Beoplay P6 £350
Beoplay is Bang & Olufsen’s more affordable range, offering designer Danish audio at a fraction of the cost. Offshoot brands like this are often disappointing, but not so B&O, who blend eye-catching design, luxury materials and great sound quality. The P6 is expensive for such a compact speaker (170 x 130 x 68mm), but impressively they’ve squeezed in a 36W Class D amplifier that powers a four-inch woofer, while two 1.5-inch full-range drivers each get their own
30W amplifier. This adds up to 215W of power from a speaker with 16-hour battery life, making it an ideal speaker for the garden.
Pop music fans will be delighted with the sound quality, but on first listen I felt the bass was too prominent for a live orchestra. Thankfully the Beoplay App (Android, IOS) has an EQ that lets you tinker with the output. I quickly found a tone – a mix between Warm, Relaxed, Excited and Bright – and was struck by the precision, power and timing of this Bluetooth speaker. beoplay.com