Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 Gen 2 Speaker Review

The Bang & Olufsen A1 is a small, circular speaker with a sleek design. It has a removable carrying strap, which lets you attach it to your bag. It also comes in several colors, so you can find a look that fits your style.

The Bang & Olufsen A1 is incredibly portable. It's very small and lightweight, so you can easily carry it with one hand. It also has a built-in carrying strap, letting you attach it to your bag. Since it's battery-powered, you can use it outside without worrying about plugging it into an outlet.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen has a great build quality. It's mostly aluminum, which feels solid, and it sits on a rubber base, so it doesn't slide around too much. It has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, meaning it's certified to be dust-tight and immersible in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. Its carrying strap is also advertised as waterproof, but the speaker isn't advertised to be impact resistant, so the manufacturer suggests trying not to drop the speaker.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 has amazing controls. There are several buttons located on each side of the speaker. These let you turn the speaker on/off, adjust the volume, and connect a device over Bluetooth. You can also press the Bluetooth button for five seconds to enter TWS mode, which lets you connect two speakers over Bluetooth to form a stereo pair. There's a play/pause button that you can press twice to skip a track or three times to go back. Also, you can short-press it to accept a call or long-press it to reject a call. There's a mic mute button, which you can press quickly to activate the voice assistant or hold for five seconds to mute the microphone.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen also has two lights that indicate the current setting and the remaining battery life. The speaker makes a sound when it enters TWS mode and when a device connects over Bluetooth.

• Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Quick Start Guide

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen has a passable frequency response accuracy. Using the 'Optimal' EQ preset, it has a well-balanced mid-range that can produce vocals and lead instruments accurately. However, it lacks low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy genres like EDM or hip-hop. Also, its treble range is underemphasized, so sibilants like cymbals and S and T sounds may seem dull or veiled. Thankfully, there's a 'Beosonic' sound customization feature and EQ presets featured on its companion app, so you can adjust its sound profile to your liking. For a Bang & Olufsen speaker that can produce a more extended low-bass, check out the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen has a decent soundstage. It has amazing directivity, so the soundstage is perceived as wide and spacious. However, unlike the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore and the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20, it has to downmix stereo content into mono, which doesn't sound as immersive.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen has a middling dynamics performance. It doesn't get very loud, and there's quite a bit of compression present when you push it to max volume, especially in the bass range. As a result, it may not be very suitable for use in large, crowded rooms.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen has poor battery performance. Although it's advertised to last for eighteen hours on a charge, it lasted less than five hours in our tests. That said, battery performance can vary based on usage, so your real-world experience may vary.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen has outstanding voice assistant capabilities. It comes with Alexa built-in, which you can activate with your voice. However, since the speaker isn't Wi-Fi enabled, it relies on the Wi-Fi connection from your paired smartphone to work. That said, it has no trouble understanding your voice, even if you're far away or in a noisy environment. There's also a mic mute button if you want Alexa to stop listening to you.

Update 06/09/2021: We updated the text to provide more information regarding the 'Beosonic' feature and EQ presets.

Update 06/04/2021: We updated the results since the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 doesn't support Party Mode.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1's app, Bang & Olufsen, is good, and is compatible with iOS and Android devices. The app has five EQ presets you can choose from, which you can customize by moving a 'Sound Level Circle'. It also comes with a 'Beosonic' feature which is located next to the 'Favorite' preset, and you can use it to customize the speaker's sound to your liking, by moving around the feature's sound circle in order to make your audio sound brighter, warmer, more energetic, or more relaxed. Additionally, you can pair two Bang & Olufsen A1 2nd Gen speakers together to create a stereo pair. The app also lets you completely disable the voice assistant feature.

Update 01/20/2022: Thanks to user feedback, we identified that the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 does support USB Audio via its USB-C port. We've changed the test results for USB Audio from 'No' to 'Yes' and have updated the text.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 comes with a USB-C charging port which you can use to wire other devices like your laptop to the speaker, meaning you can listen to your favorite tunes via a wired connection instead of over Bluetooth when you need to.

The Bang & Olufsen A1 has impressive Bluetooth connectivity. It has supports multi-device pairing with up to two devices, and it has a remarkable Bluetooth range, so the speaker stays connected to your paired device even when it's far away. While its Bluetooth latency is low with iOS devices, it's high with Android devices, so it may not be suitable for watching videos over this connection. That said, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your experience may vary.