Bang & Olufsen Reviews

by Depechewav

For the past two years I have struggled using BangOlufsen for the following reasons. I purchased Beoplay E8 2.0 and shortly after Beoplay E8 3.0 and have had unreliable connectivity with my IPhone 12 Pro regardless of the software version with both headset units. In good faith I have communicated back and forth with support on numerous occasions brining the issue to their attention with screenshots, while being under the impression that something has being done to prevent other fellow B&O clients from this frustration. To this day I will get a random error message that my phone can no longer connect to Beoplay E8 and I have to reinstall and re-pair again. And again. And again.
What broke the camel’s back is that my hardly used Beoplay E8 2.0 stop working and I attempted to contact support well within the warranty period on three separate occasion throughout one month as I had done previously through BangOlufsen -got crickets, no response. Finally I DM-ed B&O Instagram account privately and got an instant response that based on the proof of purchase my product was no longer supported.
B&O makes amazing products, can’t say the same about their app.
Thanks and farewell.

by IPhone=no Options

I recently had to switch to an iPhone for work, which is also my personal phone. IPhone will not let you use BangOlufsen to connect to the headphones. I tried it on my iPhone 11 and my daughter's iPhone 9+. I had to connect using the iPhone settings. I can can use the iPhone settings to change the equalizer but it isn't nearly as good as the B&O EQ. I can not change any of the functions such as proximity sensor and a few others that most headphones don't have. This is a similar situation as with my Gear watch. Apple heavily restricts the Bluetooth capabilities. I.e. I have Samsung health on my watch and phone but the watch will not update the data on the phone via Bluetooth. They both have internet access...

by Rei989765

If you connect multiple speakers using the Beosound feature the speakers will not be synchronized, you will hear one or more speakers lagging more than one second respect to the others, this sound like an echo. I spent multiple hours with support trying to fix it to no avail. It is not a wifi or Bluetooth problem, all my setup is top notch, I have the latest in wifi mesh technology, an access point sitting next to the speakers. Also tried connecting all speakers with cat6 cables directly to the Business router which has 2gbps connection to the internet and 10gbps bandwidth for the local network, the speakers still lag for over a second even connected with wires. Support tried to tweak the settings including “delay” settings to try to sync them manually but this didn’t help either. In short: If you are playing a single speaker this is Okay-ish, but if you want to use the beosound feature that promises to link multiple speakers together: it doesn’t work, not even on a wired setup.

by SChristian96

the old beoplay app made the E8 headphones the best I had ever experienced. The new app is sluggish, under-engineered for product price and company net worth (no wonder the reported earnings dropped 40 mil last year) and i would have figured for the price and quality of the product the same could be said for the software running it, but that proved false 43 seconds into using BangOlufsen . Not to mention my E8’s won’t even pair to my iPad, even when connected through bluetooth. B&O seem to think that since BangOlufsen is free they can cheap out on it, but product development and marketing may seem to work in different corners of the world if they don’t realize they are wholly dependent on each other. if i buy $300 headphones and i need an app to unlock their full potential, I want to feel like i’m using a $300 app too. B&O, if you want that 10% growth this year that you estimated, i recommend developing and TESTING an app that is foolproof and will work simply and logically with all products.

by @grozyan

B&O, please take my one star rate for the SIGNATURE EXPERIENCE you created. Now, after purchasing $500+ headphones I cannot use them fully without giving away my email address to your signature marketing team, or creating account TO RECEIVE SIGNATURE JUNK IN MAIL. Please, consider removing this. It’s violating my right of using the product. You basically limiting product functionality in order to violate my privacy and use my email for marketing reasons (yeah, you said that in description of the latest update).

