Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 18 Reviews

xl_B&O-BeoLab-17-Close-624

 

I was part of the development team, and one of the two persons who decided on the final sound design (aka tonal balance) of the B&O BeoLab 18 loudspeakers. So, I’m happy to share some of the blame for some of the comments (at least on the sound quality) from the reviews.

 

Bernard Dickinson at Live Magazines said:

“The sound reproduction is flawless”

 

Lyd & Billede’s August 2014 review said

“Lydkvaliteten er rigtig god med en åben, distinkt og fyldig gengivelse, som ikke gør højopløste lydformater til skamme.” (The sound quality is very good with an open, clear and detailed reproduction, which do not put high-resolution audio formats to shame.)

and ”Stemmerne er lige klare og tydelige, hvad enten vi sidder lige i smørhullet eller befinder os langt ude i siden. Det er faktisk ret usædvanligt og gør, at BeoLab 18 egner sig lige godt til både baggrundsmusik og aktiv lytning” (The voices are crisp and clear, whether we are sitting right in the sweet spot or far off to the side. It’s actually quite unusual and makes the BeoLab 18 equally suited for both background music and active listening)

60 Responses on “Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 18 Reviews”

  1. Ewout says:

    Hi Geoff,

    I own a pair of beolab 18 speakers, positioned on their original black ‘feet’. What I am wondering about, is that the acoustic lens is way above ear level when I am sitting on my coach or in my chair. I thought the optimal position for a tweeter is always at ear level, especially when the tweeter is mounted horizontally and cannot radiate to any vertical degree. Could you explain why the decision has been made to put the tweeter at such a height? My second question is that I like to mount the beolab 18 speakers to the wall, resulting in a situation where cables are fully hidden, but also in a situation where my speakers will be located in an even higher position, about 15 – 20 centimeters off-floor. This implies that the acoustic lens will be positioned even higher, coming close to ear-level when standing. To what degree is this effecting sound quality when sitting about 3 meters from both speakers? And my very last question; my speakers are currently at about 35 cm from the wall, DSP on ‘free’. What will be the effect on a wall-mounting position, DSP still being on ‘free’?

    Hope you find the time to answer my questions.

    Best regards,

    Ewout

  2. geoff says:

    Hi Ewout,

    There was a very long discussion about this on one of the beoworld.org forum threads.

    The condensed version of the answer is that the Beolab 18 was tuned at a “reference position” of 3 m distance, and an ear height of 1.1 m off the floor. So, if you’re in (very roughly) that position (or at least at that angle) you’ll have the same on-axis response that we had during the sound design process. If you stand up so that your ears are at tweeter-height, you may notice that the loudspeakers become slightly brighter due, in part, to the vertical directivity of the acoustic lens.

    Personally, (but without having tried it…) I would guess that adding 15-20 cm to the height of your BL18’s would not have a noticeable effect on the overall timbre. I would say that you will likely have more effect from a different placement in the room (I’m thinking particularly about floor reflections) than you will from the vertical directivity of the acoustic lens.

    If you place your loudspeakers at the walls, I would suggest putting them in “Wall” position. If you leave them in “Free” mode, you will likely find that they will sound a little “muddy” – although this is very dependent on other acoustical characteristics of your room. My honest advice is to put them on the wall mounts, then get two friends (one at each loudspeaker) to switch between Free, Wall, and Corner (simultaneously) while you listen – and pick the one that you like best.

    Cheers
    – geoff

  3. Ewout says:

    Thanks so much for your detailed answer Geoff. I will now definitely mount them to the wall and try the different DSP settings! Thank again.
    BR
    Ewout

  4. Ewout says:

    Hi Geoff,

    Could you help me with just two other questions?
    Situation: I currently have the beolab speakers connected to a NAD M51 preamp by means of silver RCA cables.
    1. Will the sound change if I will connect the beolab 18’s by means of the wireless transmitter in stead of the silver RCA cables?
    2. The NAD M51 is a delicate and very fine DAC/pre-amp. No sound controls are available.
    Will the sound improve by connecting the beolab 18’s to a beosound 4 by means of powerline? Then sound controls are available and b&o is connected to b&o. This ultimately seems to be the optimal situation. In this scenario, the NAD will be the DAC to which all my other equipment is connected (Sonos, tv, etc), and the DAC connects the (only) input of the beosound 4.

