PRODUCT INFORMATION TECHNICAL BACKGROUNDER

BeoLab 90 BeoLab 90 - a game-changer in the sound business and the new flagship loudspeaker from Bang & Olufsen that gives the customer an unprecedented level of control of the acoustic behaviour and performance. Designed by Frackenpohl and Poulheim, the 135kg powerhouse leaves a significant footprint on your music experience. Its pentagonal shape combined with the rhombus shape of its black fabric covers, which like sails hover above the driver units give BeoLab 90 a unique and impressive appearance. Technically, BeoLab 90 offers a number of unique approaches to great sound experiences in your home • Uncompromising innovation with a radically accurate sound staging • Exceptional flexibility in room adaptation and placement Materials: Aluminium, fabric and oak wood Dimensions (W x H x D): 23.5 x 125,3 x 74,7 cm Weight: 137 kg each

Acoustic components Speaker drivers: TWEETER: 7 x Scan-Speak Illuminator 30 mm MIDRANGE: 7 x Scan-Speak Illuminator 86 mm WOOFER: 3 x Scan-Speak Discovery 212 mm FRONT WOOFER: 1 x Scan-Speak Revelator 260 mm Amplifiers (custom-designed for BeoLab 90): FOR TWEETERS: 7 x Bang & Olufsen ICEpower AM300-X FOR MIDRANGE DRIVERS: 7 x Bang & Olufsen ICEpower AM300-X FOR WOOFERS: 3 x HELIOX AM1000-1 FOR FRONT WOOFER: 1 x HELIOX AM1000-1

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PRODUCT INFORMATION TECHNICAL BACKGROUNDER Digital signal processor: DSP TYPE: 2 x Analogue Devices ADSP-21489 - 450 MHz SAMPLING RATE: 192 kHz fixed

Unique acoustic features With BeoLab 90, Bang & Olufsen introduces a number of unique technologies that work together to offer customers exceptional flexibility and unparalleled sound performance. They are: • Active Room Compensation • Beam Width Control • Beam Direction Control Active Room Compensation With BeoLab 5 Bang & Olufsen introduced its first room compensation called Automatic Bass Calibration, which by means of a microphone measured the effects of the room’s acoustical behaviour and created a filter in the low frequencies to compensate for the room’s effect. With BeoLab 90, the Active Room Compensation takes this to a new level as it works up in the midrange area as well. Using an external microphone, you can measure the effects of your room’s acoustical behaviour in different positions in the room and select different compensation filters for different locations. Therefore, instead of compensating for the entire space of the room, you can make specific room compensation preset for a specific listening area. You are thereby guaranteed a much better sound experience in that specific area. BeoLab 90 also offers another development in acoustical room compensation: Multichannel processing. This means that the individual BeoLab 90 loudspeaker not only compensate for the artefacts introduced by itself, it also helps to correct for the artefacts introduced by the other BeoLab 90 and both speakers in combination – so they help each other to control the room’s acoustical influence. Beam Width Control The acoustic design is optimised to ensure that the direct sound from the front of the loudspeaker can be focused in as narrow a beam as possible, while maintaining the ability to widen the beam when desired. The driver units are grouped, three at the front, while the side and rear drivers are further away from one another. The digital signal processing can now make use of these different speaker placements so you can personalise your listening experience when you choose between the different beam widths; narrow, wide and omni. The narrow (approx.. ±45-degree) beam width is optimised for a “sweet spot” listening experience when you are seated directly in front of the two loudspeakers. If you share the listening experience with family or friend, you can optimise the beam for a wider (±90-degree) or the omni (360-degree) width to spread the sound experience to cover the entire room. The overall acoustic concept behind BeoLab 90 is to create a speaker that provides less reflected sound in the listening position and thereby less influence from the listening room, achieving a sound experience that is second to none. Beam Direction Control Although BeoLab 90 has a front and a rear, it also offers you the option of moving the direction of the sound beam in five different directions.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION TECHNICAL BACKGROUNDER At the top of the speaker, you will find an aluminium top plate that harkens back to shapes seen before in the Acoustic Lens designs applied in our other high-end loudspeakers. The aluminium plate is turned in a whirlpool rotation visually signalling the 360-degree design. The hairline thin LED emits light below circular plate and indicates the direction of the sound beam. The benefit of this is that it visually supports the sound beam direction, so you can see to which listening position the sound beam points.