UPD: still cannot open app and change headphones settings without signing in for junk emails. Months later no one fixed this. There ether giving away my email or email and more data with connecting my social accounts. Won’t buy anything from this company in the future!

by Brianbarefield

I did the recent update and afterwards, anytime I click on my S3 BangOlufsen shuts down. Very disappointed. B&O products are top notch, but so much that is important now in a connected world is just so wrong here, and I have no idea why that is. I have 3 B&O products in my home representing a significant expense, and as much as I love the qualities of each, things like the inability to make them work properly as even the basest of today’s electronics seems beyond one of the great stereo makers of the world’s abilities. You need better IT people. It’s an investment, but you need to address these things in order to remain relevant in today’s market. I’m disappointed having to write a review like this, but your currency in technology is deeply lacking, and prevents me from expanding within your product line further than I already have as I have little faith in obtaining something whose use I can enjoy without multiple expletives trying to engage with it.

by True See

I own b&o from A8 & 3i, there are the best earphone I had. But the Earset is the WORST EARPHONE! Worse than BOSE, B&W, Apple & any BT earphone less than $10!

1. There was NO app names “BEOPLAY”, which tell me downloaded in the menu;

2. I searched 5 apps in App Store, which all develop by B&O. And downloaded 3 of them: beolink, beolink2, beoXXXXX (I forgot the name), and NO ONE can link my Earset!

3. I couldn't find the Earset’s BT signal from my iPhone X, iPad Pro & MacBook Pro;

4. At the end, I find BangOlufsen & hope it’s the right one can let me link. At first, it’s not work, I need to turn my phone off & turn on back to find the BT signal, but there is still NO signal in my MacBook! Secondly, toooo many steps to create an new account & I need to check it from my e-mail! HOW OLD R UR UX DESIGN TEAM? Still lived in last century? Do u know what is the newest knowledge about BangOlufsen UX&UI designing?

5. The FANTASTIC STEP: finally, I link the Earset by phone and the BT is work. BUT the music IS NOT PLAY FROM THE EARSET BUT FROM MY PHONE!!! Excuse me, r u sell the decoration instead of the BT earphone?

Who can tell me how to use this EXPENSIVE RUBBISH to listen music? I just need it as a normal earphone.

Sorry I’m a design&product manager in digital & IoT products area & can’t believe that sooo expensive brand can made soooo pool app & product logic in both hard&software...

by Baxter MN

Reached out as developer response requested BEFORE I left my review. I have close to 30$k in bang & olufsen products here (no dealers in my network) no dice. Beolink is a DOA. Airplay 2 works just fine across all
speakers but NO BEOLINK multiroom. Whatever…

BangOlufsen is worthless if you have thousands of dollars invested in b&o speakers at home.I can AirPlay outside of BangOlufsen to all speakers just fine and have them in a group and synchronization is perfect. BangOlufsen will connect speakers but no sound will come out of the other speakers after joining beolink. I reached out to support in the past without success wish I would’ve went to Sonos for everything because it just works.I have beosound cores/ essence and beosound 2.

by Ola_twice

Good headphones but terrible software. Ruined the fun and excitement of a birthday gift I got my sister as app won’t connect and seems stuck in “Connecting to product” loop for 15 mins and times out. Only way to use the earphones product is by manually pairing in iOS bluetooth settings but you don’t have any access to all features and firmware update.

I am a fan of B&O but the company doesn’t seem to get that digital products deserve the same rigorous attention to detail and testing that their physical products do. We love these products because of the magical user experience they provide but these mobile apps degrade that experience and just ruin it all. I hope they take this seriously.

by Heyzeus Cristo

BangOlufsen is very easy use and does a lot of things you would want from true wireless headphones to make your devices sing as they were designed to. Great and creative EQ. Simple noise cancellation and transparent modes with a few welcome choices to pick from. With all that said, we need to get to the glaring issue with B&O headsets and the options they don’t offer. I have the EQ version and they completely lack an adequate touch control setup. They don’t allow you to forward or rewind songs or videos. Unacceptable in this day and age. Plus these headphones cost $400 and feel useless at the gym since I have to stop my workout to change songs. Big time oversight.

by Dr Reginald

Horrible tool, especially when compared to the previous app. I regularly cannot pair my P6s when the device is between them and the devices, themselves, are no more than 0.6 meters apart. I've spent 30 minutes using both iPhone and ipad and it still will not connect. I also couldn't get my H9s to connect to a device right next to it using BangOlufsen.

