B&O Play Beoplay M3 - Review 2022

B&O Play'southward Beoplay lineup of wireless speakers rarely disappoints in terms of style or audio commitment. While the new Beoplay M3 follows suit, at $299 it feels slightly overpriced for the sound feel it delivers. The relatively minor-size multi-room speaker tin deliver some exceptionally rich bass response, but the bass often seems to exist at war, rather than balanced with, the balance of the frequency range. The M3 feels like it was designed to exist used in conjunction with several of B&O Play's other multi-room speakers throughout your home, but as a standalone product, we adopt other options, similar the Sonos One, which has the added benefit of voice command.

Pattern

Available in a matte black or neutral greyness finish, the Beoplay M3 has rounded side panels, measures v.9 past 4.4 by 5.5 inches (HWD), and weighs 3.2 pounds. The speaker looks like it is portable and fifty-fifty has a condom-like finish like many ruggedized, portable models we exam, merely it requires ability from a cablevision at all times. Its front console is all perforated speaker grille—for which you can buy extra grilles, one of which is cloth. The grille pops right off when pulled, revealing the speaker assortment behind it.

Some might find information technology surprising that a speaker this price is mono, but we are seeing this more than and more than in abode wireless speakers, so audiophiles volition want to think twice, or perhaps buy two. A single 0.75-inch tweeter and iii.75-inch woofer handle the audio, both of which receive 40 watts of Class D distension.

The elevation console is apartment and featureless, and the bottom panel is rubberized to foreclose the speaker from moving around tabletops. On the back, there'due south a multifunction push, and a volume up/down control, and that's information technology—you'll be doing all runway navigation on your Bluetooth device itself. During playback, the multifunction button acts as a play/pause control, and double tapping it switches between sound sources. In standby mode, the button is used to connect either to an existing multi-speaker group or to connect via Bluetooth to the most recently paired device.

The power cable also connects to the rear console, and does and so in an interesting style—there's a flip-height lid on the bottom panel that hides a recessed connection console, and a groove at the opening of the lid that keeps the connected ability cable perfectly in place. As well on this panel, there'south a power push button, a settings button, a 3.5mm aux input, and a micro USB port for charging mobile devices using the M3's power—but in that location are no cables for either of these two connections.

It's a piffling surprising that a wireless speaker this size has no speakerphone functionality, but B&O Play is selling it hard as a multi-room speaker, and most multi-room speakers we've tested lack this feature, also.

The Beoplay app is well-designed and simple to operate, and it walks you lot through the procedure of setting up the M3 with your Wi-Fi network. You lot can stream to the speaker via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The app incorporates Google Cast, so you can play on several speakers at once if yous wish. It too features the Beoplay Tonetouch EQ, with its inventive take on adjusting lows and highs—instead of faders, it uses a sort of graph with iv corners—Warm, Excited, Relaxed, and Bright. Moving the dot on the graph closer to ane corner or partway between two allows for a variety of sound signatures, and there are likewise presets (Party, Podcast, Lounge, and Clear). You can also select a sound profile based on speaker placement—choosing between betwixt Gratis, Wall, or Corner—and the speaker'southward sound signature is adjusted to meliorate deliver audio for its surroundings.

Performance

For testing, we kept the EQ on its central flat setting, listening via both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth using an iPhone 6s as our audio source. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, similar The Pocketknife's "Silent Shout," the Beoplay M3 delivers a stiff bass response for a speaker this size. At tiptop volumes, the digital point processing (DSP) kicks in and limits the lows in order to prevent baloney, and so at slightly lower levels, y'all actually get a stronger sense of bass depth. At moderate listening levels, the Beoplay M3 provides a laudable thump—at times, it competes with the residual of the frequency range and drowns out some of the higher range audio.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a runway with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a amend sense of the M3'due south overall sound signature. The drums on this track receive some actress bass thump, just don't sound as thunderous as they can on systems that really pump the sub-bass. Instead, information technology'south Callahan's baritone vocals that audio almost thunderous here—the lows and low-mids get far more boosting than the sub-bass, making his vocals sound actress rich. There's zip wrong with that, but you'll want to place the speaker at a height that is close to your ears—otherwise, because the drivers are angled upwardly, you end up missing out on a lot of the treble that lends his vocals some definition and the acoustic guitar some effulgence.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church building in the Wild," the boot drum loop receives plenty of high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its sharpness and slice through the layers of the mix. The sub-bass synth hits are a little more subdued—again, the Beoplay M3 delivers rich, boosted bass, but it doesn't reach downward into the subwoofer realm quite as much. The vocals on this track get solid high-mid presence as well, never sounding overly sibilant and e'er upfront in the mix. Merely on tracks like this, the DSP sounds like it'southward working overtime at superlative volumes, and the dynamics of the track end upwards getting express quite a bit.

For orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the lower register instrumentation gets a tremendous boost—again, well-nigh of it is in the depression and low-mid realm, not and so much the sub-bass realm, and then just as with Callahan'southward vocals, the bass response actually pushes these elements frontwards in the mix. The higher register instrumentation luckily nonetheless receives a crisp, bright presence, and so that the lower instruments don't seem to do battle with the college contumely, strings, and vocals. Merely this is a very sculpted, boosted audio that will not appeal to those seeking an accurate mix.

Conclusions

The drivers inside the Beoplay M3 actually sound keen—it's that DSP that becomes problematic at times. Many listeners will bask the rich bass response information technology brings out of mixes, but it isn't an accurate sound signature, and at high volumes, dynamics go tamped down. Throw in the mono-merely sound delivery, and y'all're left with a very sculpted sound signature. You become the sense that two Beoplay M3s assigned to left and right channels might sound great, but on its own, the M3 oftens sounds like it's trying to deliver a bigger sound than information technology'southward capable of. When it succeeds, information technology's on the lows and low-mids, giving tracks added richness. It does less well on busy electronic mixes.

If you're looking for a solid wireless speaker for the house or for on the go, this price range has plenty of great options—check out Klipsch's The One, the Libratone Zipp, and the Bose SoundLink Revolve+. And for less, we're fans of the JLab Block Party and the aforementioned Sonos One, which supports vocalisation control via Amazon Alexa and presently Google Assistant. At $300, the Beoplay M3 seems a piddling overpriced for what it delivers—or rather, it seems like a piece of a larger habitation system, and not the centerpiece.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/bo-play-beoplay-m3/18557/bo-play-beoplay-m3

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