Bang & Olufsen's Homage to Its Past January 23, 2012, 12:52 pm Bang & Olufsen, best known as makers of high-style audio equipment, is starting what the company is calling its new affordable subbrand, B&O Play, with a high-fidelity lunchbox. The product, a wireless music dock called the Beolit 12, is named and designed in homage to the company's old transistor radios, resembling the Beolit 707 line made from 1975 to 1981. The Beolit 12 is a portable music dock that packs a battery-powered 120-Watt amp driving a 4-inch woofer and two two-inch tweeters. B&O really has jammed the sound quality into this roughly 9- by 5- by 7.5-inch package. It may be the first compact portable player that I can say pumps out impressive bass without adding, "for its size." Of course, one thing you do miss in a box this compact is the stereo effect. Its nod to the past includes high-quality monaural sound. More up-to-date is its built in Wi-Fi, so it can stream music from devices that share its network, like Apple's airplay capable iPads, iPods and iPhones. There is also a 3.5mm input for when you aren't on a network. The company said the Beolit 12"s fully charged battery will provide up to eight hours of play at normal volume. What constitutes "normal?" Hard to guess when you consider the company calls the Beolit 12"s $800 price "affordable." B&O said the Beolit 12 in the dark grey color will be available in the United States in late January through it's stores and Web site and select Apple stores. In the spring it will add versions in light gray, yellow and blue. A word of warning: The set up directions are practically useless. After failing to connect using the written and video instructions, a call to support turned up a different method of connecting that - after some fiddling - worked.