architecture studio GamFratesi. Founders Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi were already very familiar with Bang & Olufsen and
its close connections to the design industry when the legendary audio brand invited them to collaborate on the special-edition portable Bluetooth speaker. 

GamFratesi for Bang & Olufsen: Beosound A5

The designers’ light-filled studio, in Østerbro, is filled with prototypes and maquettes of recent work, including bentwood and rattan seating for Gebrüder Thonet, and the acclaimed ‘Beetle’ chair for Gubi, and the pair set about combining their ongoing material experimentations with a reverential look at Bang & Olufsen’s impressive archives. 

For Fratesi, the audio brand represents one of the touchstones of modern Danish design. ‘They have been so innovative, they create with simplicity, and their work is always of such high quality,’ he says.

Bang & Olufsen is no stranger to design collaborations, previously pairing up with the likes of Cecilie Manz, Michael Anastassiades and Layer. GamFratesi’s Beosound A5 speaker expands on the collaborative process and is available in two distinct colourways, Nordic Weave and Dark Oak. The former pairs aluminium with a woven paper fibre front panel and a light oak handle, while the latter uses black anthracite aluminium for the top and bottom, with dark oak for the speaker cover and handle.

‘We have a deep respect for the history and DNA of whoever we’re working with,’ says Fratesi. ‘We like to think about how to bring a brand with a rich tradition into the future.’ This collaboration involved delving into Bang & Olufsen’s extensive archives at its Jutland HQ. Key reference pieces included the Beolit 607 portable radio from 1961, and the Jacob Jensen-designed Beolit 800 and Beolit 1000 from the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the distinctive teak finish that gives the era’s hi-fi such a warm, contemporary feel.

While the recent Beosound Level drew on the linear aesthetic of the 800 and 1000, the Beosound A5 takes a more curvaceous route, an extruded pill-shape with a flat silicone top incorporating a wireless charging pad and a steam-bent wooden handle that tapers to meet the aluminium hinges at each end.

The primary finishes give the Beosound A5 two very different characters (‘being two people, we often picture two directions while working in the same universe,’ says Fratesi). Gam describes the knitted paper fibre of Nordic Weave as being ‘light, summery and feminine. Because it’s knitted like a textile, it works well for the transmission of music. The more challenging part was to control a material that was so alive.’ Many different weaves and colour ways were trialled to create the most elegant, durable and acoustically sound finish. The Dark Oak model uses a 3mm veneer to create a ‘solidity [that] still reads as wood on its edges’, according to Fratesi.

The Beosound A5 exemplifies Bang & Olufsen’s commitment to longevity and futureproofing. ‘We’ve seen that consumer electronics are lasting for shorter and shorter lifecycles, and we are looking into lowering the barriers for consumers of the future to keep their products for longer. Of course, quality plays a part, but we are talking about emotional durability, too,’ says Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, Bang & Olufsen’s senior global product manager for classics and product circularity. Hansen initiated the brand’s Cradle to Cradle initiative, which specifies that a Beosound A5 should have a minimum ten-year lifecycle, after which it can be upgraded should tech specs have changed. The rechargeable battery is accessible and front panels can be removed, not just for repairs and maintenance, but to change the A5’s appearance with new materials.

‘We’re interested in how pieces interact with their spaces,’ says Fratesi. ‘We didn’t just think about the speaker in terms of shape and proportion, but about how it would look on a table or shelf, and how it would communicate a feeling into your home.’

Beosound A5 in Nordic Weave, €999/$1,049; in Dark Oak, €1,099/$1,149, both by GamFratesi, for Bang & Olufsen

bang-olufsen.com
gamfratesi.com

Bang & Olufsen continues to celebrate its storied past with a limited-edition, US-only collectors edition of the Beogram 4000 Series turntable. Originally launched in 1972, the turntable marks its half century as part of a special Beosystem 72-22 music system.

The package teams the Jacob Jensen-designed turntable with a pair of Beolab 18 speakers and the Beoremote Halo remote control, with everything combined into a walnut gift box.

The last is a hand-crafted item designed to be reused as the stand and storage case for the system. 

The idea behind the reissue is to connect the decades, with a device that can play vinyl and stream via the Beolab 18 speakers.

The Beogram 4000c Recreated Limited Edition turntable is part of the Danish company’s ‘Recreated Classics’ initiative, delving into its rich product archives. 

The original Beogram 4000 turntable was one of 234 products that resulted from the three-decade partnership between Jensen and B&O. One of its major innovations was the tangential tonearm, which has its own horizontal movement that keeps the needle perfectly aligned with the groove.

Its sleek silver finish conceals sophisticated electronics that have been subtly upgraded – space had been left in the original design to accommodate future technology. When the company revisited the Beogram 4000c, it sourced 95 examples of the original turntable, and completely restored and renewed them with a new cartridge and preamp, as well as a new wooden frame. 

The Beolab 18 speakers are sculptural masterpieces, with hand-crafted oak lamellas that give the towering speakers a warm but commanding presence. The set is completed by the Halo remote, an elaborate desk or wall-mounted device that puts system functionality to hand.

Just 30 editions of the 72-22 will be made, exclusively for the North American market. They’re sure to find favour with Bang & Olufsen’s many collectors.

INFORMATION
Beosystem 72-22, more details at bang-olufsen.com

Bringing two brands together in a thoughtful and creative way is the aim of any collaboration. When those brands are at the top of their respective fields, the end results had better be pretty special. In its new collaboration with Berluti, the esteemed French leathermaker, Bang & Olufsen has been able to push the boundaries of its already impressive materiality, while still preserving the tonal brilliance that has defined the brand since it was established by Svend Olufsen and Peter Bang in 1925. As the nascent B&O was rolling out its first wireless sets, Alessandro Berluti’s company had just entered its third decade. Now part of LVMH, Berluti is headquartered in Paris but still retains manufacturing in northern Italy, specialising in exquisitely hand-tooled leatherwork. 

The new collection of six limited-edition products encompasses the whole suite of Bang & Olufsen’s current line-up, from small to large. The collection starts with the Beoplay H95 Berluti Edition, which transforms B&O’s first pair of wireless headphones into a luxurious object with a Venezia leather headband, embossed with the Maison Berluti logo. The H95s also fit into the special ‘Berluti Sound Pouch,’ a bespoke item made from the company’s Signature Canvas that will also hold the second-generation version of the Beosound A1 portable Bluetooth speaker, here shown in its special Berluti edition with dark brown calf leather cord and engraved aluminium. Offering up to 18 hours of battery life, the A1 is a superior piece of portable technology.

The collaboration reaches its acme with the Berluti edition versions of the Beosound Balance, Beovision Harmony and Beolab90. The former is the company’s acclaimed home speaker system, designed by Benjamin Hubert of Layer Design and fully integrated with Google Assistant and online streaming services. Berluti have given the elegant cylindrical form a new tactile surface with a hand-patinated brown leather base. The Balance can be paired with the Beovision Harmony, Bang & Olufsen’s flagship 77-inch 4K television. Incorporating a motorised floor stand, the Harmony is designed to fold down and become more discrete when not in use; the addition of Berluti leather panels enhances the TV’s sculptural qualities.

The star of the collaboration is the Beolab 90, Bang & Olufsen’s flagship speaker, an 8,200-watt titan that automatically adapts itself to the dimensions and acoustics of its surroundings and uses its faceted, angular form to disperse sound with power and precision. Patinated Venezia leather adds another dimension of handcraft to this bespoke piece of audio equipment. ‘Together with Berluti, we’ve brought the best of artisanship to the fore with our expertise in sound and design, and Berluti’s knowledge in leather craftsmanship,’ says Christoffer Poulsen, B&O’s SVP of Product, ‘the result is a truly remarkable collection.’ 

INFORMATION

Beoplay H95 Berluti Edition, £1,100
Beosound A1 2nd Gen Berluti Edition, £320
Berluti Sound Pouch, £450
Beosound Balance Berluti Edition, £3,200
Beovision Harmony Berluti Edition, £32,800
Beolab 90 Berluti Edition, £97,000

Bang & Olufsen, Berluti

A new generation of audio design puts overt technology on the back burner in favour of warm materials, simple forms and ultimate flexibility. We round up the best ways of bringing high-fidelity sound into your home with the ultimate levels of discretion and taste.

