Customer Reviews

Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 2 Digital Music Player

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I've owned the BeoSound 2 since 2002, and I've never been disappointed.

As you can see, B&O has taken a different approach with the design, which should come as no surprise to those who have enjoyed the company's minimalist approach to its audio components in the past.

There are just seven buttons, and their functions are very easy to learn.

Holding some of the buttons simultaneously provides other functions, such as locking the device, setting it to shuffle and have it rescan the card. Those are explained in the manual.

Because there is no display, you really have to remember the order of the albums on your card if you are searching for a specific track, for example.

The BeoSound 2 does not contain a hard drive. Rather, it relies on SD memory cards, which you can change quickly. Currently, the maximum size card allowable with the BeoSound 2 is 2GB. Perhaps a future firmware upgrade will provide for larger-capacity cards.

With 2GB cards, I've found moving from album to album can be slow. I haven't tested with other 2GB cards, so I don't know if this would be rectified by using a different brand of card. There is no delay with smaller-capacity cards. However, there is a pause between songs, which seems to happen with other MP3 players.

The BeoSound 2 fits nicely in your hand. Battery life is decent, although with all internal batteries, there is no simple way to replace the cell when it comes to the end of its servicable life. That's a fact with all rechargeable batteries, so it's not limited to the BeoSound 2.

There is no equalizer with the BeoSound 2. From what I can tell, B&O has chosen to adopt a neutral approach, which I think is the correct method. Bass lines don't sound tubby or artificial, and higher tones retain their natural timbre without sounding bright.

I've used several earphones and headphones with this. B&O's own A8 are a very nice set, although you'll need to fiddle with the ear bar to find a comfortable height. I've also used several different sets of Sennheisers, which sound really fantastic.

If you're tired of the "me too" designs from everyone on the planet, take a look at the BeoSound 2. Just make sure you have plenty of cash in your checking account.

Pros: Great design. Easy to operate without looking at the buttons. Great audio.

Cons: Limited to 2GB capacity SD cards (holds about 17 to 20 albums). Travel charger and other accessories are unreasonably priced. Too easy to inadvertently press buttons if it's in your pants pocket.

Well first of all i always admired the designs of Bang & Olufsen. Its hard to believe that only 7% of Americans are familiar with this brand. It has been rated the top luxury audio brand in the world followed by BOSE.
It all started when i was trying to buy a mp3 player for myself. Most of my friends recommended ipod. Buy i said :C'mon guys, every other guy standing next to you has an ipod." I was looking for something unique. Then i came across this mp3 player - Beosound 2. I tried to give it a shot, so i went to the showroom and tried it. Guess what, i was blown away with its crystal clear music. I purchased it the same day. It comes with a three year warranty.

Pros: design, sound quality, overall performance.

Cons: no display, price.

Actually, you cant really complain about the cons. It was buit without a display because it runs on an SD card with 20 albums in it. So it could get really difficult to find a song if it was more. What i do is I carry multiple SD cards with 20 albums in each .Simple.
Coming to the cost, if you are trying to buy a B&O product, Price must not be in the frame of mind. There are some things in life for which you have to pay the premium price like a lamborghini or a Zegna Suit or whatever.

Coming to the player, the music is flawless. The earphones are very comfortable too. There's nothing like listening to your favourite song on a Beosound 2, its priceless. You cant measure the expression you get out of it. Well i read a lot of reviews where people said the price is too high. C'mon you gotta hear it first and you dont expect to get a ferrrari for the price of Honda, do you?

Anyways i am highly satisfied with this product and i just wanted to say that if you are the kind of person who puts design, quality and taste before price, you might wanna try this out.

Bang & Olufsen has recently released its second mp3 player Beosound 6.It costs around $800.

Simply put, the sound out of this little player is far superior to any other portable device I've ever used.

I've had this for about 3 years. And this is what I have concluded:

Pros: (1) No need to see display to shift between tracks, folders/albums, and volume. (2) Sound quality. (3) The earphones are great, even if they don't transfer < 50Hz. (4) Very unique & sauve design. (5) Multi-year warranty (fact: the average B&O user uses a given piece of equipment for +10 years, so the BeoSound better last).

Cons: (1) Poor interface with iTunes. (2) Background noise at low volumes. (3) USB-1 connection. (4) People will call you out for spending so much money on this. (5) You probably won't notice a difference in sound quality between this and an iPod if you are someplace with noise. (6) You can't store terabytes of music on this, but do you really listen to that much music during the life span of its battery?

In-depth review...
I use my BeoSound 2 mainly to listen to classical music (I'm also a big fan of Indie, alternative, bluegrass, but I listen to that stuff on my iPod), since I found its audio signal to be a bit clearer than that of an iPod (I compared the same classical mp3 on my iPod and this player using the A8 earphones). This is interesting, given that it emits a constant hiss of white noise (noticeable at the lowest volumes). Also, PortalPlayer (now owned by Microsoft, I believe) made some of the sound cards for Apple and B&O, but I don't know if the iPod and BeoSound 2 have the same sound card; presumably not.

On longevity. I've never had an issue with the battery: it still lasts for hours and hours. Further, I've dropped this several times, but it still ticks. Also, the white printed symbols on the face have not worn off after years of use, which seems exceptional for a piece of audio equipment that requires tactile manipulation (e.g., TV remotes).

Limitations. The only major limitation is the transfer speed of files via the adapter. It takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r, because it uses a USB-1 connection. I use a SD-USB card reader adapter thingy, and transfer the music at USB-2 speed. But wait, there's more! For the the BeoSound 2 to register the files, I have to then connect the BeoSound 2 to its dock and iTunes (I use a Mac). The iTunes-BeoSound 2 interface is terrible. The PC interface (Windows Media Player, or whatev) is infinitely better, since you can see more than simply the name of the mp3 (all that iTunes can produce for your).

If you are going to listen to music on this where there is noise (e.g., outside in a city [no matter how large], in a car, etc), don't waste your money. I firmly believe that external noise negates the value of this product, since it took several attempts before I was able to pinpoint the exact differences between this and an iPod for a given album track.

As an aside, I believe B&O is moving away from portable mp3 players, but they rarely update this mp3 player's firmware (I think I updated it only once), so you should be able to use it for years... which seriously contrasts with the short lifespan of iPods (which always need to be reset, argh).

In sum: Why should you buy this? If you have an ego the size of a Texas hairdo and want everyone to know how unique/different/exceptional/rich/vain you are, or if you are absolutely serious about the quality of your musical experience, then you should definitely consider buying this. The sound is crisper than that from an iPod, and well worth the experience.