    Hope you can provide your insights on this.

    Thanks again for your efforts to helping me out.

    BR
    Ewout

  5. geoff says:

    Hi Ewout,

    Hmmm… I don’t know the “definitive” answer to your question – however:

    1. The sound may be different if you connect the NAD output to a WPL transmitter instead of directly to the BL18’s – then again, it may not. If it is, then there are three possible reasons:
    1a. The ADC on the WPL transmitter is not identical to the one on the BL18’s – however I doubt that these will be audibly different.
    1b. You might get away with a shorter cable run to the WPL transmitter, which *might* reduce your noise floor.
    1c. If you push the distance on the WPL signal too far, you *may* have audible errors – but if this happens, I would be surprised…

    2. To answer this question, I have to ask why you’re thinking of putting the BeoSound 4 between the NAD and the BL18’s. I don’t really understand why you want to do this. Could you please clarify this for me.

    Cheers
    – geoff

  6. Ewout says:

    Hi Geoff

    Your answers are really helping me out in choosing the best audio solution for me, thanks so much. The reason why I consider connecting the beosound 4 in between, is because I have the idea that connecting a b&o device to another b&o device feels like creating an optimal sound, reproduced in a way b&o itself defined and tested it; b&o to b&o instead of non b&o preamp to beolabs. The speakers are in such a case not influenced by the quality of RCA cables, but by the intended powerlink connections. Besides, I can tune the sound somewhat to my likings by means of treble, bass and loudness controls , when necessary. What is your opinion on this?

    BR
    Ewout

  7. geoff says:

    Hi Ewout,

    If you wish to use the controls and features of the BeoSound 4, then, of course, you should include that in your signal path.

    However, when we make a loudspeaker, we create it so that, as much as possible, its audio performance equally well with any source – whether from Bang & Olufsen or not. Of course, there are some technical caveats to mention. Power Link has a maximum level of 6.5 V rms, whereas most “Line” level signals from other devices reach only 2.0 V rms. This MAY, in some cases, have an effect on your total signal-to-noise ratio (and/or dynamic range, depending on your definition). Using the optical digital input will result in a different audio performance, since the ADC of the loudspeaker’s input has been removed from the chain.

    Cheers
    -geoff

  8. Ewout says:

    You have been of great help Geoff. Everything makes really sense. I will probably keep my current setup then, and hook them up to the wall.

    Thanks again for your input.

    BR
    Ewout

  9. Per says:

    Hi Geoff,
    I just bought BL18, and I would like to connect it to my Sonos Connect. Should I use RCA (analouge) out or Toslink (digital) out for best sound quality? Digital out would mean, that I only use the D/A converter in BL18, but I have heard, that the volume control in Sonos could be a problem when using digital output (not bit perfect). Could I improve the sound quality be adding a DAC/Pre with volumen control? I guess the answer would be the same if I had a Beolab Transmitter.
    BR Per

  10. geoff says:

    Hi Per,

    I have never used a Sonos Connect – so I cannot speak from experience or measurements… However, taking that into consideration:

    Since the Sonos has a volume control that is applied to both the analogue and the digital outputs, I personally would connect the digital output to the BL18’s. This is because it is most likely that the gain (a value multiplied by the audio signal) is applied to the signal, and that is sent to both the Sonos’s analogue output (a DAC) and its digital output.

    So, if you consider the signal inside the Sonos, you probably have identical quality at the input of its internal DAC and its digital output. Therefore, by connecting the digital output to the BL18’s, you avoid the Sonos DAC and the BL18’s ADC in the chain. Unless the Sonos is horribly wrong, then using a digital connection should lower the noise floor of your output without affecting the audio quality.

    Whether putting an extra DAC with an analogue volume control between the Sonos and the BL18’s would be better, worse, or preferable to a direct connection is difficult to say. However, I would guess that your best bet is to just do the digital connection from the Sonos to the BL18 and call it done.