Bang & Olufsen BeoSound Level

The new Beosound Level is a portable speaker system and digital assistant that’s designed to be shifted around your space. With five speakers squeezed into a sleek flat box, the Level can be propped up, laid flat or even hung on the wall with a bespoke B&O stand. The device is also intended to be easily upgradeable in the future, from the 16-hour battery pack to the streaming module that handles the sound processing. In this respect, the Level represents a new approach for B&O, with an increased emphasis on improving the physical lifespan of its beautifully crafted objects while also acknowledging that modern devices frequently outlive the technology that drives them. Available in two colour ways, one with gold tone aluminium and European oak, the other with more conventional dark grey hues, the Level has echoes of the form factor of the classic Beolit 400 and 500 radios, both designed by Jacob Jensen. ‘We didn’t set out to create a retro product. We set out to solve a problem,’ says Richard Gavin Ivester, B&O’s Vice President of Design, ‘But we’re not sad that we ended up with a homage to earlier B&O products.’ 

Bang & Olufsen, Beosound Level, from £1,099, available from bang-olufsen.com

Bose Soundbar 300

Soundbars are also getting smarter, cramming digital assistants and multiple connection options into a fairly prosaic form factor. Bose’s Smart Soundbar 300 makes a marked difference to the audio output of even the most sophisticated flat panel TV, and makes up for the space it consumes by adding in multiple layers of function. These include Alexa voice, which can be used to control the TV itself, as well as pairing with other Bose products like headphones or Bluetooth speakers to increase the sonic footprint of your household. 

Bose Soundbar 300, £399.95, bose.co.uk

KEF KC62 subwoofer 

Regardless of the sophistication of your smart speakers, all music benefits from a bass boost. KEF’s new KC62 subwoofer will add the requisite punch to every scenario, from movies to music and games. Designed to match the discretely curved radii of KEF’s LS50 speaker range, the KC62 is available in both black and white, with an extruded aluminium case. There are also number of EQ modes to let you tune the sound according to the subwoofer placement.

KEF KC62 Uni-Core Force-Cancelling subwoofer, £1400 from uk.kef

Denon Home Soundbar 550

Another dose of sleek sound comes in the form of Denon’s new Home Soundbar 550. These lozenge-like speaker systems used to be simply for boosting the feeble sound of early flatscreen TVs, but as in-builts speakers have improved, the soundbar is fast become the method of choice for all forms of audio. The soundbar is compatible with Apple’s AirPlay 2, along with the software needed to ‘talk’ to the big names in home entertainment systems (the likes of Elan and Crestron). It’s also due to receive Alexa voice support. 

Denon Home Soundbar 550, £599, denon.co.uk

Unsurprisingly, Braun’s return to the audio market is marked by a pared-back, low-key approach. The LE01, LE02 and LE03 models offer three different sizes of smart speaker, from the large LE01 through to the LE03, a simple cube that eschews an excessively sculptural approach. All three sizes can be treated as standalones or paired up for stereo separation – there’s also a set of minimalist stands to elevate each model off the ground.  A limited edition LE03 is also available to celebrate Braun’s centenary in 2021.

Braun LE01 (£1099), LE02 (£749), LE03 (£349), braun-audio.com

Sound-Aesthetics Speakers

Taking a different tack to conventional speaker makers, Hague-based brand Sound-Aesthetics treat their devices as pieces of functional art. Their ‘frustum-shaped’ panel speaker systems are designed to be wall hung, with covers that feature interchangeable pieces of geometric art, carved from solid materials. Founded by the South Africa-born designer Albert de Graaf, Sound-Aesthetics’ minimalist products are set up for all the major streaming services and are operated via your smartphone, keeping their system as simple as possible. A new series of limited-edition architecture-inspired artworks, ‘Celebrating Sound’, have just been launched to bolster the range. 

Sound-Aesthetics, from €1690, sound-aesthetics.com

WINNER

Carácter antibacterial tiles, by Marazzi

A particularly timely product, Marazzi’s new Puro antibacterial technology for ceramic surfaces eliminates up to 99.9 per cent of bacteria and other harmful microorganisms. ‘Carácter’ is the first of three collections by the Italian tile manufacturer created using the innovative technology, a permanent treatment that provides continuous antibacterial protection throughout the life of the product surface, without the need for external activation agents such as UV radiation. Ideal for use in residential as well as commercial and public spaces, the stone-effect ‘Carácter’ tiles are suitable for indoor and outdoor floors and walls. In appealing natural tones, with a minimal or more pebbled appearance, the tiles are made from 40 per cent recycled materials, and come in a range of sizes. They also feature anti-slip technology called StepWise. Sophisticated design meets truly useful innovation in a product that will enhance any home.

marazzitile.co.uk; @marazziceramiche

SHORTLIST

As we are spending more time than ever at home, we seek comfort in the shape of pure sound (that also looks good to the eye), technological innovation to keep us safe and a bit of beauty to accompany our everyday habits – be them hand-washing or pouring the perfect cocktail

Beogram 4000c turntable, by Bang & Olufsen

Pioneering Danish electronics brand Bang & Olufsen has revived its iconic 1970s Beogram 4000c turntable. The first of a new initiative to reimagine classic products, the turntable is a testament to Bang & Olufsen’s capabilities in sound, design and craftsmanship as well as its commitment to product longevity. Having sourced 95 original turntables, the Bang & Olufsen engineers worked their magic in the same facility where the models were first created nearly five decades ago. They disassembled and cleaned the vintage designs, then upgraded some of the components, adding a touch-sensitive control panel and RIAA phono pre-amplifiers so that the turntables could be connected to modern speakers. The appearance too has been refreshed while maintaining the essence of the original model: the aluminium element has been polished in a warmer champagne tone, and the turntable now sports a hand-crafted wooden frame and a new cover.

bang-olufsen.com; @bangolufsen

JS50 and JS30 speakers, by Georg Jensen and Philips

For their second creative collaboration, classic Danish brand Georg Jensen and Dutch electronics powerhouse Philips have released a new collection of beautifully crafted audio products. The range includes a pair of pebble-shaped portable Bluetooth speakers, featuring Georg Jensen’s signature highly polished ‘slate blue’ steel and a luxurious, acoustically transparent blue-grey Kvadrat fabric, as well as wireless Bluetooth headphones and a wireless power bank in dark leather. ‘Collaborating with Philips on this new collection has been an exciting challenge for us - it has guided us to design for technology in new ways, but it also has taught us how many of our iconic expressions can rise to the occasion of new frontiers,’ says Georg Jensen chief creative officer Nicholas Manville. 

georgjensen.com; @georgjensen

‘Midnight' cocktail cabinet, by Armani/Dada 

Produced in collaboration by fashion supremo Giorgio Armani and leading Italian furniture brand Molteni&C, the ‘Midnight’ cocktail cabinet goes well beyond the simple drinks trolley: the good-sized bar comes with a sink, practical sliding trays and plenty of storage – including space for an integrated wine cellar. The perfectly functional offering is partially hidden behind a pair of fully retractable Japanese-inspired gilded doors, with vertical walnut rod inserts and champagne satin aluminium details. The unit also features a Rosa Portogallo marble countertop that includes accessories for cocktail making, such as ice-holder and cutting board. An optional LED lighting structure creates a frame for the marble back, which features a wooden shelf with built-in LED lights and golden metal wine glass holders.

armanidada.com

‘Aura’ and ‘Astro’ bathroom sinks, by Marco Piva, for Antonio Lupi 

Resembling slowly melting ice-cubes, Marco Piva’s free-standing bathroom sinks are made of a smooth eco-sustainable resin, Cristalmood, that is manually poured into moulds. Once the resin has solidified, they are sanded and polished to remove imperfections and add brightness. The Milanese designer has equipped both sinks with LED lighting, available in 13 Cristalmood colours, making them rich in light and reflections. The drain and siphon are hidden from view, giving the designs a sculptural presence. ‘Resistant like stone, transparent like crystal, this resin has allowed Antonio Lupi to develop shapes that would have been unthinkable with any other material,’ explains the company’s art director, Andrea Lupi.

antoniolupi.it; @antoniolupidesign

Bang & Olufsen has never shied away from the upper echelons of the audio market. Founded in 1925, the Danish brand is still best known for strong focus on design. From the 1960s onward, designers like Henning Moldenhawer and Henrik Sørig Thomsen helped shape a new identity for hi-fi design, emphasising geometric forms and simple control surfaces to conceal the complexity of the device within.

The two best-known exponents of B&O design are the late Jacob Jensen and David Lewis, and it was Jensen who shaped the BeoGram 4000, launched in 1972 and evolved over the years as the BeoGram 4002 and 4004. Inducted into MoMA’s permanent collection that same year, Jensen worked with B&O’s engineers to create a technically stunning machine in a sleek aluminium casing, with a then unique electronically controlled parallel pick-up arm. The BeoGram name stayed associated with vinyl until the company stopped making record players in the 1990s

Now the 4000 is back in a limited edition of 95 units, lovingly restored, updated and enhanced at Bang & Olufsen’s Danish factory as part of the company’s new ‘Classics’ division. ‘Classics will help us tell the story of our 95 years of history — it’s feeding into a bigger agenda of how to design for longevity,’ says Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, Bang & Olufsen’s Global Product Manager, ‘this is a pilot project but it will involve more products down the road.’ Hansen is keen to stress that the company isn’t treading on the toes of the Bang & Olufsen’s community of enthusiasts, collectors and repairers. ‘We know that passionate individuals exist to help with our legacy services. We want to support that even more in the future,’ he says, ‘this is another layer on the top. It’s about upgrading our products to integrate them with modern technologies.’ 

