HP announces a partnership with Bang & Olufsen

HP brings Bang & Olufsen audio to some of its products

The well-known Danish audio manufacturer will replace Beats Audio, helping HP to enhance their products' sound.

Andrey Konstantinov, Published 03/24/2015

For quite a while, HP's top-tier tablets and laptops were treated with Beats speakers, which delivered impressive sound in most of the devices we've reviewed. However, after Beats Audio was acquired by Apple last summer, it was only a matter of time until their collaboration with HP came to an end. The company was allowed to continue producing devices with Beats branding for a while, but even that will no longer be necessary: today HP announced a new partnership with one of the most renowned audio equipment manufacturers, the Danish firm Bang & Olufsen. The latter is facing difficult times despite returning to profitability two years after the 2008 economical crisis, and has recently announced a restructuring process that will see 125 full-time employees laid off.

Having its products in mainstream electronics should help Bang & Olufsen to improve their financial situation, since most of their professional lineup is unaffordable even for many wealthier consumers. Of course, it's impossible to make a laptop or a tablet produce the same sound experience as one delivered by B&O-made audio systems available in Audi's and BMW's most expensive cars - but, as demonstrated by Asus' ICEpower (also co-developed with Bang & Olufsen) or MSI's Dynaudio speakers, there's certainly room for improvement over thin, muffled sound that most consumer laptops suffer from.

On the hardware side, HP and B&O promise to minimize the amount of metal parts in the audio jack to reduce ground noise (hopefully this won't make the jack more fragile) and to custom-tune each device for best possible sound. When it comes to the software, the users will get a special audio control panel which will allow them to either choose one of the existing presets or manually configure the sound to their liking. HP's Omen, Spectre and Envy laptops and select commercial PCs will carry the main Bang & Olufsen brand but on HP tablets, Pavilion series PCs and audio accessories, the B&O Play (Bang & Olufsen's subsidiary) branding will appear instead. It is unclear at this point what differences in hardware and/or software this will entail. The first HP products incorporating Bang & Olufsen audio will be available already this spring.

Source(s)

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Press Release

HP and Bang & Olufsen Partner to Bring Premium Sound to PCs

Partnership with iconic sound pioneer enhances customer experience on HP devices

PALO ALTO, Calif. and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 24, 2015 — HP and Bang & Olufsen today announced a collaboration that brings the globally recognized sound of Bang & Olufsen and B&O PLAY to HP’s PCs, tablets and accessories.

“Audio plays an important role in the experience customers have on their PCs, tablets and accessories whether it’s watching a movie, listening to music or Skyping with friend and family,” said Ron Coughlin, senior vice president, Personal Systems, HP. “With their passion and expertise, we are thrilled to work with Bang & Olufsen to create exceptional sound experiences for customers.”

“Bang & Olufsen and B&O PLAY have a long heritage in delivering great music and audio experiences for people no matter where they decide to enjoy their media,” said Tue Mantoni, CEO, Bang & Olufsen. “We are excited to collaborate with HP to bring our iconic sound to HP PCs.”

Iconic Sound, Innovative Devices

Customers want bold, crisp and accurate audio. They expect their devices to have fantastic sound reproduction whether using headphones or built in speakers. Customers also want to enhance sound to their liking.

Bang & Olufsen is a globally recognized audio and video technology company with 90 years of experience in acoustic excellence and audio performance. Most recently, the company has launched a range of innovative products including its BeoPlay H8 Headphones, BeoPlay A2 music system and BeoSound Moment.

HP and Bang & Olufsen will custom tune each notebook, desktop, tablet and accessory for precise sound. In all HP devices that carry the Bang & Olufsen or B&O PLAY brand, a dedicated audio island isolates the sensitive audio circuits from other signals on the motherboard. The headphone jack limits the amount of metal parts to reduce ground noise to help further perfect the audio experience on HP devices.

Because customers want the ability to customize their audio for movies, music and voice, HP devices include an audio control panel. This allows customers to customize and enhance their audio experience based on preset configurations tuned by HP and Bang & Olufsen. Customers can choose from optimized presets or manually tune the sound to their liking.

The first HP personal computing systems with Bang & Olufsen and B&O PLAY audio will be available this Spring. The Bang & Olufsen brand will appear on HP’s Spectre, OMEN, ENVY and select commercial PCs. The B&O Play brand will appear on HP Pavilion PCs, tablets and PC audio accessories.

About Bang & Olufsen

Bang & Olufsen was founded in Struer, Denmark, in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, two innovative, young engineers devoted to high quality audio reproduction. Since then, the brand has become an icon of performance and design excellence through its long-standing craftsmanship tradition and the strongest possible commitment to high-tech research and development. Still at the forefront of domestic technology, Bang & Olufsen has extended its comprehensive experience with integrated audio and video solutions for the home to other areas such as the hospitality and automotive industries in recent years. Consequently, its current product range epitomises seamless media experiences in the home as well as in the car and on the move. For more information on Bang & Olufsen, please visit www.bang-olufsen.com.

About B&O PLAY

Firmly grounded in decades of design excellence, craftsmanship and product innovation from Bang & Olufsen, B&O PLAY interprets the same values for a new type of contemporary products aimed at design-conscious people with an active lifestyle. The B&O PLAY portfolio is made up of sound systems and stand-alone, portable products – they’re all intuitive to use and easy to integrate into your daily life – whether it’s at home or on the move. For more information on B&O PLAY please visit www.beoplay.com.