    The only thing I’m really worried about is whether your volume control on the Sonos will have enough resolution to be usable when connected directly to the BL18’s. Specifically, I’m wondering whether, even at the lowest volume setting, the output from the speaker is too loud. If this is the case, then we have to have a different conversation – because the question will have changed.

    Note as well that I would not expect that the output level of the BL18’s will be the same if you compare a digital connection to an analogue connection directly with the Sonos. So, if you connect with digital and it’s too loud, then try the analogue and see if it’s better. If neither one works, then get back to me and we’ll sort out another solution.

    Cheers
    -geoff

  11. Per says:

    Hi Geoff,

    Thanks for the quick feedback. I will try to use the digital output and compare with analogue.

    I found this on the Sonos Forum:

    https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/zp80-output-specifications-4362

    According to the chat SONOS Volume control is 24bit. So if you feed your SONOS digital signal to a 24-bit DAC or processor, there is no “information loss” using the SONOS volume control as your main volume control or “digital preamp”. Experiments show that there is no “information loss” to 16-bit program material until the volume is lowered to below -48dB. When lowering the volume with 24-bit digital signal processing, and when you get down below -48dB, you can hardly even hear the music anymore, let alone the distortion, which is still many times lower, so if you are no longer achieving 16-bit performance, it really doesn’t matter. With 24-bits available, you can set your system up to have headroom above ordinary listening levels, and not lose your 16-bit performance at ordinary listening levels and even below that. Without the 24 bits, that “headroom” would be eating into your DAC performance.

    If thats correct, then I guess I would get the best sound quality by using Toslink (digital).

    BR Per

  12. geoff says:

    Hi Per,

    There is a different way to think of this – but the explanation would require drawings. Think I’ll make it the topic of a blog posting in the future…

    Go’weekend!
    Mvh
    -geoff

  13. Oliver Kopp says:

    Hi Geoff,
    Got today my beolab 18. The team and you did a super job. I am enjoying the speakers very much.
    Thanks!

  15. Ollie says:

    Hi Geoff – i have the Beolab 18s but feel i might not be doing them justice in my current setup (i’m a newbie to all of this…). I simply run the 18s with B&O Essence and use my Samsung TV, but its music that i mainly listen to via Spotify et al that I am not quite happy with. What single component would you introduce to improve the source? Is the essence sufficient or should i invest in a Transmitter 1 and DAC / Amp / AV receiver? For listening to music alone would you suggest the Beolab 19 is always required or the 18s on their own should be sufficient? Appreciate its very hard to advise but am feeling swamped by the sheer number of components available to choose from and unsure where to go from here. Leaning towards adding the Transmitter 1 and Beolab 19 but also ready to invest in something more to get an optimum output from these amazing speakers. Thanks in advance!

  16. geoff says:

    Hi Ollie,

    I might be able to help – but I’ll need some more specific information from you. You say that you’re not quite happy – but you don’t say exactly what aspect you want to improve. It would also help to know whether you’re listening at higher-than-average listening levels normally.

    Cheers
    – geoff

  17. Aaron Tan says:

    Hi Geoff,

    I got a pair of B&O Beolab 18 recently and I simply run the speakers with B&O Essence, wired and play songs from my IPad.

    I would prefer to run the speakers wireless and was told that I need to invest in another Transmitter.

    My question is are there any substitute to the B&O Transmitter that allows me to set up and run the speakers wireless?

    Regs
    Aaron

  18. geoff says:

    Hi Aaron,

    The BeoLab 18’s should work with any WiSA-compatible transmitter. If you wish to use another wireless protocol, then you would have to purchase a transmitter and receiver pair, and use the line input of the BeoLab 18’s.

    Cheers
    – geoff

  19. Keith Bird says:

    Geoff, Hey, These comments are in regards to the Beolab 12-3 active loudspeakers that I recently added to my Beovision 11 and Beolab 11 subwoofer. I cannot praise the aesthetic and the acoustic quality enough. Visually they are simply stunning. They look like liquid metal, and yet they are very solid and substantial in the quality and the masterful craftsmanship. Now the sound. Oh baby! Pure perfection. I never thought that they would add so much life and dimension to listening to ,my music and watching TV or movies. The sound stage simply shimmers with new life and power! The highs are crystal clear and crisp, the mid-range is silky smooth and almost creamy. The bass is clean, powerful and authoritative without being overdone. I simply love my Beolab 12-3’s and look forworward to finishing my surround system with yet another pair of Bang & Olufsen Speakers. But which ones……?