Over the past few years, the company has been buying up old BeoGrams, even receiving a donated unit from a 76-year old collector who personally dropped it off at the factory. Each unit is then stripped down and inspected, before undergoing its own bespoke service refurbishment plan. The core physical components — including the signature aluminium platter — are re-machined and refined and given a new coating, a warm golden champagne colour. The company’s craftspeople have also created a new light oak enclosure for the unit, tying it in aesthetically with B&O’s contemporary product line and setting the Classic BeoGrams apart from the originals. The acrylic dust cover is replaced, as is the pick-up cartridge.

‘We wanted to go beyond nostalgia and create a product that lasts for a few more decades,’ says Hansen. New cabling and engraving are added to the case, while each of the 95 units comes in a numbered oak and aluminium presentation box containing a reproduction of the original manual and a design story. When the original 4002 model debuted in 1974, the engineers left space for a future power supply upgrade. The Classic 4000 makes the most of this foresight by fitting a new preamplifier into the gap, effectively allowing the turntable to be paired directly to B&O’s existing speakers systems without the need for any other components.

Vinyl is enjoying a resurgence. Last month it was reported that in the UK records had outsold CDs for the first time since the 1980s, although both are a drop in the ocean when compared to streaming statistics. Nevertheless, the materiality of physical formats goes hand in hand with the technology that plays them, and B&O’s svelte blend of modernism and audio fidelity has never lost its allure. ‘It was obvious to start with vinyl,’ says Hansen, ‘it’s a niche, maybe, but vinyl is still relevant. Ultimately, we see this as an opportunity. People are buying less but they are taking more care in selecting. They want things to last longer. The Classic program will help us exist in that space.’

INFORMATION
bang-olufsen.com

Hot on the heels of Bang & Olufsen’s new E8 Sport earphones comes this collaboration with Swiss running tech specialists, On. The result is a discretely branded edition of the E8 with subtle styling cues to match up with On’s newest road running shoe, the Cloudboom.

For the Cloudboom, On collaborated closely with two established marathon runners, the Canadian Rachel Cliff and British athlete Chris Thompson. In addition to the ‘CloudTech’ layered sole that uses superfoam cushioning, the new shoe features On’s signature engineered mesh on the upper. ‘We always work with athletes to develop our products,’ says Edouard Coyon at On. ‘We have only one ambition, which is to help push the athletes forward, so they can accelerate in all conditions.’

The philosophy of high-tech materials and contemporary styling is one that resonated with Bang & Olufsen’s design team. ‘Music plays an important role in stimulating physical activity,’ says Sondre Barkli, Bang & Olufsen’s Global Product Manager, noting that the E8 was already highly prized by runners. The evolved E8 Sport is distinguished by full weatherproofing, enhanced Bluetooth 5.1 tech and seven-hour battery life, as well as the ability to tailor the in-ear fit. ‘We wanted to focus on fitness and running as a category and On shared our core values,’ Barkli continues as he reveals a new limited edition E8 Sport that’s designed to pair perfectly with your Cloudbooms.

‘Music plays an important role in stimulating physical activity,’ says Bang & Olufsen’s global product manager

The details are subtle but on point, starting with the embossed logo on the earphones’ silicone case, with On’s signature cloud print concealed beneath the lid of the case — just as you get in an On shoe box. The transparent green silicone earpieces reveal the collaboration’s motto — ‘the sound of unstoppable’ – and there’s an aesthetic synergy that carries through with the high-tech stylings of the Cloudboom. For runners looking to get every last drop of performance from their tech as well as their own aching muscles, this is a partnership that makes sense.

INFORMATION

Beoplay E8 Sport On Edition, £300, bang-olufsen.com
Cloudboom, £170, on-running.com

The ubiquitous Bluetooth speaker gets one of its sleekest ever iterations from the aesthetes at Bang & Olufsen thanks to their freshly revamped and updated Beosound A1. Lighter and more compact than the original, the second generation Beosound A1 also manages to bump up the battery life to around 18 hours of playback between charges (or up to two solid days’ worth if you like your music quiet). Not only that, it brings Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant integration for the first time.

The A1 was originally shaped by Danish designer Cecilie Manz, whose multi-disciplinary studio has undertaken work for Georg Jensen, Iittala and Fritz Hansen, as well as B&O. Manz and her team have swathed the tightly-packed core of electronics and speaker in a hockey puck-like form, with minimal detailing, tactile surfaces and functional clarity in the Bang & Olufsen tradition.

The top surface is formed from a curved grille pattern, paired with a matte base and finished off with a leather carry strap. The volume and play buttons are located around the base, although of course you can simply speak commands direct to the device. As its shape suggests, the A1 delivers an impressive 360-degree soundscape, whether indoors or out, with the added bonus of waterproofing, should it accidentally take a dip in the pool. Finally, you can also use the device as a speakerphone, should you so desire.

INFORMATION
bang-olufsen.dk

Bang & Olufsen has always been inseparable from high quality design. The Danish company's aesthetic heritage arose out of close collaborations with consultants, creating a harmonious, distinctive look that integrated cutting edge sonics with modernist forms. ‘We have a rich tradition of collaborating with outside designers,' says Bang & Olufsen's vice president of design Gavin Ivester. ‘We do a lot of work with young designers as well — we’re always talking to new people.’

One of those new people was Benjamin Hubert of Layer. Hubert's studio, based in London's Hackney, has worked on many projects that bridge the realms of art, design and technology, alongside names like Airbus and Panasonic as well as new paradigm companies like Neo, Trove and the brand he co-founded with Asad Hair, Nolii. The collaboration with B&O seemed like a natural fit. ‘They visited our studio a few years ago,’ Hubert acknowledges, ‘we both play in this space between art and furniture and they connected with that.’ The Beosound Balance is their first joint project. 

Although the aesthetic side of Balance appears fantastically refined, the form was driven by the complex arrangement of acoustic technology within. ‘It’s designed to be placed in the middle of the room, on the floor or on a shelf,’ Hubert says, pointing out that it has to look good when it’s not being used. Layer's team worked on literally dozens of prototypes and renders before arriving at the final object, two stacked cylinders that combine solid oak, either stained or natural, wool-blend knitted fabric covers and anodised aluminium control surfaces with etched, back-lit flush buttons. Apart from the subtle fire-engraved Bang & Olufsen logo on the wooden base, the non-technically minded would be hard pressed to distinguish the Balance from an elegant vase or table-top sculpture.

The Balance is designed to look good even when it’s not in use. Sculptural solidity and monolithic, minimal forms have been a core characteristic of B&O’s products ever since the days of Jacob Jensen, Henning Moldenhawer and David Lewis. Ivester knows there’s a strong legacy to build on, and today’s rapidly advancing audio technology offer new ways of designing for sound. In the case of the Balance, the sonics are quite literally shaped by a complex Digital Sound Processing unit that calibrates the unit according to its placement within the room. Integral microphones and sensors work out the reflectivity of the space, its size and the proximity of walls and ceilings. Although there are no moving parts in Balance, the way in which it interacts with its environment and the listener allows the speaker to create a sense of three-dimensional sound.

The accompanying app lets you shift the point of focus around, from left to right, enhancing bass or treble, vocals or instruments and saturating the space with sound. It’s giddily enveloping, a remarkable testament to the way in which cleverly programmed DSP can use multiple speakers in a single unit to utterly transform the way we listen to music.

Music, radio, podcasts, etc. are streamed from your mobile device using Bluetooth or Airplay2, a seamless connection that we’ve nonchalantly accepted as normal. ‘There’s a broad diversity of expectations in how sound is delivered,’ says Gavin, ‘People still want objects. We still have a very strong market in systems that have to be delivered on a pallet and installed by a technician. [With Balance] people just want it to work.’

Ivester's own track record is impressive. He spent much of his early working life on the West Coast with Apple, where he was responsible for the first PowerBook, later becoming head of footwear design at Nike and then running Puma’s entire footwear division. ‘I was aware of Bang & Olufsen since the 1980s – it was always the pinnacle of clean design,’ he recalls, and a consulting role eventually blossomed into the VP job. Today, with his family and career relocated to Denmark, he tells us he’s ‘totally consumed by this role.’ Although Ivester notes that ‘the importance of wearable sound solutions has become much more important,’ he’s adamant that the key elements of B&O design are still hugely desirable. ‘This brand has never been nostalgic,’ he says, ‘we always push forward.'