I'm sorry. Perhaps you should outsource the development to someone who knows what they're doing. This is just unfathomable given the design and function of your products. This is beyond frustrating.

FOLLOW-UP
B&O,
Thank you for your response. Your response, though, just justified the point. Why should one have to go through all that just to get your app to work? I don't have to do that with the old app. IT JUST WORKS. I really wish I knew how to get the old app onto my newer devices. It's SO frustrating listening to music that comes in and out when I'm finally able to get the new app to work. It's beyond frustrating.

Thanks for the time it took you to respond.

by Lector8888

BangOlufsen does what it does well, but needs to do more. I have two Beolit 17s that I play in stereo. Love the sound! But I cannot make stereo the default mode. Every time they are turned on, they must be re-paired in stereo. Sometimes that’s tricky. Also, BangOlufsen makes you unpair them before re-pairing them—an extra step. Also, it would greatly improve things to have a choice as to when the speakers switch off after non-use. Fifteen minutes is too short when they are connected to power. Why not give more options, such as thirty minutes or an hour? As it is, listening sometimes becomes as much a task as a pleasure.

Update: they have improved the performance of BangOlufsen so that stereo pairing is more reliable and a bit easier. Still, it should allow speakers to remain paired, so that one need not go through the complicated process of pairing every single time.

by Sparkyparks

I purchased a condo with an existing Beoplay A9 1st gen speaker. Followed all instructions. Got A9 on network. Got app to find A9 and register. OK so now what? App doesn’t seem to do anything other than register speaker and control network settings. Airplay doesn’t see speaker so how are you supposed to play music or anything else on it? So far all I have is a piece of circular art on the wall. This shouldn’t be this complicated.

Update. Somehow (still not clear why) the speaker showed up in the AirPlay options on my iPhone. Seems to stream like a charm using Apple Music. Still unclear what functionality BangOlufsen has other than setting up the speaker for wi-fi which I configured on my MacBook through an Admin Login to the gateway provided. Speaker sounds fantastic!! Next up. Getting it to work with my Samsung TV

by Seth Glaz

Love BangOlufsen , it’s easily the best headphone app I’ve ever used. Switching between BT and Xbox mode on my Beoplay Portals is easy and I love the ability to customize my sound profile on Xbox. Sometimes I want the best fidelity possible, and sometimes I want to crank up the volume of certain frequencies to make it easier to hear footsteps. BangOlufsen makes that possible and easy.

Overall I only have 2 suggestions:
1. The EQ wheel is good, but I would love it if on BT I could get a standard EQ like I have on the Xbox side, where I can raise-lower each frequency range individually, to better fine tune the sound for my music preferences.

2. The connection between the phone and app does seem to randomly drop pretty often. For example, I’ll listen to music on my computer, and when I pick up my phone to tune the EQ, BangOlufsen won’t be connect to the headphones anymore and I’ll have to reconnect it. Not a big deal because it only takes a few seconds, but it prevents the experience from being seamless.

by Kadegboye

I got this B & O H95 as my birthday gift about 5 months ago. It’s a mile of improvement on H9 which I previously owned. The sonic signature for which B & O is known is graciously exemplified. The tight and detailed bass is soothing. The high frequency notes are clear, non-irritating without noticeable distortion. The mid range is not lacking in clarity & dynamism. The battery life is exceedingly great. My grade for this headphone should be 4.8 but BangOlufsen sent out didn’t allow that. However, one needs a good sound source or recording to enjoy this pleasant device.
Kay

by Shyuep

B&O has great headphones. The H95 is nothing short of astounding in sound and build quality. With BangOlufsen, the control over EQ and ANC is great. There is however room for improvement. The main bugbear I have with BangOlufsen is that it is not possible to connect to different devices via BangOlufsen . While the H95 support multipoint with 2 devices, there is no indication in BangOlufsen which two devices are connected and there is no way to swap out different devices. This is possible with my Bower and Wilkins app where I can see and choose which two devices are connected.

by Pollen Generation

Like many before me have stated, all my B&O products have been dropping sound back-to-back. Cannot even get through a single song and BangOlufsen states that neither of my products has the multi room capability (as if! A9 MKIV, two BeoSound2 with Google Assistant and 1 BeoSound 1 also with GA). I have set all speakers to factory reset, restarted modem, deleted all devices from B&O and Google Home and the problem still persists.