  21. Ollie says:

    Hi Geoff – I want to improve the bass/ mid bass. On some guitar driven/ band music it feels a bit missing. I’ve switched the speakers to ‘free’ which helped a little but as you’ve said in a previous post this feels a bit muddy. I’ve read on other forums people having a positive experience connecting the to the pre-outs on an amp/ avr via line Rca cables. So I’m looking at adding the marantz 6011. Will / should that make any difference? After that I was thinking of adding the beolab 19 sub. Thanks in advance!

  22. Jose Maldonado says:

    Hello Geoff. I would also like to know if you can successfully use an AV receiver’s pre outputs to drive the Beolab 18s. What is the analog line input sensitivity of the speakers, i. e., how many Volts you need to drive the speakers to full volume?

  23. geoff says:

    Hi Ollie,

    Using a line output from another device may or may not correct the issues you’re having. To be honest, I really don’t think that this will make a huge difference. The question is “what do you mean by ‘improve'” – do you want MORE bass, or is it ringing, or is it something else? Have you tried moving your loudspeakers to different positions in the room to see if it’s the room that’s the issue? (It may not be – but it may… I would hate for you to buy gear when the problem can be solved by coupling to your room modes a little differently…)

    Cheers
    -geoff

  24. geoff says:

    Hi Jose,

    I believe that you will reach full-scale at 2 V RMS on a sine wave input. This corresponds to 2.8 V peak.

    I’ll double-check this at work this week – just to confirm.

    Note that the Power Link input reaches full scale at 6.5 V RMS – in case you’re using an adapter cable for the RJ45 connector.

    Cheers
    -geoff

  26. Jan says:

    Hi Geoff,
    I recently acquired a pair Beolab 18. The sound is great, I am very happy!

    I wonder what would happen if I connect multiple sources at the same time?

    What I have in mind is connecting a bluetooth receiver via line-in RCA and a PC with Tidal via Toslink. I hope for a case where incoming toslink data would shut down the RCA line in. Then I could leave both connected and the better data would shut down the worse… I am speculating in that direction because transmitter 1 works in that priority. I am a bit hesitant to try. I don’t want to see smoke…

    Thanks,
    Jan

  27. geoff says:

    Hi Jan,

    The BeoLab 18 is designed to have all 3 “wired” inputs connected simultaneously to three different sources (RCA, Toslink, and Power Link). There is an internal priority that determines who “wins” if you have two of those sources playing simultaneously. I don’t remember the order of this priority. I’m certain that Power Link will come first – then I believe it’s RCA, and Toslink last – but I could be wrong on those two… It’s not possible to change the priority, I’m afraid.

    You certainly will not see smoke. Connect everything as you state there, and enjoy!

    Cheers
    -geoff

  29. Jan says:

    Hi Geoff,
    It worked! Toslink has priority over RCA.

    I use one speaker as input for RCA and Toslink and then use toslink out to connect to the second speaker. Speaker 1 will transmit the RCA input to speaker 2 via toslink (and will disable the RCA-in at speaker 2 as long as the toslink is connected).

    The only challenge was that the toslink output from my PC led to very loud volumes. Basically everything above the very lowest level (1%) was too loud. I finally was able to fix that with a equalizer program:
    https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/wiki/Documentation/
    Feels a bit weird, but it works.

    Best,
    Jan

  30. geoff says:

    Hi Jan,

    Great!

    Regarding the PC volume problem: One solution is to use a player that has a volume control built-in. However, you will have to make sure that you route your computer “signal sounds” (e.g. “you’ve got mail!”) to the internal speakers and not the digital output. This is possible on a Mac – so I assume that it’s also possible on a PC.