The partnership is a sound one. Acknowledging that Layer's ongoing work with B&O often has to 'walk a tightrope between design and heritage,' Hubert enthuses about an era of 'soft tech', where design is about enabling function, not simply expressing new technology. 'We live in a hyper-connected world,' he says, 'everything is available but it's all digital.' Ivester reminds us that although the brand's party trick – sliding, gliding and transforming physical components – isn't present in the Balance, there is still a strong element of interaction, with proximity sensors that light up the UI as you approach. ‘The challenge is to do that in a very B&O way,’ Ivester says. Balance might be designed for very different ways of consuming music, but its timeless form is pure Bang & Olufsen. 

The company's rigorous design policy also extends to its stores. In New York, a new flagship is due to open mid-March, designed in collaboration by Shinichiro Ogata's Tokyo-based studio Simplicity. The result is a blend of the expected – Scandi-style tastefully crafted wood – with a more hard-edged, industrial aesthetic. It's all highly crafted, but the bare brick and pipes are a bold step away from sleek minimalism towards a warmer, more organic approach to retail space.

INFORMATION
Beosound Balance, £1,750, bang-olufsen.com
layerdesign.com
simplicity.co.jp

Fresh from their Wallpaper* Design Award win with the elegant interior of the Bella yacht, Danish Studio Norm Architects have announced another collaboration. Working hand in hand with compatriots Bang & Olufsen, the Contrast Collection takes eight of the acclaimed audio specialists’ most iconic products and transforms them with material, texture and tone. Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre, Design Director at Bang & Olufsen, has committed to furthering the company’s collaborations, which include the Circle of Fifths project developed for Wallpaper* Handmade 2019 with Germans Ermičs. Describing the involvement of Norm Architects as a way of interpreting current interior trends, Krab-Bjerre emphasises the contrasting colours and materials. 

The collection ranges from the Beoplay A1 Bluetooth speaker and Beoplay H9 wireless headphones, through to the larger, more architectural elements like the Beosound Shape and the Beosound 1 and 2. The colour palette focuses on light grey and anthracite, off-setting the brushed and polished aluminium that has become such a cornerstone of the B&O look. Norm Architects worked on bringing a warmth to the aesthetic through texture and fabrics, experimenting with different surface treatments, some of which used hand-brushed techniques, at Bang & Olufsen’s factory.

The Collection also includes a new fabric, developed closely with Kvadrat. It builds upon the Danish textile manufacturer’s first work for B&O back in 2015 with a more tactile, textured finish that uses a combination of wool and viscose. Renowned for their steely elegance and audio perfection, the Contrast Collection gives these Bang & Olufsen components a more grounded, earthy ambience, without compromising their high-fidelity roots.

INFORMATION
normcph.com

bangolufsen.com

At Selfridges in London, the three-month long Future Fantasy campaign is going through a lunar phase, and it looks like there's new moon on the horizon.

New York-based artist Daniel Arsham has teamed up with the London department store on ‘The House by Daniel Arsham’ – an installation that contains a series of limited-edition pieces, each questioning the reality of how familiar products of today might look like if they were rediscovered in the future.

One of our favourites is the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay A9 speaker, which uses the image of a blue moon derived from Arsham’s original bubble-textured oil painting and his fascination with outer space. Well rounded in shape, as well as sound, Bang & Olufsen’s familiar trio legs are revamped in white stained oak, while an anodised aluminium ring serves as a literal silver lining.

Other brand collaborations include a seven-piece ready-to-wear collection with A-Cold-Wall*; a Rimowa x Daniel Arsham Eroded Attache and even an Arsham-adapted tin of Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup. Each object ties into The House concept situated on the ground floor, where visitors can explore Arsham's pieces placed in the familar settings of a front yard, kitchen, living and office space.

Widely recognised as one of the most powerful home speakers, Active Room Compensation provides haptic feedback, optimising sound performance depending on the speakers surroundings. Additionally, seven full range drivers pack a punch, providing an impressive soundscape in every room of the house.

Google Assistant is on hand (or rather, off) to control the speaker by the users voice, while physical hand gestures across the surface of the speaker have the capacity to change volume, skip, play and pause.

INFORMATION
bang-olufsen.com

danielarsham.com

selfridges.com

It’s a balmy night in Venice. The last of the tourists are making their way into the restaurants and bars surrounding the Grand Canal, but we’re on our way into the to the Ca’ D’oro to see the latest product from Bang & Olufsen.

For the launch, the Danish brand has chosen to swerve the usual design weeks and instead present the Beosound Stage soundbar at a standalone event, hosted inside this magnificent Venetian Gothic palazzo.

‘We’re constantly trying to figure out how to do things differently to our competition,’ says Christoffer Østergaard Poulsen, the brand’s Vice President of Product Management. As far as this presentation goes, it appears to be working. Flanked by Nacho Carbonell’s sprawling chandeliers and Mathieu Lehanneur’s sublime marble tables that are part of Carpenters Workshop Gallery showcase, Dysfunctional currently on view in the space, the Beosound Stage appears as sophisticated as the art around it, rather than feeling like a clunky and out-of-place tech object.

The soundbar marks a first for Bang & Olufsen, who worked alongside Norwegian firm Norm Architects when it came to the aesthetic design of the piece. With the aim of ‘humanising technology’, Norm came up with a design that is both simple in its form and material, and as-per the brand’s existing catalogue, the techy stuff is designed to be easy to use.

Set within a frame, which is available in either natural aluminium, bronze tone aluminium or smoked oak, the speaker’s functions come in the form of an engraved touch-sensitive control panel. Clever engineering leaves a two millimetre gap between the frame and fabric covered speaker, creating a trompe l’oeil that the main body is somehow suspended within its solid exterior.

For Norm, it’s the details that have taken this project to the next level. ‘Working with Bang & Olufsen has been fascinating because of our shared belief in craftsmanship,’ says Kasper Rønn von Lotzbeck, founding partner at Norm Architects.

‘Throughout the creation of Beosound Stage, there has been an uncompromising approach to sound and design – the material choice, the form factor, the sound components and the willingness from everyone involved to do iteration after iteration to get the details right.’ Rønn von Lotzbeck continues. ‘Essentially, the creative approach is what makes Beosound Stage so remarkable.’

INFORMATION
Beosound Stage, $1,750. bang-olufsen.com

Sound meets sculpture in ‘Circle of Fifths’, a Handmade collaboration between the Danish audio specialist Bang & Olufsen and the Latvian artist and designer Germans Ermičs. For Ermičs, music is a lifelong passion. ‘I used to play guitar in a band, and I went back to it with this project,’ he says. ‘Before I ever thought of the object form, I was thinking about sound.’ The Amsterdam-based practitioner’s familiarity with Bang & Olufsen helped. ‘I lived in Denmark in 2005, and that’s when I realised what a design leader Bang & Olufsen was,’ he says. ‘They are true craftspeople; their pieces are handmade, almost like sculptures.’

A sculptural aluminium object, ‘Circle of Fifths’ is designed to be caressed. Stroking the undulating circle of polished aluminium elements plays a series of notes, carefully selected to complement one another to form a dynamic aural landscape. One element Ermičs wanted to incorporate was the Danish firm’s ‘magical’ way with technology. ‘I really like products with panels that can be opened by an approaching hand,’ he explains, and the piece’s interactive nature sprang from this desire. ‘I also knew how good Bang & Olufsen are with materials such as anodised aluminium.’ A factory visit, including a tour of the company’s sound laboratories, cemented his high opinion. ‘It really helped me understand how they worked,’ he says. The sonic component was developed in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen’s tonmeister Geoff Martin, the sound engineer responsible for tuning the company’s Beoplay range.

‘Circle of Fifths’ is an exercise in harmonic synchronisation, an experience which took Martin back to his former career as a teacher of electroacoustic music composition. To create the sculpture’s musical element, he began by sampling a selection of unfinished aluminium Bang & Olufsen products – ‘I played them like cymbals,’ he recalls. The resulting sounds were synthesised and digitally enhanced to create a trio of notes – the root, plus a fifth shifted upwards and a fifth shifted downwards.

