Beosound 2 3rd gen

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound 2 (3rd generation) is a conical aluminium speaker that fires downwards, dispersing sound in every direction so it does not have a front or a back.

That omnidirectional design is why it is usually placed in the middle of a room or in a corner where a conventional speaker would sound wrong. It is machined from aluminium and finished as an object rather than an appliance.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 speaker rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can assign it to a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

You cannot switch it on or set its volume from the Home app the way you would a light. Those stay with the speaker itself and its own app.

Before you buy

Omnidirectional speakers fill a room evenly but do not produce the precise stereo image that a conventional pair does. If you sit in one place and listen critically, this is not the design for you; if music should follow you around a kitchen or an open-plan space, it is exactly right.

The third generation updates the internals and the connectivity rather than the shape.

Specifications