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Bang & Olufsen’s $40,000 speakers feature machined aluminum and oak grates

Bang & Olufsen’s $40,000 speakers feature machined aluminum and oak grates

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You probably can’t afford them

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Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge

Bang & Olufsen has a new speaker out today, and if sound quality and tasteful design is of utmost importance to you — and you can afford to drop five figures on a pair of floor speakers — then the BeoLab 50 might be for you.

Like the other products in the BeoLab line, the BeoLab 50 is a beautifully designed centerpiece device, one that’s meant to stand out in a room rather than hide away in a corner. Between the machined aluminum and oak grates, the BeoLab 50 certainly looks nice, as you’d expect from a Bang & Olufsen product. As a nice touch, hidden on top of the device is a three-fourths-inch tweeter that the company calls an “Acoustic Lens” that rises out of the speaker when you turn it on.

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge

The BeoLab 50 is no slouch when it comes to sound quality, either. Bang & Olufsen has outfitted the BeoLab 50 with three 4-inch midrange drivers, and three 10-inch woofer drivers, along with seven built-in amplifiers — so the entire speaker is ready to go off a single power cable. My colleague Vlad Savov (who knows his stuff when it comes to sound) got to hear how the BeoLab 50 actually sounds in an in-person demo, and he described them as “basically awesome in terms of sound.” Of course, given that these are $40,000 speakers, I’d expect nothing less, but it’s good to know (especially if you’re spending that kind of money).

Despite that price tag, the BeoLab 50 is still not the most expensive speaker that Bang & Olufsen makes. That honor still goes to the BeoLab 90, which costs an eye-watering $84,990 for a pair. Even though the BeoLab 50 is half that price (or a quarter for a single $20,000 speaker, should you dare to commit the sin of breaking up the stereo soundstage), they’re likely to be well outside the price range for the majority of people.

But for the right kind of affluent customer who doesn’t need the extra bells and whistles of the BeoLab 90, and just wants fantastic sound in a beautiful-looking speaker, the BeoLab 50 seems like a good option.