User interface Dedicated app control To facilitate operation in relation to BeoLab 90 and all the options it offers, we have developed a dedicated application for convenient use of BeoLab 90 in situations where you wish to set it up, change the listening position, or the beam width. In addition, the app gives you the option of creating and selecting different listening presets, optimised for different listening situations and positions. A measurement microphone is used when you calibrate the speaker in the room. It is included with the speaker so calibration can be carried out as often as the customer should wish in case he or she moves the speaker location or redesigns the interior and thereby may have changed the room’s acoustic characteristics.

Cabinet Tweeter, midrange and bass drivers are placed in multiple directions to provide the flexibility of having optimal sound performance in a 360-degree radiation pattern. The tweeters and midrange drivers are placed in a top tower, which is cast in a 10 mm thick plastic to achieve sufficient stability. The top cabinet is designed in a complex geometric shape calculated and refined by our acoustical engineers to provide the best possible acoustic performance and to accommodate the different sound directions BeoLab 90 offers. The main cabinet itself weighs 65 kg and is a solidly-cast aluminium cabinet manufactured by one of the largest aluminium foundries in Europe with more than 60 years’ experience in gravity die-casting. It is the biggest and most complex single cast aluminium cabinet ever used at Bang & Olufsen, so specialist knowledge in die-casting was relevant. Two finned radiators that take care of the heat dissipation from the electronics are an integral part of the aluminium cabinet on the rear of the speakers and are as the rest of the speaker completely concealed by fabric sails.

Sound tuning You have the possibility to carry out a number of adjustments according to your own liking e.g. sound tuning for e.g. a specific genre of music, or your own preference. BeoLab 90 offers an extensive array of adjustments divided into a basic adjustment section and a more advanced adjustment, which includes creating and sharing preset sound tunings. An important part of the sound tuning applied in our acoustic department includes resonance detection. It is a Bang & Olufsen technology, designed to detect and compensate for resonances interfering with the sound performance. It is a wellknown fact that resonances from, equipment, loudspeaker drivers in enclosures etc. are corrupting the music reproduction, and if we could avoid them, we would get a

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PRODUCT INFORMATION TECHNICAL BACKGROUNDER much better sound performance. However, the problem is to identify the resonances among other phenomena such as diffraction and reflections. This is why it has been an important step for us to be able to detect and counteract against resonances from the physical speakers. Other elements in the new Bang & Olufsen Digital Sound Engine applied in BeoLab 90 include Adaptive Bass Linearisation, thermal compression compensation, and thermal protection. The Adaptive Bass Linearisation (ABL) technology was originally developed in order to produce an extended low-frequency range from smaller loudspeakers by constantly monitoring the level of the output signal and limiting its output in a limited frequency band in order to prevent distortion at higher listening levels. This is also used in BeoLab 90, albeit at a much lower frequency range than we normally use. Even BeoLab 90 is a “small” loudspeaker for signals below 20 Hz – consequently a custom-tuned variant of our ABL algorithm is employed extending into infrasound to protect the woofers and low-frequency amplifiers from reaching beyond their limits and thus impacting overall sound quality.

