The Beosound Edge reinvents the wheel
I happened to be at the IFA at the Bang & Olufsen booth and there was also the new Beosound Edge shown. That is a speaker in the form of a futuristic wheel, to put it simply. The beautiful looking device has an aluminum outer ring and inside there are four speakers hidden behind the flat black material. The thing looks phenomenally beautiful, but it is quite large for a wireless speaker with a diameter of 50 centimeters.
On the stand B & O had a disassembled version and you could very well see how the parts fit together and how big the speakers actually are. That is not small, as you can see, so the sound that comes from the Edge is also corresponding. A demo let the thing play on a large volume of music and that went surprisingly hard. The conditions were not ideal on the stock market, so the sound sounded a bit distorted. I can not imagine, however, that this was really the case, because that is B & O’s credit. It was a fascinating thing anyway, and many visitors who walked by were going to check it out.
Design as interface
The design is – as with so many B & O speakers – one of the most important aspects of the Edge. However, it is not only beautiful, but also quite innovative. There is a stand at the bottom (if you do not fix it on the wall) of the speaker and the wheel also has some freedom of movement on that foot. You can adjust the volume of the playback by turning it, where a hard movement makes more difference than a subtle turn. You also see the touch interface of the speaker only when you get close, because there is a sensor in the Edge that lights up when you come closer.
Enthusiastic? The speaker is only available from November, so that gives you the time to start saving. The speaker will namely be sold at a suggested retail price of 3,250 euros. Swallow. It may cost some, such a futuristic wheel. But yes, there it is Bang & Olufsen for.