    Cheers
    -geoff

  31. Jan says:

    Hi Geoff,
    The volume problem is solved using Roon’s DSP. Another questions: You said earlier the speakers were designed for a “reference position of 3 m distance” to the listener. How about the distance between the speakers? Did you design for the classic stereo triangle or is a bit closer together OK ?

    Thanks for your help,
    Jan

  32. geoff says:

    Hi Jan,

    Glad to hear that your source’s volume control works well.

    All of our measurements are done based on a reference distance of 3 m. When doing the listening, we are typically about 3 m away – and with a loudspeaker / listening position configuration as an equilateral triangle to ensure that the phantom imaging is behaving. Of course, we try out other configurations, since not all of our customers have “one chair and no friends”… :-)

    Cheers
    – geoff

  34. Joao Veiga says:

    Hi Geoff, Its an honor for me to talk with the B&Os tonmeister. I am from Brazil and I recently bought a pair of Beolab 18s, but one unit isn’t pairing with my BS moment and its flashing orange. The B&O store close in Brasil, what can do to repear it? Thanks

  35. geoff says:

    Hi Joao,

    Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to your question immediately… I’ll need a little more info to know how to proceed with the debugging.

    – Are you connecting to the Moment using Power Link or Wireless Power Link?
    – If Wireless: then have you tried wired Power Link, just to see if the speaker is working (I’m just trying to establish exactly where the problem is…)

    I’ll warn you in advance that I might not be able to help you solve your problem – but I’ll try… As a backup (and since your store is now closed, so they can’t help you until tomorrow), you might want to also ask the forum at http://www.beoworld.org. There are many helpful and friendly people there…

    Cheers
    -geoff

  36. Joao Veiga says:

    The Bl18 is operating properly when connected wired, however when I switch to the
    WPL it does not connect with Beosound moment and it starts flashing orange. Another thing, when I add the Beolab 19 in the Setup it seems to me that the BS moment takes out the bass from the BL18 and puts it on Bl19, but it seems that it takes a frequency (medium / low) that the Subwoofer can not reproduce, you know how Can I solve this problem? I apologize for my English. Thank you very much for your help, and I would like to congratulate you because the sound of Beolab 18 is excellent!

  37. geoff says:

    Hi Joao,

    It’s not enough to just switch the 18’s to WPL mode. You’ll have to set them up as wireless speakers in the Moment as well.

    The Moment is behaving as it should when you add the 19 in the setup. This is causing it to do the bass management, which means that it takes the low frequency signals from the other loudspeakers (in your case, the 18’s) and routes it to the sub. If you want the 18’s and the 19’s to all produce the bass together, then you will have to do this with wires, and keep the 19 a secret from the Moment…

    Keep in mind that it is not necessarily the case that playing bass in all loudspeakers will give you more bass – although it might… The resulting sum of all loudspeakers playing the same signal is dependent on their relative phases, which is dependent on the specific characteristics of the loudspeakers, the positions in the room, the location of the listening position, and some other things…

    Cheers
    -geoff

  38. Joao Veiga says:

    Thank You so much Geoff. Only one unit is showing up to connect wireless, the Beolab 18 which is flashing orange does not appear to connect with BS moment. Is there anything that I can do to solve this problem? I have the transmitter 1 and I can update the Beolab 18 if necessary. On the bass manegermant my problem is not with bass, I have already tried in several positions and whenever I add the Beolab 19 the sound gets excellent bass, however the deep part of the mid-range frequencies is lost, the sound becomes artificial and the Vocals lose focus, the difference is small but I think that bass management deserves an update, if it were possible I would ask you to test (by ear) the Bass manegement with the Bl18 and Bl19 connected with Beosound Moment and compare the sound with the subwoofer and without it, I might be wrong, I know you’re a sound specialist, and you have a lot more hearing sensitivity than I do, but I would be grateful if you could check this for me. Thank you very much, I appreciate your attention and your work, and I apologize for taking your time. I have Beolab 17, 18, 19 and 20 and they all sound great. congratulations on your work!

