Specs and features
If you’re ever planning on mailing a Beosound 8, make sure you’ve got a 66.1 x 23.9 x 16.4 cm (26″ x 9.4″ x 6.4″) box, suited to carry 4,25 kgs (9.45lbs). Obviously we don’t see any reason for you to mail it. If you are curious, you’ll find a 5 inch woofer and 0.75 inch tweeter under each cover, controlled by a class-D amplifier of respectively 70 and 35 Watts. Ecologically minded? If you’re playing music the Beosound uses roughly 10W, and when it’s idle it only uses 0.4W.
On the back of the device there’s a mini-USB to update the software and an RCA input for external sound sources hidden behind a big flap. If you look closely you’ll see a small switch which denotes whether the device is in the corner of a room, against a wall or on its own. The switch modifies the bass display slightly to counteract sound wave interference against the walls. This feature is great for people wishing to mount the Beosound to a wall and still keep an optimal sound.
Also worth noting: a 30 pin dock connector. It’s completely seperated from the housing, which makes sure there’s no trouble connecting your iDevice, in contrast with deeper connectors. One downside of excellent connectors is that they break off quite easily, especially if you use an iPad. They’re also quite a bit less stable. Because of this the Beosound 8 has a support you can turn to the front or the back which locks every device – whether it’s got a cover or not – in place.
The remote control B&O supplies look very smooth and feels nice. The range is roughly 15 meter, and thanks to LEDs you will know exactly which button you pressed and what’s happening. One downside is that you can only change the volume, and pause/skip the songs. You can’t scroll through playlists, however we feel this would undo the simplicity of the design. And let’s face it: who changes playlist through a remote? You use the screen for something like that.
