Bendable Media

I recently had a demonstration for one of the best sound systems I ever heard. And it was built into a TV.

The Bang & Olufsen BeoVision10 is the best-sounding TV I've ever watched

The BeoVision 10 is a 40-inch HDTV from Bang & Olufsen, the high-end Danish electronics maker. Bang & Olufsen considers itself a company that specializes in sound, so when it builds a TV, it thinks of sound first.

This is a great strategy today, as home entertainment offers many sensory inputs. Thanks to high-definition television, video is stunningly clear. And, combined with a proper audio set-up,  sound can compliment the images to provide an experience so thrilling you may never want to leave the living room.

Yet, adding the audio equipment to match the video can be bulky, with speakers and wires streaming across the house. Hence, many folks don’t take advantage of high-quality audio when they watch a movie.

Bang & Olufsen is not the first company to address this sound issue by adding better-than-standard built-in speakers into an HDTV, but the BeoVision 10, now available in the U.S., is easily the best-sounding TV I ever watched.

But it’s not cheap. It starts at $6,250, without a stand or mounting kit. Clearly, this is a TV for the luxury consumer, particular those who appreciate great sound. A more affordable solution to better sound is the Zbase 550 from Zvox, a product I reviewed last year.

The TV is nearly equal part TV and speaker. The speaker sits underneath the screen, and it takes up roughly 40 percent of the surface area. The 40-inch HDTV is above the speaker. The attractive BeoVision 10 is only 2.7-inches thick.

Indeed, the demonstration I had was in a Chicago art gallery, with the BeoVision 10 mounted on the wall as if it were a piece of art. (The screen that covers the audio system can be changed, coming in black, orange, gray, blue or white. It was displayed with the orange screen, which would not be my first choice.)

The wall bracket used to mount the TV swung open, like a door. Pushed flat on the wall, the BeoVision 10 did indeed look like a piece of art.

But the real story is the sound. It was so good, most people would be proud to have it as the sole sound system in the house. The BeoVision 10 includes a loudspeaker with center bass channel.

Here’s how Bang & Olufsen achieved the stunning sound. More interesting, this video, featuring a Bang & Olufsen engineer, shows how the audio components were designed for the BeoVision 10 television. Warning: it includes subtitles, but sound geeks will love this.

Obviously, a $6,250 HDTV is not for everyone. But if you love good sound, you’ll be amazed at what this TV can do. Bang & Olufsen doesn’t have many stores in the U.S., but you can check here to see if there’s one near you.

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