  39. geoff says:

    Hi again Joao,

    Unfortunately, I’m unable to help you with your Wireless connection problems, since this needs some diagnosing in-person…

    Regarding the behaviour of your system with and without bass management, it’s interesting that you say the “deep part of the midrange” – since this is in the territory of the crossover frequency of the bass management system (120 Hz – which is about a C below middle C – in the middle of my personal vocal range, but I’m a bass…)

    In other words, I suspect that what you’re hearing is the difference resulting from the bass management system in the crossover region – specifically the result of the signal summation from the 18’s and 19’s at your listening position. Have you tried switching the phase of your BL19, playing with the LP filter frequency, or trying it in different locations?

    Cheers
    -geoff

  40. Kenneth says:

    Hey Geoff

    I have Thue beolab 18 connected to a transmitter 1, and the source to the transmitter 1 is the beosound core connected by toslink. But my system dont play very loud, have to set volume to nearly 3/4 for normal listning.. I have set the beosound core on max in the software, is the anything more I Can do?

  41. geoff says:

    Hi Kenneth,

    What’s sending signals to the Core? Does that app have a volume control that is upstream from the Core itself?

    Cheers
    -geoff

  42. Kenneth Andersen says:

    I am using Bang & Olufsen mobil app to control the beosound core, and have deezer streaming.

    So beounsound core create the signal.

  43. geoff says:

    Hi Kenneth,

    I’ll try to find the answer to your question when I get back to work next week… I know a couple of people that might be able to help… :-)

    Cheers
    -geoff

  45. geoff says:

    Not yet – sorry. This week was a holiday week for many people in Denmark, and unfortunately, the person I was planning on asking was not in.

    Hopefully, I’ll track him down on Tuesday.

    Cheers
    -geoff

  46. geoff says:

    Hi Kenneth,

    I’ve had a chat with the guy that might be able to help you/us… Now I have three questions:

    1. Do you have, or have you ever had, the IR receiver for the Transmitter 1 connected to it? (This is an optional device, I suspect that the answer to this will be “no”…)
    2. Is your Transmitter 1 switch called “B&O Input” set to “NO”? IF not, please switch it to NO – but turn down the volume first… :-)
    3. Have you tried using a Power Link connection instead of Toslink? If you have an identical problem there, then we need to look at the Core as the issue. If the Power Link gives you a higher output, then we suggest doing a factory reset of the Transmitter 1. (Note that this will mean that you will have to pair the loudspeakers to it again…)

    Please let me know if any of this helps the situation.

    Cheers
    -geoff

  47. Ivan says:

    Hi George.
    Just got my Beolab 18 and I am very happy with them.
    Just one problem. When conecting via RCA, only one channel works (the speaker into which the cables are connected). Whichever speaker I connect to (I tried both), it does not send the signal to the other (via Power link cable).
    Do I need to connect the RCA cable to both speakers? (one RCA for the left and the other for the right).
    for what I understand, it should work just connection to one speaker which in turn, should send the signal to the other.
    All of this will eventually be irrelevant as I intend to connect them wirelvia Transmiter 1 (when it arrives).
    I am just concerned as to why the RCA connectors in my 18’s are not working as I assume theyh should.
    Many thanks.

  48. geoff says:

    Hi Ivan,

    When connecting the BeoLab 18 with RCA cables, you will need to run one channel to each loudspeaker. The RCA input is not re-transmitted over the Power Link connection. If you wish to get around this, you could use an RCA-to-Power Link adapter cable, and then daisy-chain the second loudspeaker using PowerLink, but this will result in a considerably lower output if your source has a 2.0 V RMS maximum output (which is normal).

    Cheers
    -geoff

  49. Ivan says:

    Hi Geoff.
    Thank you for the quick replay.
    Relieved my 18’s are not faulty!
    I am otherwise incredibly happy with the sound they produce and, I like to take this opertunity to congratulate you on a job well done!
    Cheers
    Ivan

  50. geoff says:

    Hi again Ivan,

    Thanks!

    One thing to beware of: I think (but I’m not certain) that the L/R switch also applies to the RCA inputs. So, if you plug your RCA cable into the LEFT input, and your speaker does not work, check the the switch is also set to LEFT. This might be incorrect – but it’s worth keeping in the back of your mind when setting things up… :-)

    Cheers
    -geoff