Bang & Olufsen’s new book-shaped speaker is a novel concept

The prestigious audio brand Bang & Olufsen has announced a sleek new speaker that looks right at home on your bookshelf.

The new Beosound Emerge is a compact WiFi speaker from Bang & Olufsen. While the sound quality will of course be the most pressing concern for potential customers, the first thing you’re likely to notice is its unusual design, which closesly resembles a hardback book so that it can fit cosily on your shelf without sticking out like a sore thumb.

The above video shows the unit in action, encased in a wooden finish and with a physical control panel. The official description details the technical specifications as follows: The 4″ woofer produces omnidirectional low frequencies no matter where it is pointing, while the compact 1.45” mid-range driver and 0.6″ tweeter are arranged at the top for maximum impact.

Additionally there are a few features intended to further optimise the sound; the integrated bass port should improve the performance in the lower frequencies, despite the speaker’s diminutive size, while Active Room Compensation will change the sound based on the room, to get the best out of the speaker wherever you choose to place it, even if that be on the bookshelf among the tomes that you pretend to have read. However, it’s priced at £699 so you’d probably want to put it somewhere where it will be noticed and envied.

Of course this isn’t the first Bang & Olufsen speaker with a design and a price tag to turn heads. The Beosound Edge, shown in the video above, has a design somewhat resembling a bass drum, that you can roll from side to side to increase or decrease the volume. It’s a neat distinguishing feature —  too bad you’d have to pay £2,900 to get your hands on one.