Production and protective measures Temperature control and cloning to the reference speaker Temperature affects the sound performance of a loudspeaker, the higher the temperatures the lower the efficiency of the units and if too high, you risk destroying the units. In BeoLab 90 we apply sophisticated technology and procedures in loudspeaker manufacturing to ensure that you achieve the best possible solution to this. One requirement in our production is that all loudspeaker units are left in the production area for 24 hours to acclimatize. This means they have had time to adjust to the room with regard to temperature. This is relevant because we want to be in complete control of our loudspeaker’s characteristics when we start assembly. We are cloning loudspeakers, which means that when we produce, all drivers are measured individually according to the reference drivers to make sure that they have the same frequency response. These are compensated for the influence of temperature and static air pressure as this will give variations in the measured sound pressure and affect the stereo image. All changes in air pressure on the day of production are measured and compensated for. In this way we are sure we always produce the exact same quality loudspeaker and in case you need to service the speaker, we can clone the driver according to the reference speaker and get the exact same result even though the air pressure or temperature has changed. Thermal protection safeguards your loudspeakers Besides being in control of the room temperature on the production line, we also monitor the individual units’ temperature when they are playing in your home. This we call thermal protection. Each BeoLab 90 contains 45 temperature sensors, which report the current temperatures of various components within the loudspeaker back to its DSP “brain”. This information is then used with the output power of the amplifiers to calculate the temperatures of even more locations, such as the loudspeaker driver voice coils. These data are used in real-time to compare the current temperatures of the loudspeaker components to their “thermal limits” – the temperatures at which they will melt and/or cease to operate. If any single component nears its thermal limits, the loudspeaker makes automatic decisions regarding how best to prevent failure. The actual processing that is applied is dependent on the specific component(s). For example, if a tweeter voice coil is nearing its limits, the level of that tweeter is

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PRODUCT INFORMATION TECHNICAL BACKGROUNDER reduced until it cools enough that its level can be brought back to nominal. Of course, this is something, which occurs only in extreme cases, but if it does, the protection circuitry will make sure your circuitry and loudspeaker drivers are not damaged due to heat. (It should be noted, however, that this is not a guarantee that the loudspeaker is protected against all abuse.) Thermal compression compensation With the digital BeoLab 90 we furthermore have the possibility of maintaining optimum performance even though the temperature of the loudspeaker drivers will fluctuate. Changes in a loudspeaker driver’s temperature affects its output and sensitivity and therefore will result in a varying frequency response if nothing is done. It also affects the stereo perspective, if one speaker is getting warmer than the other. In BeoLab 90 we have a digital signal processor that can handle these extensive calculations and thereby ensure that we get the best performance regardless of the temperature fluctuations. The estimations made by the digital signal processor gives us the opportunity to correct the change in frequency response by offsetting the output, thus compensating for the change. The result is that we have a loudspeaker whose sound remains unaffected by temperature fluctuations that would otherwise degrade the performance.

Connectivity BeoLab 90s are interconnected via Digital Power Link in a master-slave configuration with sound sources being fed into the system via the master speaker’s comprehensive connection panel. The connection to the music system, TV, PC or AVR is handled via Analogue Power Link, RCA or XLR or the digital S/PDIF, TOSLINK or USB-Audio connection. Wireless option As a supplement to the wired connection, BeoLab 90 also incorporates wireless technology using multichannel digital audio streaming (based on the WiSA technology) with a very robust performance. However, to get all the features included in BeoLab 90, we recommend you use the wired inputs. Inputs: Analogue (Master loudspeaker) Power Link RCA XLR (fully balanced) Digital: USB Audio (24 bit/192 kHz) S/P-DIF (24 bit/192 kHz) TOSLINK (24 bit/96 kHz) Digital: (Master and slave loudspeaker) Digital Power Link (24 bit/192 kHz) Wireless: Wireless Power Link (24 bit/48 kHz) WiSA (24 bit/96 kHz)

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PRODUCT INFORMATION TECHNICAL BACKGROUNDER

For more information please contact: Corporate Communication Bang & Olufsen a/s Phone: +45 96 84 51 00 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 epitomizes 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. Images are available free of charge from the Bang & Olufsen media centre: http://mediacenter.bang-olufsen.dk. If you are a first-time visitor, please follow the instructions and register as a new user.

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