It’s fair to say that Bang & Olufsen has never been too concerned about making the speakers it produces in any way “reasonably priced”. In fact, I’d be surprised if cost even made the list of considerations when the idea of the Beosound A5 was bounced around B&O HQ.

The luxurious portable speaker is the quite beautiful result of throwing cost concerns to the wind, and seeing what happens. Its price tag probably means it won’t make a lot of sense to many people, but the fact is, for anyone with the budget, this is a ludicrously good portable speaker that’s a lot of fun to live with.

I got the pleasure of doing just that for a couple of weeks, and here’s how I got on.

Design

Much has been said about the Beosound A5’s picnic basket aesthetic in its Nordic Weave variant, but my review sample was, incredibly, the even pricier version of the A5 – the dark oak and anthracite version. And dare I say, it’s arguably worth the extra $200/£200. Look, if you’re already at the $1099/£899 mark for a portable speaker, the extra investment doesn’t feel like a stretch for the uplift in finish (though do shop around – at the time of writing, this version was discounted to match the Nordic Weave version).

It’ll be down to personal taste, but Nordic Weave version doesn’t look quite as premium to my eyes – it’s more laid back though, for sure, and light, with a handwoven design, apparently inspired by Panama hats.

The dark oak and anthracite feels much more luxe, though both are undeniably Scandi in their style.

Whether you go for the weave or the wood, the A5 also uses an anodised aluminium for its top and bottom plates, which no doubt adds to the undeniable weight of the thing. Portable it may be, but it’s more living-room-to-garden portability than carrying it to a park picnic.

Still, this only adds further to its sense of superb craftmanship. This is a solidly made, quality speaker and I’m very much taken by it. The rather generous oak wooden handle is a particular highlight – sturdily pinned to the sides of the speaker, it feels wonderful in the hand, and makes it easy for moving around the place.

For controls, buttons sit just slightly recessed into the aluminium top plate, but are covered by a more rubbery feeling material, that’s less likely to get scratched or damaged. There are controls for power, Bluetooth, volume and music control, as well as four buttons for preset radio stations – something you can set up in the B&O Music control app.

There’s also a Qi charging pad in the centre, so you can keep your (compatible) phone in good battery reserves while you play back you tunes.

Features

Behind its rather striking looks, then, lies a pretty impressive array of four drivers serving up 280 watts of Class D amplification – pretty punchy given its size.

That comprises a 13cm bass driver, two 5cm midrange drivers and a 2cm tweeter, all of which are beam-forming to help create B&O’s “Omni” sound – a 360-degree sound that aims to do away with a listening “sweet spot” and push music out across a wider soundstage instead (rather than create a spatial sound experience like you’ll hear in the likes of the Sonos Era 300).

This sound processing is optional, though, and can be controlled within the B&O Music app, though you will have to do a bit of digging to get to it.

The app is relatively straightforward, with a picture of your speaker, battery level and music source up top, followed by the shortcuts to your favourite radio stations and a selection of sound modes.

Five of these are presets – Optimal, Party, Speech, Night and Lounge – though each can be tweaked to your taste by clicking into them and using the Beosonic graphic equaliser – a more user friendly way of adjusting EQ settings for those that don’t know their Hz from their kHz.

Instead of moving sliders or waveforms, you simply move and adjust a circle from where the preset has placed it, more towards how you like your music to sound – you have a choice of Warm, Bright, Energetic or Relaxed, along with a suggestion of what that might do to the bass or treble. You can then leave it there to adjust the selected preset permanently, or create your own.

You’ll also find an “Advanced” section here, and that’s where you’ll find the ability to turn off the Omni setting, as well as some tone controls.

Under the regular Sound Settings menu, you’ll also find the ability to stereo pair the A5 with another one, should you be feeling flush enough to own two, or set it up within a multiroom system with other B&O speakers on the company’s Mozart 2.0 platform.

It also packs support for AirPlay 2 and Chromecast using its Wi-Fi 6 connection, so you can pair it with other compatible speakers in your home using those platforms instead.

Tidal Connect and Spotify Connect are also on board, as is Bluetooth 5.2 for when there’s no Wi-Fi to hand – though there is no support for higher quality codecs, such as aptX HD or LDAC, which you might hope from a speaker costing this much money.

