B&O PLAY Beolit 12 by Bang & Olufsen

Reviews for B&O PLAY Beolit 12 by Bang & Olufsen

Customer Reviews and Ratings

4.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 15 reviews

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Sound is fantastic, airplay / wifi is terrible.

    • Written by from Malmesbury

    The sound quality is great, truly amazing for such a small and battery powered device.

    It works perfectly well with the 3.5mm jack and USB connections but what I was really excited about was the airplay wireless functionality. It started well but as soon as I moved the unit more than a meter from the router (2TB time capsule) it started cutting out every so often, more than 2 meters wasn't worth trying to listen to. Totally useless. I'm hoping there's a fault with this one, surely this isn't normal! I've updated software to no avail, B&o have been good so far, we'll see if its this unit or just poor electronics & wifi design. My iPhone has great signal all over the house and streams HD video so surely this should be ok!?

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Great product... almost!

    • Written by from NOTTINGHAM

    The Beolit 12 looks fantastic! It is solid, well made, and portable. Like other B&O products, it will not look dated in a couple of years. It is equally happy with an Apple/Android player, as it comes with a handy USB connector instead of a dock . Airplay for wireless playing.

    However, it has two flaws:

    1. It needs a further software update as it takes almost two minutes to connect to your wireless network each time you switch it on - most Airplay devices connect almost instantly. I did not like to leave it on all the time, as I used it in the bedroom and the 'on/standby’ light was very strong. I am sure they will solve this issue in the near future.

    2. As other reviewers have said, the door’s catch at the back is very delicate and breaks easily (e.g., if you accidentally pull the power lead when you want to use it somewhere else, or use the battery). This is a serious design flaw; when the catch breaks, you cannot close the door anymore!

    I was very sad when I had to send it back after the door’s catch broke. I will buy it again if B&O fixes these two problems, as it has the best sound for a speaker of this size.

    2 of 2 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Hubert

    • Written by from Neumarkt

    this is really a great sound, best out of a such small and movable box ever.

    8 of 9 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Small size, impressive sound!

    • Written by from hørsholm

    I bought my Beolit 12 back 2 months ago, and i can honestly say it´s one of the best speakers in the house, and it´s really nice that you can use it anywhere in the house with Airplay, can´t wait to use it with an Ipad mini.

    48 of 52 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    great sound, amateur cabinet design

    • Written by from New City

    You store the cord behind a little door on the back. Great. However, the door is held in place by a 7¢, plastic clip that the cord easily catches on when you're folding it back and forth to stuff in the little recess. When this happens, the 7¢ clip breaks.

    The 7¢ piece is not user replaceable, of course. You must take it to a B&O dealer, who then ships it off, and in a few weeks (how many they don't say) it comes back, you return to the dealer to pick it up.

    This is an $800 speaker. I would have gladly paid $805.00, if they had made this clip out of a suitable material, such as spring steel. It's ridiculous to put so much effort into sound design, and so little into practical design.

    88 of 93 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    outstanding sound.

    • Written by from Vista

    Okay Let me say I was looking for a portable speaker to take on vacation. I looked and auditioned just about every speaker on this page worth trying. Finally came down to buying Beolit 12 after avoiding it due to the price. Well let me say when I first purchased the beolit I wasn't impressed but after giving it a chance to break in the speakers about 20 hrs ,I've got to say it sounds great , not quite as good as my zeppelin air but then again the zeppelin isn't really portable. So as far as truly portable it can't really be beat. Here's my quick takes - Sounds best at higher volume everything seems very balanced , really doesn't shine on low volume. Set up can be a bit of a hassle but once you get it everything works fine. So again If it's portable and high end sound your looking for and don't dwell on the price this unit is amazing and won't disappoint , If your looking for a awesome WiFi home unit go with the zeppelin air.

    40 of 42 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Outstanding quality and Sound!!

    • Written by from Burke

    I was finally able to purchase the Beolit 12 over the weekend and ever since my ears have been treated to deeply layered sounds. I have a very nice high end audio system in one room of the home but have been looking for something that I could carry with me throught the other parts of the house. B&O has done everything right in this product and I now have extremely high expectations for the rest of the Play line. Sound quality is abouselty astonishing considering the size of the product and easily rivals its only true competitor, the Zepplin Air. It surpasses the Zepplin in design and portability. Easy to setup and update through the iPhone/iPad app. I love people's reactions when they realize where the sound is coming from when they walk into a room with it in use. Treat yourself to something nice you deserve it...

