Review of the B&O Beolit12: the magical picnic basket (part 1 - setup)

Note:  This is an entry we're going to do, and publish updates as we "live" with a product.  We have no affiliation with B&O other than as a customer - and in fact own the piece of gear we're going to be reviewing and doing the long term impressions.  And given the skin in the game, hopefully the observations will be in-line with what other purchasers would be going through (hopefully mostly good, we shall see!)

As you may have guessed, both of us are big fans of whole house audio - and it doesn't even need to be fussy perfectionist audiophile stuff, either, hence our plunge into the world of Sonos (detailed here and here)

From an audio perspective, Sonos is far from perfect - the most glaring omission is their inability to play high bitrate music files at all - and their much vaunted "Plays all the music on Earth" ad campaign earns a "pants on fire" rating from us because of this!  We're happy to overlook their whoppers because we never use it to play our music files anyway - it is more of a conduit for Spotify and Pandora.   Nevertheless, another omission that would matter more to typical users is that they don't offer a portable speaker, and one that doesn't play directly off of our iDevices (e.g. AirPlay).  So we've been keeping an eye out for something that was both beautiful, portable (battery powered), put out decent sound, and would play right off of our iPads, Pods, Phones.

The ad sounds cool, too bad it is demonstrably false.

Background
On a recent trip to Boston, we ran across a B&O store.  (I'll be honest here, we went in because I had managed to drag Brent into 3 or 4 "girl" stores in a row, and I was feeling guilty. Newbury Street was so much fun, but it really didn't have enough parity in shops to keep the feelings of guilt at bay) I have to level with you guys - I love B&O's stuff.  It is sleek, sexy, and clearly meant to be a whole system.  The sound generally isn't up to audiophile standards given their pricing, but you really won't find a better look (as well as discreet look) for a sound system.  Their televisions have a beautiful picture, but are frighteningly expensive (3-10x their competition!) although they are also super sleek and look great.  For us, we're happy with our Panasonic Plasma that felt like an enormous indulgence when we got it (last year's model, on sale, etc.), but for the sleek look, if a large expenditure is in the cards, it would be worth considering for the 'fashion forward' types.  Incidentally, I fell in love with the B&O look and sound years ago before I plunged into the waters of perfectionist audio.

Wonder how to spend that extra cash
you have lying around?  B&O wants
to answer that question for you! TV
is about $16k, Speakers $25k ...

Beolit 12:  Picnic basket shaped
portable speaker - looks good, but how
does it sound?  How well does it work?

I had lost track of them for years and years - as life, budgets and other priorities intervened.  When we went into the store, we saw their insanely expensive televisions, and Jetson-like speakers, things designed to be mounted on the wall, and all of it sleek, discreet, and aimed squarely at the 1% or those pretty close to it.  But some things have changed: At the entrance to the store they had a number of less wallet-heavy devices, clearly aimed at the aspirational & portable market.  There were various disk shaped speakers, pedestal mounted iPod docks, headphones, and other items. We saw a small picnic basket sized and shaped speaker that claimed an 8 hour battery life, AirPlay (only!) connection as well as a 1/8" jack input. 

Edwin - our fearless salesman
posing by the system that
captured my imagination 20
years ago!

With some help from Edwin, the sales guy, we were able to play some music through it from our iPhone, which sounded decent (I learned that AirPlay, which is new to us, is a WiFi way of playing, and not bluetooth based).  We noted the generous battery life, and tried to buy one right on the spot.  This is where this blog is dangerous, since we could always use "review it for content to the blog" as a purchase excuse.  We might have bought one anyway given it was a portable speaker and would offer the "listen to music while weeding" criteria of Kathy.  Unfortunately we also had to wait since there weren't any in stock.  Edwin explained that much of their lower priced items sold quickly and often had to be ordered.  So we ordered one in yellow, and had to wait about 1 1/2 weeks for the blasted thing to show up.




Unboxing

The Box

Box Contents

B&O clearly thought about their packaging.  And while it was not to the level of an Apple product (which over engineers this experience to the point of fetish), the packing was simple and easy to get apart, and as expected, it had a minimal number of things as its content.  The coolest design feature, the strap on the main product, was reflected in the carry strap on the box - which was sturdily anchored.  You could carry it home by that strap.  Though if you are in the large cities that B&O tends to set up stores in, you may want it in a bag ...

This was the first sign of possible trouble. The packaging was exciting enough that Brent almost unboxed without me. I had left the shipping box sealed until he arrived home from working late, however he almost unboxed the thing while I was on the phone with my kids, following a ritual of sorts of saying goodnight when they are at their father's house. Yeah, they are 16 and 20, and yeah, I like to say goodnight to them still. Sue me. I had to verbally slap Brent while I finished up my phone call. He was like a kid in the candy shop. [Hey!  removing it from the dull cardboard isn't part of the unboxing.  I pulled it out and then stood there tapping my foot, waiting for what seemed like hours!]