I was able to manage to get back the multi room option (but unlike previous versions of BangOlufsen it is not buried within the menu) which simply used to be automatically linked to all speakers.

It is so frustrating not being able to enjoy either one of my speakers like I used to. No, it is not a network or iOS error either as this happens even when I try to use AirPlay from my MAC and even through Chrome Cast —It is B&O’s most recent app update which has “bricked” my devices.

Please, listen to your customers and FIX BangOlufsen !

by Weagle1856

I had an issue with my earbuds (E8) but after the Bang and Olufsen support team telling me to simply reset them, everything works as normal.
Which btw, their support team got back to me within like an HOUR after submitting my request. It was very quick.

Anyways, BangOlufsen is used as an update to the previous app. Usually when companies do this, the new app is worse in some way. This one is great however.
Anyways, it lets you set the sound profile of the earbuds and transparency level.
The sound profile could also be seen as an EQ that is then saved to the earbuds. It is really weird at first but it is kinda fun to play with. Kudos to Bang and Olufsen to trying something fun and different. It’s nice to see that in a world of tech that’s so stale and sterile.

BangOlufsen is also responsible for making sure firmwares are up to date and all that too.

Anyways, it’s unobtrusive, easy to use, and I honestly don’t know what else I could ask for.
Maybe a toggle for a traditional equalizer would be nice, but the sound profile stuff is honestly fine sounding to me once I found my spot.

by Kev_B_Me

I’m enjoying BangOlufsen.
I’d like to request better push notifications. (Updates, battery)
Also the update to Tunein Radio (not radion)
I have no idea why that stuck out to me.

The varying headsets seem to not auto pickup…. The color for example of my H95’s and also the cisco 980. But… after that… this thing is a joy. Nothing thag s/w cannot address successfully.

I never had the periodic crash… which the update was to address. I did have confusion in the pairing process. The phone or iPad would be connected to the headphone, but BangOlufsen would not see the headset. I attributed it ti ios beta SW.

I love the tweaking capabilities in the sound signature to an already awesome headset brand.

All of that being said… it’s a pleasure to use. It’s not easy to find a balance between too many bells and whistles/ options, and simplicity. I think you’ve found the balance. (Sincerely)

by Robé Rto

After finally purchasing a beoplay I was very disappointed, given the name i thought i was going to be amazed, compared to the Bose micro sound link there is no comparison. Bose is 100% water proof beoplay is not sound quality, Bose by far blows it away. I visited a beoplay store in Palm Springs just to test the other devices and honestly again i was disappointed compared to other devices like Sonos and Bose especially the price tag they are charging there is no comparison, definitely not worth the hype. Sorry bang & Olufson i was cheering for you.

by Give Me Beoplay Back

Although you claim stereo pairing would work with the new B&O app, it doesn’t.

I’ve used the previous Beoplay app from the very beginning and it was such a pleasant experience to set up stereo between two A1, two A2 and two Beolit 17. Now after being forced out of the Beoplay app, I have to try using this new B&O app. I’m telling you, it simply doesn’t work if you want to set up stereo.

I’m not the only one complaining. Pls do listen and act. Either bring back the old Beoplay or fix the new one. We should at least have an option, instead of being forced to use a very bad app.

by Scotia626

BangOlufsen is better than it was 2 years ago. But that’s faint praise. It’s still completely unreliable. One day it works great. The next day it’s just crap unable to find your products, link them or play them. I truly give up. This is a corporate values problem: clearly they are unwilling to pay and hire software engineers at market rates cos this is at its core an engineering competence and quality control issue. Both of these are directly related to how much money you are willing to invest in talent and processes to solve the problem once and for all. Why they are unwilling to do that speaks to the long term viability of the company.

by Deadflies

I was hoping BangOlufsen update might address this. All communication I’ve had with B&O support is circular. Wirhout exception, I need to delete E8 from bluetooth list on device, put vuds back in case to reset, repeat pairing procedure which may or may not work. There is no guarantee you’re going to get a connection. I wait hoping for the magical blue flashing light but 9 times out of 10 get a solid white light of which there is no mention in any B&O documentation and tech support have never told me what the white light means.

