B&O BEOPLAY P2
One of the newest speakers from B&O, the Beoplay P2 is arguably the company’s cheapest speaker and the easiest to bring around. The attention to detail, from the grill to the attached lanyard, speaks quality, so this is certainly one unit that scores in the looks department.
It also scores in terms of smarts. You won’t nd any physical buttons on this speaker. Instead, gesture controls and a companion app allow you to play/pause your music, or to call up Siri or Google Now.
In terms of audio playback, we found the speaker wasn’t the most powerful in terms of volume, but was able to produce surprisingly full sound for a mono speaker thanks to a tweeter/woofer pair that’s powered by two class D ampliers. The speaker isn’t going to e ortlessly ll a room, but it easily pumps out more full-bodied music than you would expect from something so small.
For example, on a recording of Spanish Harlem by Rebecca Pidgeon, we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of atmosphere the speaker was able to create. Pidgeon’s vocals are nicely centered, and both highs and mids are well resolved. There are shakers, pianos and strings in this piece, and they all stand out nicely.
It also did well with rock, as a recording of Guns N’ Rose’s Sweet Child O’ Mine proved to be another enjoyable listen. The highs are sparkly and the mids robust, though there does seem to be a slight dip in performance in the high mids and some distortion on the absolute low end.
On our formal test tracks, we thought the speaker did best on Sail on Soothsayer by Buckethead. The bass was a little boomy to start, but the speaker did well to focus on Buckethead’s guitar throughout, with lush mids allowing the track to draw you in. There was good clarity on the solo too – especially in the highs, which seem to be a strength for this speaker.
Great treble and bass performance for a mono speaker. Price is high for this category.