Icon B&O Beolab 50

A flaky all-in-one speaker for the audio elite

I hope that doesn’t sound as flaky as it looks.

Very good. But those brown fins are actually called lamellas, from the Latin for flake. So what you mean is, “I hope that doesn’t sound as lamella-y as it looks.” Which doesn’t quite work. Anyway, do you know what else is Latin? The word ‘audio’, which means ‘I hear’. And once you’ve audio’d a pair of Beolab 50s, you won’t doubt the sturdiness of their sound.

A pair? Where’s the other one?

These are active speakers, which means they don’t need external amplification to make any noise – all the tech is packed inside one speaker, while the other completes the stereo picture. All you need to do is add power (and music). They call it a ‘master and slave’ setup in the hi-fi world, but we’d rather think of it as a dynamic duo, like Ant & Dec.

Do Ant & Dec have a Latin name?

Er, maybe… Antus et Deccus? What they definitely don’t have are ‘acoustic lenses’ that pop up out of their heads. These allow you to change how the speakers disperse the 2100 Watts of sound created by the seven built-in amplifiers. However, you can only choose between two settings: a full 180º panorama or a narrower sweet spot for sitting and stroking your beard in. Just remember, barba non facit philosophum.

What does that mean?

A beard doesn’t make you a philosopher. A pair of these won’t make you an audiophile either, although USB and coaxial inputs that support files up to 24-bit/ 192khz are a step in the right direction. There’s WISA wireless too, but that’s for connecting your Beovision TV, not streaming Spotify from your phone.

THE POP UP ‘ACOUSTIC LENSES’ ALLOW YOU TO CHANGE THE SOUND DISPERSION