    17 of 17 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    SUPERB Sound - Where's the Remote?

    • Written by from MILWAUKEE

    The superb sound that comes out of this puppy made me forget what a hassle it was setting it up. Not too much of a hassle - just not Apple-like simplicity. I love looking at it! It's so well designed, but why doesn't it have a remote to turn it on? There's an iPhone app for set up, but why can't it be used to turn it on and connecting to the network for Airplay without walking up to it? I applaud B&O for FINALLY yielding to Apple (for decades they've ignored Apple compatibility) but now they have to take it all the way and make the Beolit tie into WiFi automatically and offer an app for remote operation. Also, when it does connect to the network, it's supposed to give you a beep - but the volume default is lower than low, so I never hear it. But these are details in the scheme of things. This is one sweet little speaker and the physical design is fabulous.

    25 of 26 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    impressive sound, functional design, looking towards soft/firmware upgrade

    • Written by from Scottsdale

    For my company I recently purchased (4) of these quite pricey boxes. After spending 5-10 minutes setting them up on my network and getting them to communicate with airplay they worked very well. This is an Impressive sounding box, good highs, decent low end and intelligible mid range. I love the portability of this box with its 4-8 hours of battery life. I have achieved 6.5 over airplay. Using multiple boxes on one network works well too. No detectable delay. Also, since this box is so directional you can set up an great soundstage with multiple points.

    Here is my request to B&O. Being a portable device, it should be easier to switch between established networks. I don't like having to set this up to the network I am using every time I turn it on. the amount of time it takes to recognize the box via ethernet, then having to shut down the box to establish it on a network is time consuming. It should be able to switch between the three established networks on detection. also, it would be great if it were bluetooth. I am aware that the audio would suffer, but nevertheless it would be nice.

    Overall, a rating of four as an impressive full range portable speaker system. If I were to consider price in this review I might give it a 3, but it is a B&O product so I expected it to be more expensive.

    22 of 23 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Perfect!

    • Written by from Novy Jicin

    Beolit12 is the best product of B&O for Apple products.

    27 of 39 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Beolit 12

    • Written by from Falls Church

    This is the best speaker ever. I still love my bose, but this B&O speaker is amazing. Great size (roughly a 6pack) and beyond amazing sound quality and clarity.

    35 of 39 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Amazing!!!!!!

    • Written by from Zapopan

    Best speaker i ever have

    16 of 30 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Nice Product

    • Written by from Cambridge

    Great Product, The B&O store has it for 10% off, kind of pricey, but the design is very impressive. I am replacing the Geneva Sound Small, time to go wireless. I think B&O is going a great direction. After reading the S.Jobs biography I have a new respect for great design, simplicity and easy of use, this product meets all of those design elements.

    96 of 108 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    "Not bad, not bad at all"

    • Written by from New York

    Pound for pound, the B&O Beolit 12 is one of the best AirPlay-enabled speakers out there.

    I recently sold my $35,000 Naim audio system, which was largely collecting dust in today's Apple-driven media environment. This little gem does a great job at replacing that system in a state-of-the-art audiophile-quality package.

    In my opinion, the Beolit 12 is just as impressive as the iPad and the iPhone themselves. Hearing is believing.

    135 of 165 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Good sound, portability is the best feature

    • Written by from Salt Lake City

    I purchased this unit 4 days ago and have been playing around with it quite a bit over the last few days.

    The sound is good considering its small size. Bass is surprisingly powerful. For reference: although it costs more than the B&W Zeppelin, the sound is not nearly as good. Airplay setup was easily accomplished albeit a little annoying as it takes about 2-3 minutes from turning on the WiFi feature for the device to be available either to set up or to use via Airplay.

    The best part of this device is the portability! The Zeppelin is what I would consider somewhat fragile, particularly the iPod dock. This B&O unit is built more like a tank. The battery life is very good particularly when connected via USB and the sound is "large" enough to be usable outdoors. It's cool to be able to walk around the house with this device connected via Airplay to my iPod Touch. I have not had any issues with WiFi connectivity, but I have a small house with the newest Airport Extreme hubs so I get terrific signal throughout the house.

    123 of 147 people found this useful

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