Each of the eight curved aluminium sections is linked to an Arduino board, which in turn sends the signal to Bang & Olufsen’s bespoke speaker-tuning software (a program originally developed by IRCAM in Paris). The final trio of notes, each of which is looped and slightly varied in pitch with a touch of delay, is played through an off-the-shelf Beolab 17 speaker. As you move your hand around the circle, the notes change yet stay harmonious. ‘There’s an element of randomness in there, but it’s constrained,’ Martin explains. ‘The idea is that 12 people can play at once without it sounding busy.’ Ermičs agrees. ‘It’s like a musical instrument, but not everything sounds perfect,’ he says.

The end result is sensual; the sounds it produces are otherworldly, both soothing and slightly dissonant. The seductive experience is enhanced by the undulating curve of the eight elements, each one coloured in shifting hues of satin-finished anodised aluminium. ‘I wanted to create an object you desired to touch,’ says Ermičs. ‘It’s a very experiential piece – you can really sense the shape of the sound. It has allowed me to go deeper into the relationship between the tangible and the intangible.’ Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre, Bang & Olufsen’s creative director of Staged and Flexible Living categories, concurs: ‘Bang & Olufsen exists in the space between art and science, and our engineers are very familiar with giving designers possibilities. We also like to explore how things feel when you touch them; our products have to feel right; forms have to correspond with the way things sound.’

Ermičs is adamant that he’s not a conventional industrial designer. ‘I’m an artist working with spaces and functional pieces,’ he says. ‘I work a lot with colour – especially in glass,’ he continues, ‘and it’s the transition between two and three dimensions that interests me. This project has sound as an indefinable element – it’s about materialising the sound, giving it a physical shape and colour.’ For now, ‘Circle of Fifths’ creates a symbiotic relationship between art, sound, technology and manufacturing perfection. 

As originally featured in the August 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*245)
 

INFORMATION

germansermics.com; bang-olufsen.com

Small heel pouch, by Loewe
There’s always the chance of a misplaced coin purse when reclining poolside, especially after a couple of lunchtime Caipirinhas. Lucky, for us Loewe has a practical answer for all your foreign change. This leather pouch hangs conveniently around the neck, and is part of the Madrid based label’s collaboration with famed Ibizan boutique Paula's. Balearic bliss!

Trancoso beach bat set, by Frescobol Carioca
These sleek beach bats are individually handcrafted from layers of wood offcuts in Brazil, and with a strong resin coating they are wonderfully sea and sand-resistant. The'll beat flinging a plastic frisby or battered beach ball across the sand, and might just help you make some extra holiday playmates. Game on!

Deck of Cards holder, by Métier London
Patience, Gummy, Go Fish, whatever your preferred card game of choice, you're guaranteed to make a more sophisticated shuffle with Métier London's Deck of Cards holder. This elegant protector – imagined in summery pollen yellow leather – will protect your playing cards from sand and sun screen. It's a play-your-ace-level accessory.

Leather water bottle holder, by Smythson and S’well
An essential for those with a summer expedition in mind, this Smythson leather water bottle holder takes inspiration from the Belvoir Beaker Set, a silver-plated flask and nut-brown leather holder from the Twenties, found in the British accessories brand’s archive. Slip your environmentally friendly S’well bottle snugly into the case, and you’ll be well hydrated for your next outdoors adventure.

Backgammon set in printed maple, by Hermès
Beach bag bounty for board game obsessives, this expertly crafted backgammon set by Hermès is sure to see you on a winning streak. The warm and oceanic tones of its elegant maple surface will have you rolling the dice with real drama, and will prevent malaise when you’re catching rays on a sun lounger. 

BeoPlay A1 Portable Bluetooth Speaker, by Bang & Olufsen
Vowed to catch up on all those current affairs Podcasts during your deckchair downtime? This speaker provides the perfect portable companion. It boasts a 24-hour battery life, an aluminium sub woofer to amplify bass, and an in-built microphone which allows you to make a phone call should an emergency come up in the office.

Beovision Harmony, by Bang & Olufsen, 2019

Today, Bang & Olfusen unveils its latest television design, the Beovision Harmony; a ‘TV experience’ that sculpturally reveals – and then conceals – itself.

Long have interior designers been frustrated by vast, empty TV screens, uncomfortably peering out of otherwise devised space. Pair this with our ever-growing reliance on mobile devices for our viewing habits, there are arguments that the television set is becoming less central to the living room. The TV must adapt, and become a beautiful, cherished object, as well as a functional one, to retain its prized place in our homes.

Bang & Olufsen have been addressing this problem for years, notably with the Beovision Horizon (2016), which comes with a wheel-stand. The Danish sound and vision expert has innovated again with the Beovision Harmony, which offers increased flexibility; and previously unseen unity between technology and furniture design. When the device is turned off, or just playing music, the thin screen rests close to the floor, partially covered by two meticulously crafted oak and aluminium fronts, which house the sound centre. When Beovision Harmony is turned on, the two fronts fan out, and the screen rises to viewing height. Turn off the TV, and the finely choreographed sequence plays out in reverse. The result is an elegant technology camouflage with cinematic flair; when the screen rises, the curtains open at the theatre.

Bang & Olufsen has a long history with TVs. After the Second World War, the Bang & Olufsen factory was quickly rebuilt in time for the company to become part of the global 1950s TV boom. The company's first offering – simply called ‘Television’ – was launched by director Peter Bang and chief engineer Lorens Duus Hansen at an exhibition in 1950. Just ten examples were made of the wooden box, typified by their workmanship, simplicity, and midcentury Nordic expression.

‘It has been a mission of ours to perfect the techniques used to reproduce sound and vision and to embody it in a design that people are proud to have in their homes,' explains John Mollanger, Bang & Olufsen’s executive vice president of brand and markets. ‘Wood has always been an important aspect of Nordic architecture and furniture design because of its individual character, robustness and versatility and we are proud to carry this forward in our Beovision Harmony.'

INFORMATION

Beovision Harmony will be on display at Milan Design Week from 9 – 14 April as part of the exhibition ‘93 years of Magic: a dialogue between past and present’. For more information, visit the Bang & Olufsen website

Bang & Olufsen has been a hive of collaborative activity of late. Just last week, the Danish sound designer launched a new collection of accessories and colourways with Kvadrat and Raf Simons, and now, it announces its partnership with travel brand Rimowa.

‘This collaboration will make the world travel at the speed of sound,' says John Mollanger, executive vice president at Bang & Olufsen, of the new limited edition iteration of the Beoplay H9i headphones – which are actively noise cancelling, a modern-day essential for frequent flyers.

A corresponding ridged Rimowa travel case will please longterm fans of the luggage leader. The miniature version of its aircraft engineering-inspired carrying case (which it has been making in various iterations since 1898), snuggly houses the headphones, providing them with a sturdy and lightweight carrier, from hotel room to home again.

This collaboration seems a natural move for Rimowa; not just for the two brand's shared approach to craftmanship, and their shared space in the travel industry (in which high quality headphones are now considered as essential as a sturdy suitcase), but for their equally strong ties to aluminium.

B&O has utilised anodised aluminium in both its audio and visual design output since 1955, with its Struer headquarters being dubbed the home of ‘aluminium alchemy’. Similarly, alongside its pioneering move into polycarbonate in 2000, Rimowa is almost synonymous with the material, praising aluminium's ‘unbeatable strength' and ‘long-lasting performance'. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Rimowa website

The mild colours of Scandinavian summertime inspire the limited edition S/S19 collection from Bang & Olufsen, available from today. Featuring over-ear wireless headphones, active earphones, and a portable speaker, the collection also offers headphone accessories in Ria fabric by Kvadrat/Raf Simons.

The fabric – part of an ongoing collaboration between the Kvadrat and the Belgian designer – covers hand-held headphone pouches, and is typified by its mottled blending of colours, inspired by pointillism: an apropos reference, considering Bang & Olufsen's famously dotty speaker meshes (pictured top left). The Ria fabric unites three tones of yarn: a thin, single-toned thread base, through which two colours of thicker yarn are woven, to create a subtle graining across the surface.

As with pointillism, Ria's fragmented colours create a pleasing modulating effect, emulating the exploration of three-dimensional textures found across Kvadrat/Raf Simons collections. There's a certain roughness to Ria, that contrasts with the smoothness of the lambskin headphone covers.

Easy on the ears, each headphone in the collection is typically soft and comfortable, reflected in the new colourways, which are equally easy on the eye. They're also proudly Nordic. Clay – a deep, earthy tone, is inspired by chalky cliffs found across Scandinavia; a vegetal Pine colour evokes the forest, while Sky has a cool sense of breezy summer afternoons.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Bang & Olufsen website

Cult-classic director and Wallpaper* 2010 Guest Editor David Lynch has lent his artistic vision to Bang & Olufsen, wrapping various speakers in images from his 1970s War Between the Shapes series of works on paper.

