Review: Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX

Beoplay EX is B&O’s first hearing aids with protruding microphone stems that help improve speech quality during calls and meetings. The design is tasteful with subtle details and all available colour options provide an elegant look.

Where B&O really hit the mark for me is in the fit. Put them directly in your ears – and they stay there. As firm as it is comfortable. In fact, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever had in my ears. Great!

As with most earbuds, you can control much of Beoplay EX with touch. Start and pause music, skip forward or backward a track. And so on. To activate the voice assistant, press the right earbud three times.

It works, but as always, it takes time to learn and personally, I almost always just use my mobile phone to do everything. But every once in a while it can be nice not to have to take out your mobile phone.

Beoplay EX supports Bluetooth 5.2 and multipoint connectivity, so you can connect to two devices simultaneously. Unfortunately, they have a somewhat limited wireless range compared to the competition, but it’s stable until you cross the 10 metre mark. Speech quality is impressive with clear voice reproduction and effective noise filtering. Noise cancellation is good, although it does let some bass noise through.

The sound of B&O Beoplay EX

In neutral sound mode, which B&O calls Optimal, the sound is a little too flat with a slightly sharp treble. Not an optimal starting point if you want to get goosebumps from your favourite music.

Fortunately, you can adjust the sound in the app, and among the preset modes, you get good sound with the one called Sport. Perhaps with a little too much bass, and still with a slightly sharp treble. Fortunately, you can adjust the sound yourself. This is done with a dot that you can move around on a circular surface. Not very intuitive, but it gets the job done.

I myself end up well down towards “warm”, as I would like the bass to be a little fuller. It then contrasts nicely with the treble, which is no longer perceived as sharp. If you want an even more rounded treble, you can drag the dot slightly to the left. In Sport mode, it’s about where I want it, just with a little too much bass.

It’s still possible to get really good sound out of the earbuds, and even when the bass gets overly energetic, it doesn’t mask the midrange. Instead, the bass is full and rich, while vocals and instruments are allowed to retain their tonal character.

The only bad thing is that every time you save a new setting, another one disappears. And you can’t change a saved setting, you have to save the changes with a new name.

Conclusion

The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX has a sleek, premium look that matches the price. They fit like a dream in a journalist’s ears, better than most. They have excellent call quality, good enough noise cancellation – and a sound that, with a little tweaking, sounds really good. You have to use the EQ to get enough bass out of them. The Sport mode sounds great if you don’t want to bother setting it yourself.

These are clearly the most successful Bang & Olufsen earbuds so far. But the wireless range could be even better.