Bang Olufsen Beo Grace Fail to Impress Prior to Reviews

 

Bang & Olufsen has continually failed to impress in one area of their product ranges, that being their in ear headphones.  They haven't managed to capture the market since the days of their A8 headphones, and with their latest wireless earbuds they appear to be harkening directly back to those Halcyon days.  Yet forums and tech journalism is not persuaded.

Those who consume design led magazines and newspapers might be fooled, as several of the higher end publications have written in the most glowing terms about these.  Waxing lyrical on the high design, and stunning feature set.  Yet a glance towards outlets that regularly write about technology, along with forums for B&O, show a far more circumspect view, which firmly seems to have declined to drink the marketing Kool Aid.

Amongst these more realistic groups the 4.5 hour battery life has been derided as beyond disappointing.  While the claims of battery replaceability having been simply laughed at.  The major reason for this is the price, which is £1,000, or $1,500.  This makes them at the same level as IEM's, yet while IEM's can offer world class sound, these seem to lack high resolution codec, only supporting AAC, SBC and LC3.

It's difficult to discern what the marketing team at Bang Olufsen are thinking here with the pricing.  The H100's are pricey, but they offer an entirely different value proposition.  Over ear headphones can last for many, many years.  In ear headphones won't.  No amount of marketing guff will change that.  We can't help feeling that using these is more likely to get you laughed at than admired, as they are simply overpriced at their release.