The maverick multi-discipline artist, who has a penchant for revealing disturbing tales from the darkside, is a self-proclaimed (if unlikely) ‘patron' of the Danish audio brand, and this marks his second artistic collaboration with it, following his limited edition wrapping of the Beoplay A9 speakers in 2017.

Praising the brand's ‘great sound and great design', Lynch has now added a unique version of the Beosound Shape speaker to his growing list of limited edition art objects for B&O. The wall-mounted wireless speaker system will be on display at MoMA Design Store’s Soho location, as part of an immersive and interactive pop-up experience inspired by imagery from Lynch’s films.

Lynch’s imagery has also been embossed onto the Beoplay M5 compact wireless speaker, and the portable P2, along with his signature, which is laser engraved on both. If you're quick, you can get your hands on these ‘very limited' editions available exclusively at the MoMA pop-up.

INFORMATION

The Bang & Olufsen x David Lynch pop-up is at MoMA Design Store Soho from October 10 to November 11. For more information, visit the Bang & Olufsen website

ADDRESS

MoMA Design Store
44 West 53rd Street
NYC, 10019

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The biggest week in the design calender is not necessarily known for its technology offerings. This year, however, tech hunters won’t have to look hard for beautifully designed launches, installations and collaborations, as the ever-merging worlds of technology and design continue to conflate. Here’s five of our favourites, and where to find them at Salone del Mobile.

Google

Google is making its Salone del Mobile debut, intertwining hardware with soft intuition in an immersive multi-room installation curated by Dutch trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort in Rossana Orlandi’s gallery. The Google event, titled ‘Softwear’, will display its tech hardware among everyday objects in comforting lifestyle scenarios.

‘Designing and producing our own hardware is a relatively new venture for us and something that is not widely known about especially globally,’ says Ivy Ross, Google’s vice president of hardware design, on why the software giant decided to show at Milan Design Week. ‘We believe that having a presence at Salone del Mobile and sharing our point of view is a great opportunity to connect with others especially in the design industry.’

The relationship between Google and Edelkoort is lengthy, and in a meeting last year, Ross remembers that ‘[Li] remarked how we were actually delivering on something she had forecast back in 1998... she was thrilled that in many ways, we were bringing that prediction to life without even realising it.’ Said forecast predicted a new way of engaging with technology, for it to seamlessly exist in our lives.

Softwear; 17 - 21 April. Rosanna Orlandi, Via Matteo Bandello, 14/16, 20123, Milan

Dassault Systèmes and Kengo Kuma

Sustainable design is set to be a hot topic at this year’s Milan Design Week, and this installation from architect Kengo Kuma with 3D experience company Dassault Systèmes, has the important theme at its heart. 

Breath/ing is a dynamic, architectural unit made from existing pollution-neutralising materials, addressing the growing global issue of air pollution. As well as being a striking immersive setting, its designers hope the installation inspires designers from across the world to tackle sustainability in their own work.

‘This collaboration is inspiring for me because we share similar values and a vision,’ Kuma explains. ‘I believe that the combination of design and technology can make a huge contribution to the world’s environmental issues.’ Dassault Systèmes also promises collaborations from Wallpaper* Design Awards 2018 judge Daan Roosegaarde, Wesley Goatley and Superflux.

Design in the Age of Experience; 17 - 22 April; Superstudio Più at 27 via Tortona, 20144, Milan

Panasonic Design

Continuing the theme of air pollution and sustainability, Panasonic Design is presenting an immersive, so-called ‘water-drop’ pavilion, which will reportedly contain the cleanest, purest air in Milan.

The pavilion marks Panasonic’s 100th anniversary. Instead of marking the milestone moment with product launches, it has instead looked outside itself, into the role design will play in improving our future physical environments and emotional wellbeing. The 20 metre-diametre droplet shaped installation is filled with Panasonic’s Nanoe X air purification ionization technology, and ‘silky fine mist’ another proprietary technology which micronises water with high pressured air (in other words, it’ll be a cooling, refreshing experience). Inside the dome, Panasonic’s ultra-super luminosity projector and high resolution fish-eye lens create highly realistic 4K projection mapping.

It’s quite the unexpected move from the tech titan, one that reflects the brand’s changing attitude and ‘philosophical ethos’. ‘Over the past 100 years, Panasonic has improved peoples’ lives through technology and physical products, from light bulbs to washing machines, explains Shigeo Usui, director of Panasonic Design. ‘Our new creative philosophy focused on the ‘culture of life’ will allow us to go beyond the physical and enrich the whole culture of a person’s life, including health, wellbeing, feelings and experiences.’

Transitions by Panasonic Design; 17 - 22 April. Pinacoteca di Brera, Via Brera, 28, 20121 Milan

Sonos, WeWork and Hay

Hay, WeWork and Sonos are joining forces to display their vision of the future of design inside the charmingly guilded Palazzo Clerici. For the installation, Hay and WeWork will present an office-like set up that will challenge typical working environments via some nifty research from the co-working titans and Hay’s new shelving and storage system. Expect a mesh of contemporary function with historic Milanese chic.

Sonos’ part of the launch is an exclusive new take on the Sonos One smart speaker, which was released last year. Custom designed to match perfectly with HAY’s existing color palette, the collection will come in shades of red, green and yellow (pictured above), and will be available for purchase from September 2018.

17-22 April; Palazzo Clerici, Via Clerici, 5, Milan

Sony

Like Google, Sony is keen to promote technology’s ability to seamlessly merge with our daily lives, comfortingly as opposed to intrusively. Its exhibition ‘Hidden Senses’ showcases possible interactions between people, objects and spaces, where technology melds beautifully, and functionally, into the background. ‘The experience we propose brings forward a more comfortable lifestyle, merging design and technology to create unique emotional experiences involving all of our senses,’ explains the tech titan.

The exhibition is composed of five case study areas, in which so-called ‘Hidden Senses’ are revealed step by step – from pure sound experience, to everyday furniture and lighting that helps us to visualise information.

April 17-22; Spazio Zegna, Via Savona 56/A, Milan

BeoPlay

Few do Scandinavian design with immersive sound better that BeoPlay. The Danish speaker stalwart this week introduced the latest portable to its growing family. Designed by friend of the brand Cecilie Manz, the P6 is (as with all BeoPlay products) built from premium materials. The cool pearl blasted aluminium enclosure ensures an even dispersion of its rich, True360 Bang & Olufsen signature sound.Meanwhile, the double layered leather strap offers a warm contrast to the metal and provides easy portability. Inspired by Bang & Olufsen’s Beomaster 6000, the control buttons are milled out of a single piece of aluminium.

‘With Beoplay P6, we redefined the archetype of working with aluminium by pushing the physical limits of the material, highlighting the three-dimensional shells and its hole pattern as much as possible,’ says Manz, who recently became Maison&Objet’s Designer of the Year. ‘This detail gives a distinctive character, such that the sound is spread evenly and shared with people around you in all directions.’

INFORMATION
Find all the Salone del Mobile best bits on our interactive map

Pictured, Bild X concept TV, price on request, by Bodo Sperlein, for Loewe. ‘USM Haller’ table, price on request, by USM. LSPX-S1 speaker, £799, by Sony. Crystal box, £595, by Asprey. 16GB calfskin USB key, £220, by LaCie, for Hermès. BeoSound Shape wall-mounted speakers, from £2,920, by Øivind Alexander Slaatto, for Bang & Olufsen. ‘Sussex’ sideboard, £2,554, by Terence Woodgate, for Punt, from Twentytwentyone. Zegna Toyz turntable, £2,870; headphones, £670, both by Master & Dynamic, for Ermenegildo Zegna Couture. Ottava Forte sound system, £799, by Technics. LS50 wireless speaker, £2,500 per pair, by Marcel Wanders, for KEF Audio. ‘Anais’ chair, €3,500, by Draga & Aurel, for Baxter. Paint in Book Room Red (on wall) and Picture Gallery Red (on skirting), £40 per 2.5 litres, both by Farrow & Ball. ‘Devonia Plain’ carpet in Autumn Fall, £43 per m, by Axminster Carpets. Interiors: Amy Heffernan

This year has been a busy year for futuristic technology. We celebrated the rise of the robot; the idea of autonomous driving has rolled off the drawing board and onto the highway; and, after a slow start, electric bikes have finally started to get us in a spin. We’ve even come around to the idea of smart vaping.

Alongside this high concept stuff, there’s still room in our lives for simple, clever tech solutions – and we’re filling our interiors with them. Here’s a few of our favourites...

Beoplay P2, by Bang & Olufsen

The ultra-portable P2 – a pocket-sized powerhouse – is aesthetically and sonically simple. The smooth, pebble-shaped device is completely button-free, controlled remotely by an app. To change, skip or pause a track, simply give the hand-held speaker a shake.

