, Columnist
In the Streaming Age, $3,000 Speakers Sound Like Duds
The way people listen to music has changed. Bang & Olufsen hasn’t caught up.
Not what the kids are looking for.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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Don’t blame the slowing Chinese economy, the rise of smart speakers or an ill-advised push into high-end television sets. The slow demise of deluxe speaker-maker Bang & Olufsen A/S is really about one thing: The way people listen to music has changed.
When you stream your favorite beats from Spotify Technology SA, the highest audio quality you get is 320 kilobits per second. Apple Inc.’s competing service offers much the same. That’s less than a third of a CD’s 1,411 kbps, let alone the pristine audio quality of a vinyl record.