Also the left bud randomly loses signal - and NO, it’s nothing to do with which side of the body I carry the phone or RF hits from other equipment.

by Codel And Gary

I recently contacted you via BangOlufsen store reviews and said that the previous software did not allow for my multiple beoplay p2’s to be connected wirelessly without my clicking the button on the speaker (in that I could open BangOlufsen and it would connect with the 2.9 version of BangOlufsen ). Now with the new update of 2.11, the p2’s do connect but when I attempt to play music, it doesn’t play off the speaker (it just comes out of my phone). In settings on my phone it says it is connected, but the music is not playing. If you could investigate this as well, that would be great. Thank you very much.

by Gwizyo

So for the last few years I have been able to use BangOlufsen to change the volume on my Beoplay A6. Now BangOlufsen is updated and there is no way to change the volume on my wireless A6 speaker. There are a hundred other useless settings. But not volume. The apps pics show a volume control. But that doesn’t show up for my speakers. What am I supposed to do with speakers whose volume I can’t control? Note if I’m streaming music from my phone I can control volume through my phones volume controller. But when I use line-in I need BangOlufsen . But it’s gone now ....

by IApp Guy

Still surprises me how, in particular, the issue of connectivity (strictly within app), has never successfully been fixed/resolved!!! Thus far, I’ve followed thru and installed each & every update issued on App Store. Worth mentioning, every update B&O produced cited improvements on “Bugs and connectivity issues” yet, I still can say with certainty that the same issue STILL persists and has yet to prove to the companies Die hard enthusiasts & customers it can keep up with today’s technological standards that other, newer companies incorporate with impunity. Enuf of my finger wagging, head shaking admonition

by The_batkid_

The E8s are awesome. I’ve had them for a few years now, and no problem. Pairing them from my iPhone to the iPad was a bit difficult. I went to B&O’s website, and got my answer. Make sure that when you turn on your E8s, that Bluetooth is already on. Hold both E8 buds for 5 seconds. They will make a sound, and the right one will start flashing in blue. At this point, it is parable, and it’s looking for a host. In your Bluetooth options, the earbuds should appear. Click them to pair, and bam! They’re good to go. I didn’t use BangOlufsen . Lol

by Aluni2230

I own several B&O projects from the A9, P6 and H9 and all work well with BangOlufsen . I am not sure why people are rating it so low. On my iPhone X it is perfect. Also, several are reporting issues with BangOlufsen for use cases that don’t need BangOlufsen . For instance, if you want to AirPlay to an AirPlay supported device you don’t really need BangOlufsen for anything more than to set up. B&O products are excellent quality and easy to use. Unlike say Sonos, BangOlufsen is not required to use the product. You can just use any app once you have connected to it.

by Jeff Baruh

1-After your last release there is no option
To see which software version the tv is
running.

On the beoremote (Bluetooth) we have the option of list when we want to connect to external sources (Satellite Tuner) where we can switch off or on .
As the list option does not exist we have to
go back to the original remote to do additional options.
Surely as the Bluetooth Remote loads all configuration from the TVs to the remote ,
Why not let BangOlufsen also load all configuration so that we can do more with
BangOlufsen .
Your app can also show the list of tv channels you are watching
Thanks and continue the good work
2-Last update on remote when you move to the right
It is ok but when you move back to the left the Home button shows garbled back home

by TonyYeung

Update:
Still unable to perform software update through BangOlufsen but was able to update through the updater on a PC. Thanks to the quick response of the Bang & Olufsen tech support team!

Repeatedly getting an error message when attempting to update software of my Beoplay P6. Tried it on both my iPhone 11 Pro and my Note 10 Plus.