On first impression this might seem a little gimmicky – just another digital language to learn, struggle with and swiftly forget – but the unique control design is surprisingly intuitive. It’s a novel design that appeals to Beoplay’s ‘youthful and energetic’ audience base, says design and concept manager Jakob Kristoffersen.

DOCK, by Native Union

When John Brunner and Igor Duc teamed up to create Native Union in 2009, they set out to offer an alternative to mass-produced charges, cables and technology storage solutions. In doing so, they powered up the aesthetic potential of tech accessories, realising their ability to double as beautiful statement objects.

For the marble watch stand DOCK, which doubles as an Apple watch charger, the pair were inspired by the tech titan’s minimal approach and understated look. Brushed aluminium is paired with fine-grade marble and magnetically holds the watch band in place, buckled or unbuckled.

X-A3 camera, by Fujifilm

Retro design notes meet contemporary usability in Fujifilm’s X-A3. Touchscreen operation pairs with wireless communication and a 180° tilting, ‘portrait enhancing’ LCD screen (developed specifically for taking the perfect selfie), all encased in a faux-leather, 1950s-esque shell.

Aimed at ‘phoneographers’ after an upgrade, the X-A3 also comes with Instagram-style filters and a ‘smile’ shutter. Like the P2, this entry-level mirrorless camera also relies on an app – the Fujifilm Camera Remote app – which allows you to upload your images directly from the camera onto your social channels, and takes much of the unnecessary clutter away from the streamlined in-camera menu system.

Bild X Concept TV, by Loewe

Loewe has impressed this year, by taking its innovative, visually interesting TV concepts and making them into real, functional products – and nabbing a Wallpaper* Design Awards nomination in the along the way. In doing so, they've taken TV design in a new direction: out of the hands of technologists and into the hands of interior experts. 

Its latest release, the Bild X Concept, is still in the developmental stage. Debuted at IFA Berlin in September and designed by London-based designer Bodo Sperlein, its paper-thin gold frame is inspired by the way sails hang from a mast. Its ‘sail’, so to speak, is the unbelievably slim OLED screen, which can be detached from the frame with a simple click-in mechanism. A novel approach, where all the electronics are entirely distinct from the screen itself, makes for what Sperlein describes as a ‘truly smart TV’. A simple shift in thinking, this move towards the modular ‘releases the TV from its usual webbed anchor of cables’ and allows it to be moved, adapted and adjusted, by even the most novice technology owner with ease.

A version of this article appeared in the December 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*225)

Left, ‘Mia’ armchair, £2,318, by Francesco Bettoni, for MDF Italia, from Aram. ‘Cheshire’ lamp, £332, by GamFratesi, for Fontana Arte. Side table, £871, by Eileen Gray, for ClassiCon, from Aram. ‘Junto’ cup, £10, by Simon Legald, for Normann Copenhagen. Echo Show, £200, by Amazon. ‘Barbry’ bowl, £50, by Georg Jensen. The Frame TV, from £1,999, by Yves Béhar, for Samsung. ‘Compile’ shelving, from £798, by Cecilie Manz, for Muuto. Pot and plant, price on request, from Patch. Pebble, £95, by Michael Kilraine, from Twentytwentyone. ‘Junto’ carafe, £29; cup, £10; ‘Salon’ tray, £74, all by Simon Legald, for Normann Copenhagen. Books, part of the West Coast Modern House series, published by ORO Editions. Sky Soundbox, price on request, by Devialet. Paint in Book Room Red and Picture Gallery Red; Axminster carpet, all as before. Right, ‘Day’ wall clock, £80, by Simon Legald, for Normann Copenhagen. ‘Tense’ table, £3,300, by Piergiorgio Cazzaniga, for MDF Italia. ‘Roquebrune’ chair, £1,039, by Eileen Gray, for ClassiCon, from Aram. Reykjavik speaker, £129, by Michael Sørensen, for Vifa. Thunderbolt 3 hard drive, £1,749, by Neil Poulton, for LaCie. ‘Tip’ lamp, £235, by Jens Fager, for Muuto. Surface Pro laptop, £799; Surface Pro Signature Type Cover in burgundy, £150; Surface Pen, £100; Arc Touch Mouse Surface, £60, all by Microsoft. Eclipse marble charger, $180, by Native Union. LG Q6 phone, £250, by LG. Norton Core router, $280, by Symantec, for Norton. ‘Nouveau Pin’ board, €531, by All The Way To Paris, for Please Wait To Be Seated. Gold bin, €350, by Sarah Illenberger. Paint in Setting Plaster, as before

Left, ‘Giraffe’ console, £1,800, by &New. Galaxy S8 phone, £689, by Samsung. Amber glass vase, £88, by Lyngby. ‘Lundstrøm’ bowl, £42, by Nicholai Wiig Hansen, for Raawii, from Twentytwentyone. Pink Marc de Champagne Truffles, £26 for 275g, by Charbonnel et Walker. Marble watch charging dock, $129, by Native Union. Tambour Horizon watch, £2,600, by Louis Vuitton. Beoplay P2 speaker, £149, by Cecilie Manz, for B&O Play. Urban Speed 2-in-1 Rollerball with ScreenWriter, £590, by Montblanc. X-A3 camera, £549, by Fujifilm. Paint in Setting Plaster, £40 per 2.5 litres, by Farrow & Ball. Right, ‘Cubo’ four-drawer cabinet, £1,295, by Theo Williams, for Another Brand. Bravia KD55A1 OLED TV, £3,000, by Sony. Yoga 920 copper laptop, £1,100, by Lenovo. PX noise-cancelling headphones, £330, by Bowers & Wilkins. Metal side table, £520, by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, for Vitra, from Chaplins. ‘Ebury’ tech tidy, £395, by Linley. iPad Pro in rose gold, £619, by Apple. Alpha One phone, $1,000, by Tonino Lamborghini. ‘Edge’ indoor pot, £28, by Skagerak, from Skandium. ‘Bordeaux’ pouf, £539, by Ferm Living. ‘Multi-Lite’ pendant, from €549, by Louis Weisdorf, for Gubi. Paint in Setting Plaster (on wall) and Dead Salmon (on skirting), both £40 per 2.5 litres, by Farrow & Ball. ‘Princedale Pale’ rug, from £750, by Farrow & Ball, for The Rug Company

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Beoplay, Native Union, Fujifilm and Loewe websites

A recently completed Bang & Olufsen store, at Melbourne’s fancy retail end of town, reflects the excellence and luxury associated with the B&O brand.

The flagship outlet is the fourth largest of its kind in the world and located within the heritage-listed Cavendish House, which was built between World Wars in 1930. Its interior design was a collaborative effort between Bates Smart architects and Danish B&O designer, Lene Stenz-Schlünssen. 'We wanted the B&O product to read as a contemporary insertion within a luxurious heritage environment,' says Bates Smart's associate director, Grant Filipoff. So the building’s stunning Chicago-esque features were expressed, and a luxurious and interactive backdrop was provided for the brand’s high-end electronic merchandise.

'Furniture and fittings were selected to complement the [B&O] product,' says Filipoff. 'Including the Aksel Kjersgaard desk and the Kai Kristiansen dining chair,' which sit beautifully beside the herringbone patterning of floor parquetry and tiles.

The uncluttered design does more than display products and project brand qualities. 'The sensory flagship isn’t just a retail space, it’s a way to experience and share the [B&O] story with our customers,' says Julian Kipping, B&O's general manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Thus, this ‘sensory store’ for cutting edge electronics has a soundproof listening room that allows customers to experience B&O’s top of the range loudspeakers and contemplate their $100,000 price tag. And some elegant and playful technology both enhances and enables the stripped-back aesthetic: pneumatic, rotating panels on the rear wall ensure one only sees the product being sampled, gracefully gliding from view as soon as another is selected. Much of this luxury and interactivity can be absorbed from a short distance on electronic lounges, which permit customers to swivel and peruse certain products while seated – with a shot of caffeine from the in-store coffee bay, if desired.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the B&O website

Photography courtesy Bang & Olufsen

A good pair of headphones is akin to a well-tailored suit or the perfect pair of shoes – of all the options available, you'll eventually find the ones that fit just right. B&O has a long and illustrious history of biding its time until it gets things right, and then sticking with its superior technology for as long as is feasibly possible.

The Beoplay H5 headphones aren't the Danish audio brand's first set of wireless headphones, but they're certainly shaped by many years of thinking about the ins and outs of music on the move. For a start, there's form. Styled by Jakob Wagner, the earpieces and docking station form a harmonious chunk of soft velvety metal once everything's been magnetically clipped together to charge. Magnets are also built into the earpieces themselves, letting them clip together to be worn round the neck when you’re not listening, separated by a soft braided textile-covered cable.

