When it comes to high end musical reproduction, Bang & Olufsen is always one of the first companies to be mentioned. They have been releasing quality, high-end products for over a hundred years. More recently, B&O Play has launched a new multi-room wireless speaker, the M5, at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. B&O Play is a sister company to the high-end hi-fi brand Bang & Olufsen which has been producing high quality, audio equipment since the early 1900s. Bang & Olufsen set up B&O Play with the intention of releasing a line of audio equipment that is accessible to most consumers. The Beoplay line provides an affordable alternative with great looks and tremendous sound reproduction. The success of, and public reaction to, the B&O Play A1 wireless speakers meant that there was great anticipation ahead of the release of the B&O Play M5 at the CES 2017 held in January.
First Impressions
The Beoplay M5 is 7.5 inches tall by 6.7 inches in diameter and weighs over 5.5 pounds. The first impression one gets is of a beautiful piece of equipment that feels fabulous to the touch. Basically, it is a Bluetooth speaker produced to the highest engineering standards and featuring the best bits of the latest trends in audio technology. This speaker can be used as the base hub for a network of speakers throughout the living space due to its superb connectivity and interconnectivity options available through the free app provided with the system. Once set up, the system can all be controlled through any phone with ChromeCast connectivity functionality. If this does not sound too exciting, wait until you get a chance to see it, to touch it and to try it out and get to discover all that this speaker is capable of.
Design and Feel
B&O's company manifesto starts with 'We are in the business of goosebumps' and, therefore, the look and feel of their products is hugely important to them. Once again, the award-winning Danish industrial designer Cecilie Manz, who also decided the look of the brand's Beoplay A2, the Beolit 15, and Beoplay A1 models, was engaged to design the M5. She has produced a truly beautiful device that will look great in almost any setting. Manz did not wish to design something that would just blend into the background in the living room. She wanted something that would be the centre of attention and discussion with visitors to one's home.
The central concepts behind the design of the M5 come from the principles of modern architecture. One of these principles is that if you are using a simplistic and sleek design, you should use high quality materials to bring your design to fruition. B&O and Cecilie Manz have completely taken this concept on board in this design using materials that feel as great as they look. The high quality wool-blend fabric and the soft touch aluminium top and bottom of the device will give any user tactile and visual pleasure.
The M5 is a 360 degree speaker system due to its cylindrical design with the covered speaker drivers within the system providing a simulated stereo effect wherever one is in the room. The speaker drivers are covered by a shell acoustically transparent wool-blend fabric from Danish high-end manufacturer Kvadrat. This material feels as good as it looks, being incredibly soft to the touch whilst being slightly textured.
The system's pedestal and top are made from a solid block of extremely durable soft touch aluminium which is also very slightly textured courtesy of adonising. While it looks great, the top is actually the control centre of the device, it twists to adjust volume levels. It is heavily dampened meaning that all that is required is a slight movement to bring the volume up or down, it does not need a complete motion to crank things right up or to quiten things right down. Due to the large size of the volume controller and its subtle adjustability, one has a lot more control than with most speaker systems. Pressing the top will play or pause music, or will link up an inactive M5 with already active M5s elsewhere in the house. The beautiful look of this device and its high quality of design will be a major selling point for many consumers but it is, of course, a speaker system and therefore the look is just a great way to highlight the superb acoustics harbored inside.
Sound Quality
For people with an interest in technology, the key thing is always function over form, so how does the M5 sound? Generally, it provides a warm and powerful performance with heavy bass. The sound is crystal clear and totally undistorted but the bass is powerful and impressive and sounds like a system of much greater size. When placed on a wooden table and set at 75% volume, the M5 produces bass that can be clearly felt through the floor without any distortion. This is a great achievement with a speaker of this small size because the level of excursion (speaker movement distance needed to push a certain volume of air) needed to produce bass causes a speaker to lose its command of the precise motions necessary to produce smooth vocals and clear treble. The M5 manages this by using a magnet that would normally be fitted in a much larger speaker which allows it to achieve great sounding and feeling bass while still retaining excellent control over the speaker cone.
There are five speakers including a five-inch subwoofer that aims downward in order to disperse low frequency evenly around the room and three three-quarter inch tweeters and a one and a half inch mid driver that project sound out front and reflect it from a nearby wall. The M5 has 130 watts of audio power and a wide frequency coverage (37-22,000 Hz) giving it superb aural versatility for such a small speaker.
The B&O's free app can be used to adjust sound modes to produce optimum sound depending on where the speaker is located within a room as the sound will be dispersed differently if the speaker is in a corner or if it is placed out in the open. This equalizer allows the customer to control the bass, mid-range, and treble frequencies separately and, thereby, to create the precise sound type that they want. For those who are not into tinkering with the levels, the app also offers a number of pre-configured sound styles. These have been crafted for different types of music and will automatically tune the speaker to the user's individual taste.
It can be loud also meaning that the M5 will work perfectly well for everything from relaxed listening to use as a full-on party speaker. This system is not aimed at listeners who just throw on music as a background noise used just to fill the silence. It is meant to be an enjoyable, engaging sound reproduction experience. Whatever type of music you listen to, it will come to life in a new and exciting way.
Connectivity
The M5 is an extremely adaptable and well connected speaker system. It uses the ChromeCast connectivity system which makes it easy to interconnect with other Cast compatible devices, as well as AirPlay, Bluetooth, Spotify, Connect, and other service technologies. B&O Play's free app helps one to go through the interconnection process. The user can then use his phone to search for all Cast compatible speakers which can then be added to a network with the M5 acting as a hub. This means that previously purchased speakers in the B&O range will still be useful as part of a new improved network.
The Beoplay A1 can act as a lower cost 'little brother' of the M5 and can be used as a more portable system base. Of course, once the speakers are paired up you do not have to use the base to line up your chosen tunes. Your phone can be used as a controller for all your service and streaming technologies such as AirPlay and Spotify.
Durability
This speaker is designed to last. Its aluminium top and bottom can withstand plenty of wear and the fabric covered ring that houses the subwoofer and the drives is constructed from a solid plastic cylinder that will prevent accidental damage from normal impact.
However, this is obviously a high-end piece of equipment and it would be foolish to just throw it around and expect it to survive. Whilst it is designed to be moved around and used in different environments and will give years of enjoyment if properly maintained, it will not survive rough and careless handling, always use some care and store the device carefully.
Conclusions
The Beoplay M5 is simply one of the best sounding Bluetooth speakers available to buy. Compared to other portable speakers, its reproduction performance is considerably better with bass heavy music when played at relatively high levels.
Bang & Olufsen are rightly renowned for the quality of their design and this product fully lives up to this reputation. The M5 is a beautiful piece of kit which would grace any living space. If your purchase decision is effected by design quality, you will want to own this speaker.
To get use of the M5's excellent multi room connectivity features, you will need more than one speaker and for perfect sound quality it will be necessary to buy matching speakers. On the other hand, if you are just looking for sound continuity through various rooms, the M5 will act as a hub for a network of speakers that can connect to the ChromeCast system.