Initial Impressions

Success!  It's Alive!! (note the cool tray that prevents a
PMP or iDevice from sliding off.  You also get to watch it dance
as the bass beat shakes the box fairly hard.

Astell & Kern AK100 doing the 'line-in' thing - not a terrible option

The setup was pretty simple, though the pictographic instructions were not so much confusing, as frustrating. In an attempt to be non-worded they shortchanged some important information.  In order to setup this to be an AirPlay device, you first have to get it hooked up to your WiFi - use an App that you have to download, and then trudge through a couple of menus to set up your network.  It should be a snap, but somehow it feels like they are making you work for the decidedly fashion forward clean design.  Apple would never do it this way, but to be fair, this did allow us to set up one of these devices without having to go and open a laptop or fire up a computer - which is something Apple usually insists upon.  Perhaps Apple could take some inspiration from these guys as the era of big general purpose computers declines?  We hooked up the AC cord to the device and then suffered for design as we trudged through the setup which was a combination of rapid in some parts and painfully slow in other parts.  Once we got through it all we attempted to play some music through it just to make sure things were working right.  If you follow the directions, and have some patience, the thing will be setup and ready to play.  When we queued up a pop tune "Yeah x3" by Chris Brown after a few seconds, music started pouring out of the little lunchbox shaped device.  For the size of the device, it sounded pretty decent from "go" - though there is a fair amount of upper bass boost that makes itself felt - though it did have an agreeable sound.  I had to check myself at this point - all in good time - best to make sure the thing works ok, and then after living with it for awhile, form an opinion. 

It then works like any AirPlay device.  We played it from iTunes on an iPhone, an iPad and our computers.  We were testing capability at this point - listening impressions were for later.  We also tested the line-in with an Astell and Kern AK100 "audiophile" portable player.  It's a nice little device that allows playback of high bitrate music (Are you listening, Sonos?) with good quality.  You press the WiFi button on the top, and then plug in the player (if you don't, it won't play from that source).  It worked fine, and played a 24bit/176.2kHz sampled version of "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones that sounded decent as well - not bad for an initial launch.

An interesting observation:  Since AirPlay is a WiFi technology, when you want to go back to AirPlay, you end up pressing the WiFi button and then wait for a small chime to sound when it has renegotiated the link to your home network. This took about 15-30 seconds (we didn't time it, and given the nature of WiFi times will vary depending upon conditions.).  If you take this box on an actual picnic away from home - you will be using line-in or their supplied USB connection if you want to use this device - since it doesn't do Bluetooth (and that's fine in my book - most Bluetooth sound is pretty bad, so line-in or USB is what we'd be using anyway).  I wondered how much of my backyard has decent WiFi coverage?


Software Update

As a rule of thumb, I usually try to get the latest version of the firmware for whatever I have in the digital world.  These days the pressure to ship out devices half finished, means you are buying in to the desgn team and not just buying a product.  So ... noting from the App that a firmware update was available, so I tried to download it.  Instructions were clear - plug it into the Ethernet network you have via an actual wire.  Plug it into the wall outlet as well, then hit the WiFi button to initiate and then the buttons flash.  When it's done flashing and the "on" button is solid white - then the update has been completed.

Simple enough? DANGER, DANGER, Will Robinson!

A door reveals the AC hookup (power and charge) and
a space big enough to hold a coiled AC cord ... an
Ethernet jack (need it for software, or if you are hardwired.
and next to it is one of the reset buttons to go back to
factory settings.  Ask how I know that?

First try: It finished updating, and I could play it when I had it hard wired to Ethernet, but it just would not play through AirPlay.  After fussing with the setup, going online to see if anyone else had trouble (and it was filled with glowing reviews and vague statements like 'software updates could be better') - doing a factory reset by holding 2 buttons and a paperclip pressing the reset button all to no avail ... I was breaking out in a cold sweat.  I may have created an $800 door stop as far as AirPlay was concerned.  Kathy was annoyed with me.

Ok. Darling Husband has edited out a large amount of moaning, groaning, and possibly swearing here. The world was ending. Don't let him fool you, he can be a Diva (Divo? [Devo?]) when things don't go as he plans. I'm the one that suggested Google and the factory reset. Yup, me. He was set to call for an RMA number for his brick of a doorstop. And yes, I was annoyed.

Before calling for an RMA number, but well after panic set in, I went and tried the whole thing again - I couldn't see the device's software update section through WiFi, but when I plugged in the Ethernet cable I saw it.  So one more time (... this time with feeling?) and then success!  It was updated and AirPlay worked.  Whew. 

How was it so far?

The Beolit 12, was able to get up and running with only a moderate amount of fuss ( but TONS of Drama), and given my track record with technology (I tend to be an excellent test subject since I can break and brick anything), it held up pretty well.  It's putting out music, and we're getting ready to live with it for awhile and see how it holds up.

Next up: Listening impressions using some of our standard tunes, and also seeing how it holds up to being a portable music center for us as we enjoy our all too brief summer weather!