The quality also shines forth in the sound, which ekes out a healthy, rounded audio portrait from such a small footprint thanks to the use of B&O's Beoplay App, a slick smartphone-based way of shaping the dynamics to suit your circumstances. Whether or not Apple confirms the rumours and does away with a headphone jack in the next generation iPhone, the Beoplay H5 will keep you future-proofed in style.

INFORMATION
B&O Beoplay H5 wireless headphones, £199. For more information, visit the B&O website

Whether it’s perfecting it or avoiding it, sound plays a vital role in our office life. 

New sound solutions come in the shape of Bang & Olufsen’s BeoPlay A6: a speaker with integrated music services, it can stream from any device. Eschewing a traditionally cold sound-system look, the A6 is covered in a wool-blend textile specially developed in collaboration with Kvadrat, available in four subtle colours, from grey to blue.

Similarly innovative from a technical and aesthetic point of view is the Series 5 system by Linn: the minimal speakers are covered in a fabric that was acoustically optimised and developed in a variety of shades and patterns. So you can be as minimalist or as flamboyant as you wish. Revisiting a classic, Bowers & Wilkins has developed a completely wireless version of its celebrated Zeppelin speaker, giving a more contemporary technology to a sound classic.

Team with a series of aesthetically flexible wall panels, designed by Barcelona-based design studio Lievore Altherr Molina, that have been engineered to reduce background noise – a visually dynamic solution that will make it far easier to concentrate when working in shared environments.

As originally featured in the November 2015 issue of Wallpaper* (W*200)

INFORMATION

BeoPlay A6, £799, by Bang & Olufsen, www.beoplay.com. Series 5, covered in Slate fabric, from £9,250, by Linn, www.linn.co.uk. Zeppelin Wireless speaker, £500, by Bowers & Wilkins, www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk. Parentesit panels, from £583, by Lievore Altherr Molina, for Arper. ‘Tapet Café Tile’ fabric in charcoal/linen, £59 per m, by Erica Wakerly, www.ericawakerly.co.uk

Øivind Alexander Slaatto has a particular set of skills that make him uniquely qualified to take on the challenge of designing for Bang & Olufsen.

Slaatto, 33, studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and performed across Europe with various orchestras, as well as his band Tummel.  But design was also a passion and he went on to study at the Danish Design School in Copenhagen, graduating with a Masters degree in industrial design in 2007.

Slaatto’s work is formally inventive, but clearly rooted in 20th-century Danish design, with its emphasis on clean lines, elegant functionality and expert use of materials, both natural and manufactured.

We caught up with the designer to talk about his creation for Bang & Olufsen, the BeoPlay A9...

Wallpaper*: Bang & Olufsen has such an amazing design legacy. Was that intimidating?

Øivind Alexander Slaatto: I knew I would be able to contribute to Bang & Olufsen's great history. However, I'm very thankful Flemming MØller Pedersen (head of design) dared to trust in my talent. Designing for Bang & Olufsen is more than making just another product – it’s working with Danish culture, and since I'm proud of the Scandinavian design tradition, the values at Bang & Olufsen feel natural to me. I was sure I could contribute by respecting the clarity and minimalism of the company, while adding some poetry.

W*: How quickly did you come up with the basic disc design and what inspired its form?

OAS: I presented three different designs - the one that was chosen took me only a few days to come up with. I wanted a design so obvious you would think: ‘Why didn't I think of this?’, a design that someone who’d never seen a sound system before would expect to make sound. You find the circle everywhere in music – an ancient gong, a drum, the bell of a brass instrument, an LP, a CD, the interaction wheel on an iPod. Sound travels in circles, like waves around a stone when it hits the water, and the circle defines the grid of everything in this design. I also wanted something that looked more like a piece of furniture than a machine.

W*: Was it then just a matter of handing the sketches over to the engineers?

OAS: Bang & Olufsen gave me the specs for the components and told me what volume it should have to produce superior sound at the first briefing. After that the overall design did not change a lot. However, a lot of modifications came in that had a huge influence on the proportions and details like the geometry of the legs. Bang & Olufsen was very respectful of my vision and involved me from the very first sketch to the final product. Sometimes collaboration between designers and engineers ends up as a clash of civilizations, but at Bang & Olufsen the atmosphere is full of respect.

W*: How much is the design determined by the level of acoustic performance that is demanded?

OAS: To make superior Bang & Olufsen sound you need a huge volume of air, so the distance between right and left must be as big as possible. I tried to turn this into an obvious design. The wall bracket was challenging, since it had to take into account acoustics, aerodynamics and security, but still look simple and be easy to hang.

W*: What prompted your career shift from music into design?

OAS: At the age of 11, I started playing the tuba and was taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Music by one of the best tuba teachers in the world, Jens BjØrn-Larsen. Playing in an orchestra, though, drove me crazy when I couldn't take part in the melodies and was condemned to count empty bars, as you do 95 per cent of the time as tuba player. As a designer, I don't have to count bars.

W*: How did your music background influence your approach to creating this product?

OAS: Music taught me to combine discipline with playfulness and to draw a clear line between the creative and the analytical processes. Arnold Jacobs, former tuba player from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, had a mantra: ‘Analyse = paralyse’. You achieve better results if you are able to be creative, and only creative. Analysis comes in after the creative process. You should never analyse while you are on stage. Today I try to ‘play’ design.

Bang & Olufsen has always been dedicated to taking up space beautifully, creating objects that make wonderful sounds and look wonderful doing it. And now with its latest B&O PLAY brand, it has taken this mission to the next level.

The BeoPlay A9 is perhaps its most radical and successful integration of sound and beauty to date. It’s a music system you want to give pride of place to, even build your domestic arrangements around, rather than look to hide. And given its portability and use of wireless connectivity, you can make the BeoPlay A9 a centrepiece almost anywhere in your home.

Young Denmark-based designer Øivind Alexander Slaatto has created a remarkably innovative design for the A9, essentially a clean white disc, which is the very definition of minimal. With all inputs and controls communicated wirelessly, the A9 looks more like an abstract sculpture than an amp and speaker combo. The A9 is a complete sound system and all you need to make beautiful music is a music system, tablet or smartphone that uses Apple Airplay or the open streaming standard DLNA.

As Henrik Taudorf Lorensen, vice president at B&O PLAY, says, the new BeoPlay A9 is all about keeping the design as elegant and as simple as possible while delivering big complex sound. ‘We asked Øivind, who also has a strong interest in music, to create a design that is as free of visual noise as possible,’ he says, ‘and then had our engineers empower it with truly amazing sound. The result is a liberating take on acoustic performance with a clean graphic look that is intuitively easy to use.’

Slaatto has devised two methods of display for the A9. It can either stand on three simple wooden legs – available in oak, beech or teak – or it can be hung on a wall bracket. To further coordinate it with your home, the speaker cover comes in silver, red, green, brown or black.

Controls on the top of the player are intuitive and invisible. Swiping your hand across a touch sensor modifies the volume and you can mute the system by simply laying your hand on top of it.

Of course, all this would just be aesthetics if the BeoPlay A9 wasn’t packing power and precision on the inside. Which of course it is. In fact, it packs in two three quarter-inch tweeters and two three-inch mid-range units, driven by separate 80-watt amplifiers. And to deliver oomph just where you need it is an eight-inch bass unit, powered by a 160-watt amplifier. And, rather smartly, three pre-set sound modes optimise the acoustic performance of the player depending on its position in the room.

Bang & Olufsen may be one of Denmark's best-known brands - and the first call for design-led high-end domestic audio and video goodies - but times have been a little tough of late. It admits that aborted plans to launch a mobile phone were a distraction and the global down turn, of course, has had some impact on demand. But with a new CEO in place (Tue Mantoni, a 36-year old Dane who already has the turnaround of Triumph motorcycles on his CV), the company now has a new focus, drive and commitment to concentrate on what it has always done best.

The new BeoVision 11 television is proof of how much it is adapting to the new demands for cross-platform 'content delivery' while sticking to its guns in terms of design and sound quality.

Described by Bang & Olufsen as 'the all-in-one entertainment and information hub for the entire family', BeoVision 11 can handle all your 2D, 3D, Smart TV, hopping, surfing and replaying needs. It also does smart things like adjusting the picture to compensate for the light in the room. And the sound, pumped out of six speakers, is second to none of course.

But what really has us sold on the BeoVision 11 is its minimal good looks. The speakers are concealed behind a single bold block of colour, which comes in six different fabric options so you can colour co-ordinate. And we love the easel stand, one of a number of display options, which allows for that insouciant canvas-waiting-to-be-hung approach.