Stunning Bang and Olufsen Beolab 9 Floorstanding Speakers 500W world class Absolutely Jaw Dropping Performance

The BeoLab 9 is widely celebrated as one of the finest "real-world" speakers B&O ever engineered. On the second-hand market, they offer immense value for your money. They completely outperform standard budget audio gear and deliver high-end, room-filling sound that balances dynamic action-movie slam with deep, analytical musical details.


The Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 9 is a legendary, active floorstanding loudspeaker. It represents the era when B&O shifted away from thin column speakers toward unique forms optimized for massive acoustic volumes. Often called the "Lighthouse" or "Penguin" speaker due to its striking, tapered profile, it delivers true, audiophile-grade performance that completely defies its compact footprint.

Specifically, we are talking about a floor-standing loudspeaker 77.5 centimeters high with a more or less triangular shape. A strange aluminium shape is incorporated at the top, while a beautiful ribbed pattern is visible along the entire length of the back. This helps to cool the built-in amplifiers.

The BeoLab 9 is therefore an active loudspeaker that features no fewer than three built-in amplifiers: a 400-watt Class-D 'ICE' unit for the lows, a 100-watt Class-D for the mids, and another 100-watt unit for the highs.

There is something special about the tweeter, which is integrated into the aluminium structure on the top of the loudspeaker. In itself, it is a standard dome tweeter, but it is its mounting – and consequently its radiation characteristics – that are special.

The tweeter projects the sound upwards, against an aluminum structure that B&O calls the Acoustic Lens, causing the sound to be projected at a very wide angle. The result is uniform high-frequency reproduction in the room.

Nice detail: when the speakers receive power, a red light illuminates on the tweeters. Classy! When the speakers are actually playing music, we see a green light.

The heavy dynamic outburst in 'Noah Visits' – from the soundtrack of The Village – is smoothly handled by the B&Os. Given the limited cabinet size, we hadn't seen that coming.

The opening track from Blade Runner – with its extremely deep and heavy low end – also performs better than expected. Building a solid low-end foundation is therefore no problem for the B&Os.

The mid-highs, however, are positioned a bit too far forward in the sound mix. At first listen, this sounds fresh and punchy, but becomes fatiguing after prolonged listening. The highest treble is somewhat clipped.

On the positive side, however, the stereo image – the stage – is built up convincingly, with plenty of width and some depth. 

In short, a uniquely designed speaker with many qualities, but unfortunately, you do pay top dollar for it.


The initial cost covered the distinctive, lighthouse-shaped cabinets equipped with integrated Acoustic Lens Technology, a built-in 500-watt ICEpower amplifier for bass, and dual 100-watt amplifiers for the mid-range and treble drivers.