Finally in the app there is a section for B&O Radio, where you can access all manner of radio stations in various languages, locations and genres, and Deezer baked in, with the ability to try it for free and access the Deezer interface from within the B&O Music app.

While the Beosound A5 might not look like the most hardiest of speakers, it does have an IP65 rating that should keep it safe from a downpour or drink spill, and there’s around 12 hours of battery life when played at a moderate volume.

This will drain quicker if you choose to use the charging pad at the same time, of course, but it charges up quick enough via its USB-C connection (which can also be used for playback too) – you’ll need around three hours to get it back to full, but a couple will get you close enough.

It’s a pretty comprehensive offering, then, as you might expect. However, there’s no onboard voice control here. There is a microphone on board, which you can control using a physical switch on the back, but it’s for the A5’s built-in room calibration only. Any voice commands you want to use will have to be delivered via your connected device.

Sound quality

It’s worth running through the room calibration before you begin, it doesn’t take long but will require you being plugged into the mains for it to work. It’ll just tweak the speaker’s performance to your room and its placement within it.

Once complete, I get to listening via Tidal Connect, and play Olivia Rodrigo’s vampire. The scale the Beosound A5 is capable of is superb – it’s not a small speaker, but even so, the extent to which it reaches outside its physical dimensions is impressive, and offers a truly room-filling sound. It’ll go loud, too. Almost excessively so – even at 50 per cent I’m very aware I could become unpopular with my neighbours quite quickly.

The Omni setting works well here, giving Rodrigo’s breathy and emotive vocals further space alongside the simplistic piano backing, pushing it further out into the room. If you prefer a more focused sound, then you can turn it off, which solidifies it somewhat, but it doesn’t shrink the sound down as much as you might think.

Either way you’re getting a big sound, but you don’t lose any of the full bodied character of this speaker by switching it on – so choose whichever you prefer,

Everything sounds exactly as it should – tonality here is absolutely spot on. The piano is not always the easiest instrument for smaller speakers to reproduce, but the Beosound A5 shows a keen attention to detail and accuracy.

I stick to the Optimal sound mode for the most part, though I can see how the Party mode might work well in outside – or indeed, party – settings, with a bit of added bass to further secure its confident sound.

That’s underpinned by a fantastic – yet considered – reach into the low end. There’s no wanting for bass depth here, but every rumble of Chase & Status’ bassline-heavy Baddadan remains beautifully controlled. It’s a rich, punchy and powerful performance, but one that never overstates itself.

In fact, it’s a supremely balanced listen across the board, and the top end it just as insightful, attacking cymbal crashes and higher register instruments with no sense of fragility, so that the treble never sounds hard or pushed.

More good stuff continues through the midrange, which is presented with incredible clarity. Vocals in particular are packed with expression and detail, and sit unaffected by whatever else is going on in the mix. It’s a hugely likeable presentation, which just makes sense with pretty much every genre I’ve thrown at it.

Dynamically, the A5 never misses a beat either, attacking every one of those genres with a surefootedness that rarely falls foul of doing exactly as it should. Loud and soft are explicitly handled, even at lower volumes, and it is as capable with fast-paced recordings as it is more ponderous ones.

Perhaps as you push the volume further than you should, there is just the slight thickening up of the midrange, and the soundstage gets a little narrower – however, this is at volumes you will rarely listen at, and certainly not with a more critical ear.

Verdict

Whether the Beosound A5 is a sensible way of spending north of $1099/£899 will very much depend on what you determine “sensible” to be. For many it will be a stretch too far, especially when some of its best competition – the likes of the Sonos Move 2, for example – cost less than half the price.

There are some missteps too – particularly at the price – such as the lack of support for high-quality Bluetooth codecs. Others may decry the lack of built-in voice control, something again, that the competition from Sonos offers as standard.

However, is this the best battery-powered speaker I’ve heard? I’d say so. And it looks undoubtedly lovely too, particularly in the finish I’ve tested here. It’s a real step above anything else in the category.

If you don’t find yourself worrying about such things as performance-per-pound, and instead want the very best sound you can get, the Beosound A5 won’t disappoint.