B&O Beosound A5

Bang & Olufsen's new portable speaker may look like a pricey picnic hamper, but gosh does it sound good

Anyone even passingly familiar with Bang & Olufsen will make an assumption or two about any new product the company launches. Hands up, though, if you had guessed the latest Bang & Olufsen battery-powered wireless speaker would arrive disguised as a picnic basket. What tasty treats lie within?

Where specification and features are concerned, the A5 is a combination of the impressive, the ordinary and the unknown. It's built on Bang & Olufsen's 'Mozart' platform. It means the A5 is easy to service, simple to repair, and can have its streaming module easily replaced if need be.

Individualistic designs are a given with Bang & Olufsen products at this point but you can be equally confident that build quality is deeply impressive. The paper fibre weave that wraps around the A5 is flawlessly applied, and meets the nicely tactile aluminium plates on the top and bottom of the speaker perfectly evenly. The oak handle, with its branded hinges, feels great in the hand. The physical controls on the top surface are little pushy dents in a gently rubberised material.