Size comparison - Beosound 2 at left and Beoplay A9 at right.
#Note: Find full B&O review list at the bottom.
Let's begin with the summary of the biggest differences you should be aware of when comparing the Beosound 2 vs Beoplay A9:
- Beoplay A9 is able to crank out much stronger sound output (almost TWICE as much as Beosound 2) and it also looks prettier to most (this Nordic Ice Kvadrat color is especially liked by many - including me)
- Beosound 2 propagates the sound much better (almost TWICE the angle of Beoplay A9), and is also much more portable, much more versatile and a little bit easier to use.
Also, do make sure to check out the informative Beosound 2 vs Beoplay A9 chart on bang-olufsen.com.
The most important thing when it comes to speakers, the sound quality, of these speakers are comparable. Unless you have a PhD on speakers and studied these two for weeks, I'm pretty sure you won't notice a difference.
However...
If you own a spacious room (more than, say, 60 m² (645 ft²)), I'd strongly recommend you to disregard Beosound 2. Chances are, its power is going to suffer.
In that case, go check out my Beosound Edge vs Beoplay A9 article.
Here's the Beosound Edge vs Beoplay A9 vs Beosound 2 chart: https://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/us/comparison/products?slug=speakers&p1=beosound-2&p2=beosound-edge&p3=beoplay-a9
If you own a much smaller room, you need much smaller speakers. In which case you should stop reading this post and go check out my Beoplay M3 vs M5 article.
I contacted the B&O Customer Service about this and here's what they told me:
- Beoplay A9: 2nd and 4th Generation. I'm told that the A9 2nd Generation is no longer on production line and also, no longer available web-store either.
- Beosound 2: Received a complete revision in 2017. This is the most recent model of Beosound 2 on B&O's web-store.
I'm also told that although these previous revisions are discontinued, customer support is still being delivered for them.
Information in this post applies only to the most recent models of Beoplay A9 and Beosound 2.
After all, B&O is always a safe bet when it comes to sound quality - especially with high-end products like these two.
At a whooping four figures, these speakers are far from cheap. So I'd recommend you to read this post entirely. But if you want a quick summary, here it is:
If your new speaker will take place inside a mostly 50-60 square meters apartment flat, then Beosound 2 can mostly be a better choice. Any room larger than that and Beoplay A9 can be more suitable - especially for detached houses.
Let's dive deeper.
Sound quality, strength & propagation
Have you ever noticed that there often tends to be quite the opposite opinions about a speaker?
I can understand this for more "personal taste" kinda products like clothing, for example.
But for engineering products like speakers? Personal tastes and preferences probably still play a role. But shouldn't it be less?
Why is it that we can't set a universal metric for sound quality?
First time I asked this question to myself has been a pivotal day.
Because it turns out that in the mid 90's, Electrical Engineer PhD Floyd Toole came up with a method called Spinorama. This is exactly what he accomplished with this. Turns out that his book Sound Reproduction is like the bible of audiophiles.
Put it simply, Spinorama is a set of measurements that gives a comprehensive overview of a speaker's performance from various angles.
It allows you to compare the performances of different speakers before even laying your ears hands on them.
Isn't that amazing?
This is why Spinorama was apparently groundbreaking news for audio industry. Hence in the mid-late 2010's, most brands and magazines began publishing Spinorama measurements, despite the challenges of making such measurements.
Fortunately, now we have the Spinorama data for a bunch of quite popular speakers. Pierre Aubert put all this untidy data together and put it into https://www.spinorama.org/. This is a stunning source. Pretty valuable stuff from him right there.
All good up to this point.
Now there comes a caveat.
Since the sound speakers propagate are in the form of omnidirectional waves, all measurements are obtained in anechoic or semi-anechoic chambers (a super-quiet room where soundwaves don't bounce back, here's how different that room sounds [a mind blowing time-adjusted video]).
This is a problem because it means that Spinorama alone, unfortunately, won't give us all we need. Placement and reflections play an equally important role there too.
This is why most A-class brands (like SVS, Bang & Olufsen, etc) often come up with room correction features, adjusted either manually or automatically. The EQ adapts itself to the placement (room, corner, center, etc) for a better (deeper and more accurate) sound. Which is great.
Additionally they often emphasize the importance of placement, here is an example: https://www.svsound.com/blogs/subwoofer-setup-and-tuning/75365187-the-art-of-subwoofer-placement
Anyways...
The source code under Pierre Aubert's work is licensed under GPL (General public license). He didn't perform any of the measurements himself, and instead he compiled all of them into one place, so that makes sense.
At this point, I thought that if there was a tool that combined both the Spinorama with the room acoustics data, it'd be extremely useful.
Unfortunately, it turns out that there wasn't any.
This is where I stepped in and partnered with an Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD in order to achieve this.
We combined Spinorama data with room acoustics and came up with Soundton. A very simple, 2D online tool that allows you to:
- Reveal optimal speaker positions in a room,
- Test with real speakers from real brands,
- Compare different speakers and different positions in the room.
It can be very valuable for the vast majority.
The colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) listening experience.
It works the best with subwoofers since Soundton processes low frequency response waves only.
- Soundton is going to be, say, 80% accurate. Not 100%.
- Because, other parameters such as the age/materials of the building, furniture/windows in place also have an impact on room acoustics.
- If you want absolutely the most detailed room analysis, then what you need is an acoustics consultant. Mind you that's going to require deep pockets and patience though... assuming you find the right person and they get the job done.