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HP makes Bang & Olufsen its new audio partner

By James Lu - on 25 Mar 2015, 10:42am

HP makes Bang & Olufsen its new audio partner

Expect to see Bang & Olufsen audio in future high-end HP products like the HP Omen.

With Apple buying Beats Electronics, it was only a matter of time until HP found a new audio partner. Today, HP announced it is teaming up with Bang & Olufsen, the 90-year old Danish company known for its high-end audio products, like the S$15,000 BeoVision Avant 4K TV and the S$4,000 BeoSound Moment.

HP plans to bring the Bang & Olufsen brand to high-end devices like the Spectre, Omen and Envy lines, as well as select commercial PCs. Less expensive products like the Pavilion series, as well as HP tablets and audio accessories, will get Bang & Olufsen's mid-tier B&O Play branding. Beats technology may still be found on some HP products through 2015, as HP's deal with Beats allows them to use the brand until the end of 2015.

HP said all devices carrying the Bang & Olufsen or B&O PLAY mark will feature a "dedicated audio island" on the motherboard that isolates sensitive components from interfering signals. On the software side, HP says it will provide a new audio control panel for customizing sound quality (similar to what it did with Beats). Furthermore, the two companies plan to custom tune each device for "precise sound" and incorporate a set of custom audio presets to go along with manual equalizer control.

"We've certainly spent a lot of time working on audio with Beats over the years. I think certainly a lot of learnings both ways in that relationship," said HP personal-computer and printing vice president Mike Nash. "The opportunity now is to take everything we already know and combine that with some new expertise as part of our partnership with Bang & Olufsen."

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