The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore is a small and well-built portable Bluetooth speaker with a built-in carrying strap and removable carabiner hook to help with transporting it. It has a boomy sound profile that adds a little extra bass to the mix, though this can muddy vocals and may be overwhelming for some listeners. Fortunately, its companion app comes with customizable EQ presets, as well as a 'Beosonic' sound customization feature, so you can adjust its sound to your liking by moving around the feature's sound circle. Unfortunately, like most small speakers, it struggles to reproduce the deep thump and rumble in low-bass, which can often be felt in bass-heavy music.
Our Verdict
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore isn't bad for music. With its 'Optimal' preset enabled, it has a boomy sound profile that can muddy vocals and lead instruments, which may overwhelm some users. It also lacks a thumpy and rumbling bass, and its underemphasized treble range can make higher-pitched vocals and instruments sound a bit dark. Thankfully, you can use its 'Beosonic' sound customization feature and EQ presets to adjust its sound to your liking. It also has great directivity, resulting in an open and spacious-sounding soundstage.
- Great directivity.
- 'Beosonic' sound customization feature and EQ presets.
- Doesn't get very loud.
- Lacks low-bass.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore is passable for watching videos and movies. With its 'Optimal' preset enabled, it has a boomy sound profile that can make dialogue in your movies and videos sound a little muddy, and it struggles to reproduce a thumpy and rumbling low-bass, which may disappoint fans of action-packed movies. That said, it has great directivity, resulting in a wide-sounding soundstage. It also has very low latency with iOS and Android devices, though some apps compensate for latency differently, and your experience may vary.
- Low Bluetooth latency with iOS and Android.
- 'Beosonic' sound customization feature and EQ presets.
- Doesn't get very loud.
- Lacks low-bass.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore is good for podcasts. This outstandingly portable speaker has a boomy sound profile that can sometimes muddy voices in your audio. However, It has great directivity, so you can hear your audio clearly from most angles, and its companion app features a 'Speech' preset, though we didn't test it. You can also pair it to up to two devices at once, which is helpful when you need to quickly switch between audio sources. That said, it doesn't get very loud, and there's some compression at max volume that can affect the clarity of your audio during louder listening sessions.
- Great directivity.
- 'Beosonic' sound customization feature and EQ presets.
- Incredibly portable.
- Some compression artifacts at max volume.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore doesn't support voice assistants.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore is good for outdoor use. This well-built speaker offers a spacious and wide-sounding soundstage, thanks to its 360-degree design. It also has a boomy sound profile, though it lacks some low-bass. That said, you can tweak its sound to your liking using its 'Beosonic' sound customization feature and EQ presets available on its companion app. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very loud, and there are some compression artifacts present at max volume, so your audio may not sound as clean at louder volumes.
- Great directivity.
- Incredibly portable.
- IP67 rating for dust and water resistance.
- Doesn't get very loud.
- Lacks low-bass.
Changelog
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Updated Feb 04, 2025:
The Wired section has been updated to mention the Minirig 4 for analog connectivity.
- Updated Sep 04, 2024: We've updated the Battery scores and text, as we've reevaluated how the Battery Life, Charge Time, and Power Saving scores are weighted. We've also updated the relevant usage boxes that were affected by this recalculation.
- Updated Feb 23, 2022: Changed the test results for USB Audio from 'No' to 'Yes' in the 'Wired' box.
- Updated Jun 11, 2021: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore comes in three color variants, 'Anthracite', 'Green', and 'Grey Mist'. We tested the 'Anthracite' variant, though we expect all color variants to perform similarly. You can find the label for the model that we tested here.
If you come across any other variants, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
Popular Speaker Comparisons
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore is a small, portable Bluetooth speaker with a boomy sound profile. Its companion app features customizable EQ presets and its 'Beosonic' sound customization feature, which allows you to move around a sound circle to adjust the speaker's sound to your liking. Thanks to its 360-degree design, this speaker also has great directivity, resulting in a wide and open-sounding soundstage. However, unlike the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 Gen 2, it doesn't support any voice assistants.
Check out our recommendations for the best Bluetooth speakers, the best waterproof Bluetooth speakers, and the best Bluetooth speakers under $100.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore and the Sonos Roam/Roam SL are similarly performing portable Bluetooth speakers. That said, the Sonos offers a more neutral sound profile with Trueplay enabled and offers excellent voice assistant support through its Roam variant. The Bang & Olufsen can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono and has a better soundstage performance.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore and the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 Gen 2 are similar speakers, though they have different strengths. The Gen 2 has a better-balanced sound profile and offers outstanding voice assistant support. However, the Explore has a wider-sounding soundstage and can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono, which sounds more immersive. It also has a longer battery life, though this can depend on your usage habits, so your experience may vary.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is better than the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore overall. The Bose offers fantastic voice assistant support with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in, and can easily understand your commands from far and in noisier settings. Its sound profile is better-balanced and can produce a more extended low-bass. However, the Bang & Olufsen can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono which is more immersive. It also has less compression present at max volume, resulting in cleaner audio at louder volumes.
The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore is a better speaker than the Harman/Kardon Onyx Studio 6. The Beosound Explore is more portable and is better built, with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, though we don't test for this. It's also more customizable, thanks to its EQ presets and its 'Beosonic' feature, so you can customize its sound to your liking. Additionally, it has an excellent soundstage and can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono. That said, the Onyx Studio 6 has a better-balanced sound profile out-of-the-box and can reproduce a deeper bass than the Beosound Explore.
Test Results
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