Beocrate – B&O Raspberry Pi 4 channel amp speaker hack

Today, Bang & Olufsen has announced a partnership with HiFiBerry to launch a new open source, DIY-product. The Beocrate 4 Channel Amplifier will enable customers to upgrade their vintage speakers with wireless functionalities.

Bang & Olufsen has over 90 years of experience in developing speaker systems. However, this new partnership makes a commitment to ensure customers can continue to use their vintage speakers with today’s wireless technology. It is this partnership that has created the Beocrate 4 Channel Amplifier.

Beocreate 4 Channel Amplifier

The Beocreate 4 Channel Amplifier is essentially a piece of hardware that you install yourself into old speakers. It then hands those vintage earpleasers wireless functionalities.

According to Chief Intrapreneur from Bang & Olufsen, Anders Buchmann, it is a part of Bang & Olufsen’s DNA to produce long lasting, quality products. With the introduction of this new bit of kit the company can ensure the longevity on its vintage-portfolio with new technology.

What sets the initiative apart is that Bang & Olufsen is enabling and encouraging customers to upcycle and hack classic speakers.  Needless to say, this is quite a first.

Beocrate tech spec

The Beocreate 4 channel amplifier is a very flexible DSP/DAC/amplifier combination board designed for high-quality music playback in combination with passive loudspeakers.

Firstly, it is able to dish out up to 180W output power (2x30W, 2x60W). It is also capable of driving up to four 4-8 Ohm speakers (the two 60W channels can drive 2 Ohm speakers).

The Beocrate board will play nice with sample rates up to 192kHz. Oh, and there’s a 4 channel DAC (digital analogue converter) included.

Speakers can be connected via screw terminals which opens up a range of possibilities.

Additionally, for those Makers out there, the system is fully controllable from the Raspberry Pi. However, the best news is that no soldering is required. The Raspberry Pi can be plugged easily onto the Beocreate board.

Finally, it can work as a standalone (without the Raspberry Pi) digital amplifier. However, to program the DSP, a Raspberry Pi is required.

This is a very interesting move for B&O. One which I applaud.

Words

Anders Buchmann says and continues:

Bang & Olufsen is known for our design, sound and craftsmanship, virtues that never really go out of style. And our speakers from the 70’s and 80’s represent this just as much as our current product portfolio. But with technology changing rapidly a lot of vintage speakers are stored away not being used or even thrown away. We wanted to change that, and this initiative is all about empowering our customers to bring those products back to life themselves with modern day features.”

Daniel Matuschek, founder of HiFiBerry adds:

Our company has always been dedicated to high quality DIY audio. Working in cooperation with Bang & Olufsen is not only a huge pleasure, it also gives us the possibility to implement our hardware to design classics we love. Seeing a company opening up for the idea of DIY audio and upcycling is more than exciting and we are very proud to be part of this process.”

Price and availability

You can order the Beocreate 4 Channel Amplifier online on hifiberrys websit for £149.