Skip to main content

This $40,000 speaker is ridiculous

This $40,000 speaker is ridiculous

/

Bang and Olufsen BeoLab 90

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Bang and Olufsen's 90th anniversary is next month, so the company decided to celebrate the achievement with a new speaker. But not just any speaker: the 300-pound, $40,000 BeoLab 90 loudspeaker, which the Danish company says will change the future of sound.

Hyperbole aside, the BeoLab 90 is an insane 360-degree, 8200-watt speaker with 18 drivers and amplifiers. It also comes with an app that allows you to optimize the speaker for the room that it's in (taking into account the furniture as well), and includes some outlandish features like "beam width control," which allows you to "steer the sound radiation to your favorite listening location," which sounds plausible for a $40,000 speaker.

If you have the disposable income equal to the net worth of a middle-class American neighborhood, the BeoLab 90 could be a nice addition to one of your mansions. But for the rest of us, getting into the same room with this dope-ass speaker after it's released next month will be an accomplishment in itself.

Verge Video Vault: High-end personal audio