Bang & Olufsen celebrates its 100th anniversary with two wild faces of its best speaker. Meet the Phantom and Mirage editions of the Beolab 90, which with 8,200 watts of power and the price of a studio apartment prove that the Danes don't know the word "compromise". This is it - Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90 Atelier Editions.
Most people are perfectly happy if their Bluetooth speaker survives a fall from a table and drowns out the hum of a refrigerator. Then there are the Danes. Engineers at Bang & Olufsen, who just blew out 100 candles on their cake, decided to show the world again what happens when you tell the development department: “The budget is unlimited, and physics is just a recommendation.” The result? Atelier Editions model Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90 Atelier EditionsIf you thought the original speakers looked like props from a Nolan movie, brace yourself. The new models, Phantom and Mirage, are here to visually and audibly overload you while also sending your bank account to intensive care.
Visual schizophrenia: when darkness and light meet
Let's start with the looks, because let's be honest - if you buy these speakers, you won't be hiding them behind an Ikea curtain. Bang & Olufsen has created two diametrically opposed characters for the same 137 kilograms (302 lbs) engineering monument.
He is the first Phantom Edition. This is the speaker for those who think Batman’s “Tumbler” is the pinnacle of industrial design. It’s all black, clad in a PVD-coated stainless steel mesh that creates a kind of holographic depth. Beneath it lurks 18 sound units waiting to attack your ears. Add in hand-laminated carbon and pearl-blasted anthracite aluminum details, and you have a speaker that acts as a silent threat in the room. It’s the epitome of “stealth” aggression, except it’s detected by radar, and so are your neighbors.
On the other side of the spectrum is Mirage Edition. If the Phantom is a shadowy ninja, the Mirage is a Milan catwalk under the influence of mild hallucinogens. It uses a gradient-processed fabric that changes color depending on your angle of view—from sapphire blue to magenta. The aluminum parts are hand-polished and anodized with a wavy texture that is meant to visualize sound itself. It’s theatrical, it’s exaggerated, and it’s exactly what an object at this price point should be. It’s not a speaker, it’s a sculpture that also happens to play music.
Raw power: numbers that scare
But let's put the colors and carbon aside. Beneath these artistic disguises lies the same beast that put the Beolab 90 on the throne in 2015. We're talking about 8,200 watts (8.2 kW) of raw power per speaker. Yes, you read that right. That's over 11 horsepower (hp). In the automotive world, that may sound like a moped, but in the world of hi-fi acoustics, it's the equivalent of a jet engine in your living room.
Every single tower is packed with 18 premium sound units (drivers): Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90 Atelier Editions
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7x 25 mm (1 inch) Scan-Speak tweeter
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7x 114 mm (4.5 inch) midrange driver
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3x 254 mm (10 inch) subwoofer
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1x 330 mm (13 inch) front-firing subwoofer
All this is powered by 14 channels ICEpower amplifiers and four Heliox Class D amplifiers. If you were to drive these speakers at full power, you could probably move the foundations of your house before you even get to the chorus of your favorite song. The diaphragm acceleration is brutal, and the engineering is such that even at ear-bleeding volumes, you won't hear any distortion.
“It’s no longer just about reproducing sound. It’s about controlling the air pressure in a room with surgical precision.”
Technology that solves your poor acoustics
The most impressive part, however, isn't just the raw power, it's the brains that control it. Let's face it, most of us don't have acoustically perfect rooms. We have glass walls, parquet flooring, and that weird cabinet in the corner. The Beolab 90 uses technology Active Room CompensationThe speaker actively analyzes your room – furniture, walls, listener position – and adjusts the sound to “erase” room imperfections from the equation.
Even better is the function Beam Width Control. The speaker can physically change the width of the sound beam. Want to listen alone in complete silence, as the audiophile selfishly says? The speaker directs the sound like a laser straight into your ears (“Narrow Mode”), reducing reflections from the walls. Having a party and want everyone to hear the music equally well? The speaker disperses the sound in 360 degrees (“Omni Mode”). This is technology you would expect to find in a military radar, not a jazz player.
Made in Factory 5: Where robots are not allowed
Both new releases are made in the legendary Factory 5 in Struer, Denmark. This is not an assembly line where things fly together in a matter of minutes. We are talking about hours and hours of manual labor, polishing, checking and re-polishing. Each piece of aluminum passes through the hands of craftsmen who can probably spot a scratch from two kilometers away. The limited edition is truly limited – only one will be available 10 pairs each edition for the entire world.
Conclusion: the price of perfection
Bang & Olufsen has proven with the Phantom and Mirage editions that the line between audio equipment and high art no longer exists. Price? Officially, these two special editions have not yet been publicly announced (“price on request” is usually code for “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it”), but a standard pair of Beolab 90s costs around €135,000 to €170,000 (approx. 150,000 $- 196.000$), depending on the market.
For this money you get a used one Ferrari, a new apartment in Ljubljana (well, maybe a studio apartment) or a pair of speakers that weigh almost 300 kilograms. Do you need them? Absolutely not. Nobody does. needs 8,200 watts of power. But if you have the money and want something that will look as impressive in your living room as it sounds, then this is it. They're beautiful, they're absurdly powerful, and, most importantly, they represent the pinnacle of what humanity can do when it decides that cost doesn't matter. And in a world of averages, that's something we should all welcome.
If you have excess 200 thousand for Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90 Atelier Editions, hurry up. Ten pairs will go faster, as the Beolab 90 accelerates from silence to thunder.
